New York Times Earnings Up As Ad Revenues Rise

The New York Times Co. beat quarterly profit expectations on Wednesday as its advertising business showed signs of recovery, eclipsing slower growth in digital subscriptions and sending its shares 12% higher, Eva Mathews reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: New York Times Building, NYC

The financial fallout from the COVID-19 crisis had last year cut deeply into the publication's advertising revenue. But with companies raising their marketing budgets after the reopening of the economy, The Times posted a 66% surge in ad sales.

The gains came from large technology and financial services businesses, which spent heavily on the company's targeted advertising products, Chief Financial Officer Roland Caputo said. The publication expects advertising revenue to rise by 30% to 35% in the current quarter.

It posted an adjusted profit of 36 cents per share in the second quarter on revenue of $498.5 million. Analysts had expected a profit of 27 cents per share on revenue of $487.7 million, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

The Times' digital subscriber growth, however, slumped to its lowest in three years, as interest in domestic COVID-19 news waned after vaccinations. The 170-year-old publication added only 142,000 digital subscribers in the quarter ended June, its lowest since the second quarter of 2018.

WEEKLY FEATURE : PAL READY TO SOAR WITH PANDEMIC