Online Advertising Now Nearly 1/3rd of 'New York Times' Revenue

An impressive and scary percentage of the New York Times Company’s revenue is from online advertising-27%. Looking back at our New York Times costs v. revenue chart since 2005, excerpted above, which shows from year to year how tight the margin has become between income and expenses, we now see an even further closing-in. Total revenues in the third quarter of this year: $554.3 million. Operating costs: $522.9 million. Here’s one thing that’s always upsetting: “Newsprint expense increased 19.6 percent, with 25.8 percent from higher pricing offset in part by 6.2 percent from lower consumption.” Translated: paper is always costing more, always being bought less. And to be fair, the paper’s News Media Group-that’s the Times and the like-had operating profit of $2 million each month of the last quarter, even though revenues-print advertising and circulation-were down from last year, and the increase in online revenues only “mostly” offset the downturn. (Our disclosure as always: don’t get us wrong! Any media company should be happy to have $2 million a month to play with! And all the big Times debt doesn’t get hairy until 2015 anyway.)