PressEthic

Coming as no surprise to the media world, the New York Times Company and the Tribune Company reported bleak numbers on Friday citing low advertising revenue as the culprit.

An article in the New York Times and referenced on MediaBistro.com last week reported the following numbers:

The Times Company reported a 39 percent drop in profit for the third quarter (compared to the same time last year).

Not counting a one-time tax gain, the Tribune Company managed a one penny gain.

Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, fell 5.9 percent in September compared to last year. The company said its volume of advertising decreased 8 percent, “due to declines in the technology, classified, general and financial categories.”

Revenue from advertising for The New York Times Media Group, which includes The New York Times, nytimes.com, The International Herald Tribune and IHT.com, fell 4.1 percent, and revenue from circulation was down 0.3 percent. Advertising revenue for The New England Media Group, which consists largely of The Boston Globe, tumbled 12.4 percent and revenue from circulation fell 5.7 percent.

Internet-related revenues for the entire [Times] company continued to climb, and accounted for 8.5 percent of revenues in the third quarter, compared with 6.7 percent a year ago.

According to the article both media companies are discussing ways to re-organize their business to address the revenue shortfalls. Inevitably, this will include both companies dropping other media outlets (TV stations for example) and a bigger focus on the online business.

The article, unfortunately, did not include any feedback from the two companies on how the online business can be tapped to save the floundering print business. This is probably because no such plan exists. However, if one did exist I doubt they would share it publicly with their competitors.