The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) reported Wednesday that its fourth-quarter earnings more than tripled, citing cost cutting, an improving advertising market and lower pension costs, according to Associated Press.
The Times Co., the publisher of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and 15 other daily newspapers, earned $90.9 million, or 61 cents per share, up from $27.6 million, or 19 cents per share, a year earlier.
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The company had its smallest ad revenue decline in a year. Ad revenue dropped 14.7 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period of 2008, following a 26.9 percent decline during the third quarter.
The company's print newspapers saw a 20 percent drop in ad revenue, but Internet ad revenue rose 10.6 percent after a year of declines. Internet ads now account for 23 percent of the company's total advertising revenue.
The company has been instilling a cost-cutting strategy, starting with job cuts. By the end of September, the Times Co. had reduced its payroll by roughly 20 percent from the year before. It made more cuts in the fourth quarter, eliminating 8 percent of the newsroom staff at its namesake newspaper.
Earnings got a boost of $19.5 million after taxes from the sale of WQXR-FM as well as a $32.4 million gain from a freeze in pension benefits the company put in place last year. The results also included after-tax charges of $10.5 million from early termination fees on printing contracts and losses on office leases. The company took a $2.6 million charge to account for the falling value of assets.
Eliminating the unusual items, the Times Co. said it would have earned 44 cents per share, up from a comparable figure of 36 cents per share a year earlier.
Analysts, who typically exclude such items, expected 38 cents, according to a Thomson Reuters poll.
Overall revenue fell 11.5 percent to $681 million, better than the $653 million expected by analysts.
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