New York Times' profits beat forecasts

The New York Times Company posted higher-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit, with digital subscriptions growth and advertising sales largely offsetting a fall in print ad revenue, The Guardian reported.

The newspaper publishers' shares were up as  much as 7.5 per cent in early trading yesterday.

The New York Times, like many newspaper and magazine publishers, had been looking to enhance its digital offerings to increase revenue from online ads and subscriptions as print ad sales dwindled.

Digital ad sales at the company were up 19.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, helped by ''paid posts'', or content marked as advertising, introduced early last year.

Revenue from print ad was down 9.2 per cent, the third straight quarter of decline.

According to the company, it expected a mid-single digit percentage drop in print ad sales in the current quarter.

Subscription revenue from the paper's digital-only products was up 13.6 per cent.

Its fourth-quarter net income from continuing operations slid 9.6 per cent to $35 million, or 22 cents per share, attributable to shareholders, as it incurred costs related to job cuts and spent more on improving its digital offerings.

The company earned 26 cents per share.

However, The New York Times Company said yesterday that its annual operating profit fell in 2014 due to investments in digital journalism and severance costs from a round of job reductions.

The company last year, reported an operating profit of $92 million, down from $156 million in 2013, while in the fourth quarter of 2014, operating profit was $62 million, as against $69 million during the final three months of 2013.

Mark Thompson, the company's chief executive, in a call with investors said, the company had high hopes for growth in international subscribers. He said, about a third of its online readers came from outside the US, and the company planned versions of the paper in other languages.

The company still had a challenging 2014 and several new digital subscription products like the apps NYT Now and NYT Opinion failed to  generate significant new revenue. The company also eliminated over 100 newsroom jobs through buyouts and layoffs.

Thompson said in a statement yesterday, that the company would ''continue to invest in digital growth but will also bear down on costs to defend our profitability.''