‘NY Times’ Sees Opps in Competitors’ Adversity

The New York Times Co.’s CEO told investors that ailing competition may be good for the Times, as the paper uses the opportunity to make the brand even stronger with its readership.  While many papers across the country have slipped in circulation percentages in the double digits, The Times has lost just 7.2 percent of its daily circ.

CEO Janet Robinson stated that print circulation isn’t down much in the past year while there have been gains in the paper’s website readership. The Times stopped charging for online content in 2007 but did not rule out reinstating paid access.

Strong ad categories for the Times include luxury brands while classifieds and real-estate advertising remains weak, according to MarketWatch.

In the last four years, the top newspapers in the country have lost, collectively, about 1.4 million copies - or about 10 percent - in daily circulation, writes Editor & Publisher. The Los Angeles Times lost 20 percent of daily circ over the past four years, as did the Boston Globe. The Washington Post has slipped 13 percent. The New York Times has lost only 7.2 percent.

Robinson used the fall of Eliot Spitzer to demonstrate the strength of NYTimes.com - the site’s traffic jumped 60 percent as soon as the salacious story broke on Monday. She made no mention of how well the site and paper fare when it posts specious items about John McCain or offers discount advertising to groups attacking the American military.

U.S. newspaper website audience coverage grew 14 percent - from 6.4 percent for the 12 months ended Sept. 2005, to 7.3 percent for the 12 months ended March 2007. The online audience growth is mitigating print audience losses by 28 percent, according to research from Scarborough (via MarketingCharts).