The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) saw its digital ad revenue fall nearly 9% to $61.3 million in the first quarter of 2023 in the face of a sector-wide advertising slump.
Shares of the media company fell after the daily newspaper reported mixed first-quarter earnings showing an adjusted operating profit of $54 million, down 11%, as the new subscription revenue was offset by higher operating costs and lower advertising revenue.
The New York City-based daily also added 190,000 digital subscribers during the first quarter, compared with 240,000 in the comparable quarter a year earlier.
For the period ended March 31, 2023, the Times reported earnings of $0.19 per share on revenue of $560.7 million. The consensus earnings estimate was $0.16 per share on revenue of $571.0 million.
The Times said it added the 190,000 digital subscribers driven partly by subscriptions to a bundle of products that includes The Athletic sports site. The daily said it had about 9.7 million subscribers of its print and digital products at the end of the quarter, up about 8% from a year earlier. About 710,000 of those were print subscribers, down about 10% from the same period last year.
New York Times shares fell nearly 4.4% to $37.47 on the NYSE in morning trade.
“In the first quarter, we made steady progress on our essential subscription strategy, with clear signs of substantial runway ahead,” Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien said in a statement.
“Advertising continues to experience near-term, cyclical challenges," she added.
The Athletic, which the company bought last year for $550 million in cash, had 3.3 million subscribers at the end of the quarter, more than double the number in the same period last year. Still, losses at The Athletic snowballed to $7.8 million during the quarter.
New York Times Co is a media organization involved in newspapers, digital businesses and investments in paper mills.
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