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The New York Times Sells 100,000 Digital Subscriptions In Three Weeks

Peter Kafka in Media on April 21, 2011 at 5:55 am PT

Meanwhile: Print ads down, digital up, but About.com tumbles, and the Times blames Google.

Do You Want To Save Your Web Ads? AdKeeper Bets $35 Million That You Will

Peter Kafka in Media on January 2, 2011 at 9:01 pm PT

Oak Investment leads a giant funding round in Scott Kurnit’s new startup, which thinks that Web surfers will stop ignoring ads, and start saving them. If he’s right, it’s a big deal. If not…

Ad Dollars Shrink at the New York Times, Again

Peter Kafka in Media on October 19, 2010 at 5:48 am PT

Three months ago, the New York Times seemed to have halted its advertising skid after a very long slide. Perhaps it has started up again. Ad revenue dropped one percent during Q3: Digital revenue jumped 14.6 percent, but that wasn’t enough to counter a 5.8 percent drop in print ads. Things don’t look great for Q4, either. Cue the Paywall!

New York Times Says Print Ads Getting Less Bad, Web Ads Bouncing Back

Peter Kafka in Media on December 8, 2009 at 7:04 am PT

A little holiday cheer from the New York Times, which says things are getting less miserable than they have been for the publisher. Print ads are still way down, but not as low as they have been. And digital revenue is actually up.

Hot Potato Is Ready to Eat: Do Twitter, Facebook Users Want Another Real-Time Chatter Service?

Peter Kafka in Media on November 25, 2009 at 7:25 am PT

Last month I told you about Hot Potato, one of the buzziest start-ups in the very buzzy “real time” sector. Now you can check out the service yourself. Or at least you can get a glimpse of it in this video.

New York Times Delivers Some Not Terrible News: Earnings, Ad Sales Better Than Expected

Peter Kafka in Media on October 22, 2009 at 5:05 am PT

The New York Times announced plans to cut eight percent of its newsroom payroll this week, citing “economic thunderstorms,” which suggested that this morning’s earnings results were going to be particularly unpleasant. Surprise! They’re not that awful, at least by the diminished standards of the newspaper industry.

Rise of the Machines: Why Demand Media Is Worth More Than the New York Times

Peter Kafka in Media on October 20, 2009 at 3:00 am PT

The New York Times’s model for content creation, which revolves around well-paid professionals who rely on their experience and judgment, looks increasingly threatened. What does a new model look like? Perhaps one where a computer spits out assignments to day laborers who work furiously for low pay.

More Pulitzers, Less Money: New York Times Ad Sales Down 27 Percent; Q2 Looks Just as Bad

Peter Kafka in Media on April 21, 2009 at 5:51 am PT

Yesterday the New York Times won five Pulitzer Prizes and executive editor Bill Keller took a well-deserved victory lap with a speech that reportedly had his newsroom in tears. But for better or worse, none of that matters to investors, who are trying to figure out what the company’s long-term prospects look like. In the near term, they look terrible. In the first three months of this year, the company saw ad sales drop 27 percent, and the Internet no longer helps: Web ad sales were down 6.1 percent. The company says to expect more of the same, for a while.

Upside at the Washington Post: At Least Web Ads Didn’t Disappear Last Quarter

Peter Kafka in Media on February 25, 2009 at 6:58 am PT

No shock that the Washington Post had a miserable fourth quarter. At least the paper’s online business didn’t fall off a cliff in Q4–which is more than you can say about the New York Times.