Profit falls at New York Times Co.
The New York Times Co. said today that its first-quarter profit fell 26 percent, hurt by weakness in print advertising and specific charges for the period.
Earnings for the company, which owns The Boston Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, declined to $23.9 million, or 17 cents per share, from $32.4 million, or 22 cents per share, for the year-ago period.
The company's New England Media Group, which includes the Globe and Telegram & Gazette, reported that revenues from advertising were off 4.2 percent from the same quarter a year ago, and circulation revenue was down 4.5 percent.
Income from continuing operations at The New York Times Co. dropped to $20.1 million, or 14 cents per share, from $30.5 million, or 21 cents per share, in the previous year.
The current quarter's results were hurt by an accelerated depreciation expense of $6.7 million, or 5 cents per share, for assets at the company's Edison, N.J., plant, which is being closed; staff reduction costs of $4.4 million, or 3 cents per share; and an unfavorable tax adjustment of $4.5 million, or 3 cents per share, primarily from a change in the New York state tax law.
Excluding the special items, earnings from continuing operations were 25 cents per share -- the same as in the year-ago period.
Comparisons of the current quarter to the prior-year period exclude results of the broadcast media group, which is being sold, the newspaper said.
"Despite a difficult print advertising environment, we continued to make progress on our strategy of introducing new products, developing our content verticals, building our innovation capability, aggressively managing costs, and rebalancing our portfolio of businesses," president and chief executive Janet L. Robinson said in a statement.
Revenue for the quarter dipped 2 percent to $786 million from $799.2 million in the previous year. Advertising revenue fell 3.4 percent, while circulation revenue rose 1 percent.
The publishing company has been under investor pressure to make corporate governance changes. Some shareholders have campaigned to roll back the dual-class share structure which allows the Sulzberger family to maintain control of the company.
The company says the two-class share structure is needed to maintain the independence and editorial integrity of the newspaper.
(By Thomas C. Palmer, Jr., Globe staff)
