NYTCo Relents, Trims Dividend; Does It Go Far Enough?

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in compensation the new york times company (nyse: nyt), generous dividend payments are almost as hieratic as experienced news coverage. now, the paper has finally given in to the realities of the declining newspaper industry and the wider economic turmoil. capping a week of speculation, the nytco’s board announced that it was lowering it three-monthly dividend to $.06 per share on the company’s class a and class b common stock, down from $.23 per share in q3. while some of the relatives members who were previously getting $25 million on the $.23 per share dividend settle upon likely beef, diverse analysts will surely argue that the cut doesn’t go go beyond a thus far enough. the concern had been under increasing stress to rein in costs. alluding to a new york munitions dump statistics of the sulzberger family last month, we noted that a edit in the dividend?which was raised 31 percent last year?could cause the friendly of revolt that spurred the members of the bancroft type to sell their controlling interest in dow jones to news corp (nyse: nws).

— “Difficult, but necessary”: In a statement, NYTCo chairman Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., called it a “a difficult but necessary decision.” He added: “We expect that this steep cut in the dividend, coupled with our other actions, will help us decrease debt and improve the liquidity of the Company, a prudent measure in this operating environment.”

— October revs drop: As if the company needed more evidence as to why they had to lower the dividend? Last month, revenues from continuing operations fell 9.4 percent as ad revenues took another battering, dropping 16.2 percent. On the plus side, circ dollars were up a slight 3.9 percent. Online was up 5.3 percent, a far cry from October ’07’s 19 percent rise. Release More after the jump

Photo Credit: Jazzzzzzzzzzzz

– Internet businesses: Total web revs grew 4.3 percent, while money from internet ad sales rose 4.6 percent in October. The online businesses include NYTimes.com, About.com, Boston.com and other websites. In total, online accounted for 12.1 percent of total revs in October, a slight uptick from the 10.5 percent last year.

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— Year-to-date, the company’s total online revs rose 9.6 percent, while web-related ad dollars jumped 13.4 percent. In 2008 so far, the NYTCo’s internet businesses comprised 11.9 percent of total revenues for year-to-date October 2008 compared with 10.1 percent for the same period in ‘07.

— News Media Group’s ad revs slid 17.2 percent due to continued weakness in print advertising. Within that division, The New York Times Media Group’s ad dollars fell 15.3 percent, dragged down by increased softness in the classifieds, particularly real estate and jobs.

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