New York Times beats profit estimates on higher digital subscriptions

[November 06, 2019]  (Reuters) - The New York Times Co <NYT.N> beat third-quarter profit estimates on Wednesday, as more people signed up for the newspaper's digital subscription, priced as low as $2 a week.

 A taxi passes by in front of The New York Times head office in New York, February 7, 2013. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

Newspapers are wooing subscribers by offering huge discounts for their digital editions as they lose online advertising revenue to Alphabet Inc's <GOOGL.O> Google and Facebook Inc <FB.O>.

The Times is also trying to beef up its digital offerings by adding a host of features such as podcasts and crosswords to its flagship website.

Paid digital-only subscriptions in the third quarter rose 273,000 from the preceding quarter, taking the total subscribers to about 4 million. Of the additions, 209,000 came purely from its news-only products.

Total revenue rose to $428.5 million from $417.3 million a year earlier, marginally falling short of analysts' average estimate of $429.1 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

The company, which had forecast a "challenging" second half for digital advertising, said it expects a "fairly challenging" fourth quarter.

Print advertising revenue fell 6.7% to $113.5 million.

Excluding items, the company earned 12 cents per share, above expectations of 10 cents.

Net income attributable to shareholders fell to $16.4 million, or 10 cents per share, in the quarter, from about $25 million, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier.

(Reporting by Neha Malara in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

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