Tough month for NY Times Co.

April was another down month for the New York Times Company. Although ad revenues for the New York Times Media Group, primarily the flagship New York Times newspaper, were down only 0.7%. The company’s only remaining broadcast property, WQXR-FM NYC, is a small part of that operation. The New England Media Group, headed by the Boston Globe, saw ad revenues fall 12% and the regional newspaper group posted a 16.4% decline.

For the entire company, April revenues declined 2.2% to $296.4 million. For the News Media Group, including all of the newspapers, their related websites and WQXR, April ad revenues fell 6% to $176 million. National was the only up category, gaining 6.7%. Retail fell 7.8%, Classified a whopping 23.3% and “other” ad revenue 14.2%. Circulation revenues were up 3.3% to $87 million.

The web-based About Group, anchored by About.com, saw ad revenues rise 14.2% to $10.2 million. Add that in with the News Media Group and total ad revenues were down 5.1%.

Dismal as those numbers might be, April was actually better than the year-to-date for the New York Times Company, where total ad revenues are down 8.1% and the News Media Group ad revenues down 9.3%.  “The Company’s results in April benefited from a shift in the timing of Easter. Easter Sunday, which fell in March this year, but was in April last year, is traditionally a time of reduced advertising at both The New York Times and The Boston Globe,” the New York Times Company said in announcing its monthly figures.

RBR/TVBR observation: We wonder how the former New York Times television group is faring under private ownership by Bobby Lawrence and the folks at Local TV LLC. Of course, they don’t have to disclose revenues at all. In truth, TV had been such a small part of NY Times Co. that it would not have been possible for TV revenues to be up enough from $13.8 million in April 2007 to fill the $6.8 million gap for the parent company this year.

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