New York Times Co’s quarterly earnings beat analyst expectations, but advertising revenues fall

Shares in the New York Times Company soared today after the newspaper publisher delivered better-than-expected quarterly earnings as it attracted more digital subscribers, but advertising revenues weakened.

Earnings per share adjusted for the sale of its regional media group surged to 8 cents in the first three months of 2012, compared with zero in the same period last year, and smashed analyst expectations for 2 cents a share, Reuters reported.

But advertising revenues fell sharply, down 8.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter as print and digital ad revenues shrank 7.2 percent and 10 percent respectively, MarketWatch noted.

Total revenue slipped 0.3 percent to $499.4 million, which the Atlantic Wire said marked the fifth consecutive quarter that revenue had declined.

“The uneven US economic environment and uncertain global conditions continued to present challenges to the advertising marketplace,” New York Times chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said in a statement.

Shares in the publisher of the New York Times, International Herald Tribune and Boston Globe surged as much as 7.4 percent in early trading on the surprising earnings result, MarketWatch said.

The closely watched paid digital subscriptions to The Times and the International Herald Tribune rose 16 percent from the fourth quarter to 454,000, Sulzberger said in the statement.

Paid digital subscribers to the Boston Globe rose 13 percent to about 18,000 over the same period.

The Times announced last month that it was decreasing the number of articles a nonsubscriber can read a month from 20 to 10, as it seeks to boost revenue.

Newspapers around the world have seen their circulation and advertising revenues decline in recent years as advertisers and readers go online and global economic growth remains in the doldrums.

Sulzberger, who has been serving as the chief executive since Janet Robinson stepped down at the end of last year, said the publisher was still looking for a replacement, the New York Times reported.