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New York Times posts loss
2008-04-17
The New York Times Co (NYT.N) posted a quarterly loss on Thursday as the struggling U.S. economy put further pressure on already weak advertising at the company's newspapers. The publisher posted a first-quarter net loss of $335,000, or breakeven on a per-share basis. A year ago, it reported net income of $23.9 million, or 17 cents per share, and income from continuing operations of 14 cents per share. Its results this year included a 7-cent-per-share charge to write down assets and a 3-cent-per-share gain for a tax adjustment. Excluding special items, earnings per share from continuing operations fell to 4 cents from 17 cents in the first quarter of 2007. Revenue dropped 4.9 percent to $747.9 million. The Times, which also owns the Boston Globe and more than a dozen small U.S. daily papers, has been trying to find ways to fight a persistent drop in ad revenue. In March, the Times said it would support two nominees to its board put forth by a dissident shareholder that is pushing for changes to the way the company is run. "Advertising revenues decreased in the quarter as weaker economic conditions compounded the effects of secular change in our business," New York Times Chief Executive Janet Robinson said in a statement. "While this is a challenging time for the media industry, we are diligently managing our business for the long term." The company said advertising revenues in the quarter from its news media division dropped 10.6 percent. While advertising revenues from the Internet continued to rise -- up 16 percent in the quarter -- that still failed to compensate for the drop on the print side. (Reporting by Paul Thomasch, editing by Dave Zimmerman)
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