NYT: August Ads Drop -3.2%

from Silicon Alley Insider by Henry Blodget

The New York Times (NYT) ad business is still dwindling away, but the rate of decline actually moderated slightly in August. And thanks to a circulation price hike, overall revenue increased 0.6%.

Overall, the story remains the same. The Times' impressive web business is partially offsetting continued declines in the print business, but only partially (because it's only about 10% of the company). Revenue per web user is still far below revenue per print reader--so, over the long term, unless revenue per web reader increases significantly, the company is screwed. On the positive side, the New York Times itself is hanging in there, and the web business showed a nice acceleration. Our detailed monthly trending spreadsheet here. Release here. Details after jump.

NYT: August Key Points

• Revenue at the online newspaper properties rose 28%, a nice acceleration from July's 19%
• Offline ad revenue decline accelerated to -10% from -8% in July
• About.com rev increased slowed to 27%, but newspaper online revs accelerated significantly.
• National advertising rose again, up a strong 9%!
• So did circulation revenue! Up 4%!
• New England (read: Boston Globe) ad revenue dropped 9%, vs. 5% in July
• Regional ads dropped 12% (vs. 11% in July)
• Classified ads dropped a dismal 20%, a major deterioration
• TimesSelect paying subs who don't get the print paper crawled up to 226,800 from 225,000.
• Web uniques to all the company's properties hit a nice 44.2 million, up 11% from 39 million last year (a slower y/y gain).
• Revenue per web user appears to have increased modestly to about $0.60 a month ($8 a year).

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