New York Times Holds Online Audience Edge Against Washington Post

The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) has a relatively new chief executive officer. The Washington Post has a relatively new owner in Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com Inc. (NYSE: AMZN). Each needs to have success in digital revenue to offset the decline in print sales. For the moment, the New York Times is leading the Post in online visitors. It remains to be seen which can capitalize, or if both can capitalize, from what are a large number of digital visits.

According to new data from research firm comScore, during March, New York Times Digital had 78.3 million unique visitors. WashintonPost.com had 73.2 million (comScore measures both personal computer and mobile visitors). Each is small by the standard of visitors to major media sites. The USA Today Network had 106.6 million unique visitors. However, Gannett’s is a national product. Some of the Times and Washington Post visitors are among people who live in and around the cities in which they are based. Perhaps USAToday.com should not be compared against media properties that are to some extent local.

The New York Times probably needs more success online than the Post does. The Times parent is a public company. Its share price has slipped from nearly $17 in March 2014 to just below $13 recently.

Under new President and CEO Mark Thompson, the Times held its own in 2015. Revenue was nearly flat at $1.6 billion. Income from continuing operations reached $62.8 million, compared to $33.4 million in 2014. However, much of the difference was due to two pension-related charges that totaled just shy of $50 million in 2014.
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The financial pressure on the Post is much less. Bezos paid $250 million to buy the Post, a deal that closed in October 2013. Bezos explained why he bought the paper during a Business Insider event in December 2014 (Bezos has a stake in Business Insider). He claimed he understood the internet and said he could add that to the “financial runway” he would provide the Post. Based on staff growth and a press into digital subscriptions (the Post charges as little as $99 a year for access to its National Digital Edition), Bezos’s promise appears to be a fair one.

In a financial competition between the two organizations, does audience size matter? That depends to some extent on who the owner is.