New York Times share price falls after reporting print and online advertising struggles
US newspaper the New York Times performed ahead of analysts' expectations despite advertising revenues falling both in print and online.
But the company's share price fell by nearly four per cent on Tuesday morning in New York to $12.37.
The figures
The New York Times Group reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.10 in the first quarter of 2015.
This was down from $0.11 in the same period of 2015, but ahead of analysts' expectations of $0.08, according to Thomson Reuters.
The media company's total revenue for the period decreased by 1.2 per cent, from $384.2m down to $379.5m.
Again, this was ahead of an expected turnover of $377.3m.
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Circulation revenues were up by 2.4 per cent. The New York Times said digital subscriptions – totalling 1.357m, a net increase of 87,000 from the last quarter of 2015 – and an increase in home delivery prices more than offset a decline in print copies sold.
Advertising revenues, meanwhile, declined by 6.8 per cent.
Print advertising dropped by nine per cent and digital advertising fell of 1.3 per cent to $41.8m, representing 29.9 per cent of total advertising revenue.
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Why it's interesting
The first-quarter results have been reported shortly after the New York Times announced plans to invest more than $50m over the next three years to support international expansion.
The group compared the move to expanding its newspaper to become a national in the 1990s.
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Executives said in a memo that they saw an “opportunity to become an indispensable leader in global news and opinion”.
Last October, it announced plans to double its digital revenue to $800m by 2020, from $400m in 2014.
What the company said
Mark Thompson, president and chief executive:
We had a more challenging quarter in both print and digital advertising in large part due to conditions impacting the entire advertising marketplace. We remain confident in our ability to grow our digital advertising revenue in the long term and we are continuing to invest in ad product innovation.
Looking ahead into 2016 and as we have previously stated, we will be investing in several areas that we believe will increase revenue and contribute to our successful business transformation, including the investment in international expansion that we announced last month. And, as always, we intend to keep a sharp focus on our cost base.