Advertising revenue at The New York Times Company (NYT) fell a significant 8.5% in May to $157.3 milllion. At the flagship New York Times Media Group, it dropped 9.1%. At the New England Media Group, which includes the Boston Globe, it was off 8.8%. And, at the Regional Media Group it fell 14%.
Advertising revenue at the internet sites for the three groups rose 21.4%, and, since these number are included in the overall figure, it is clear that print advertising was off well over the 8.5% total revenue drop.
Revenue at the company’s small About.com internet operation was up 32.6%. It is somewhat amazing that the About.com revenue grew faster than the figure for the online newspapers because in May 2007, The New York Times Company had the 11th largest presence on the Web, with 43.8 million unique visitors in the United States according to Nielsen//NetRatings, up approximately 11% from 39.3 million unique visitors in May 2006.
With an 11% increase in audience, ad online advertising should have been up more.
Douglas A. McIntyre