Nobody is saying that things are going great either at the NYT or the industry as a whole. To cherrypick numbers and present them out of context doesn’t exactly sound like a worthwhile enterprise to me – particularly from a journalist – and neither does a constant stream of posts that demand change but give few actual examples (let’s get beyond Twitter, shall we?). I’d rather build something. What are you building?

Derek

I respect you and have nothing against your company. I’m willing to see this from your side. Maybe I’ll change a few words in my post. Carrying might be a little strong.

But here are a few things that stand out:

1. Revenue and profits are down at the company.
2. Many of the write downs and charges are related to the print side of the company, such as buyouts and plant closings.
3. Revenue at about.com is up 25% and so are operating profits. It’s one of the sectors of the company showing strong growth. And it’s one of the companies most valuable assets.
4. If things were going well with the NY Times Co. digital properties, the company wouldn’t have had to cave to two hedge funds and allow two dissident board members on: http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/3/new_york_times_caves_allows_two_dissident_board_members
5. 4. The people who forced their way onto the NY Times Co. board believe About.com is worth about twice what the NY Times Co. paid for it in 2005. That is one reason they recommend selling it.

The statement that About.com is “carrying the company” is absolutely, demonstratively false. From the NYT story you link to, About’s profit was $12.6 million. The core media unit that you referred to had an operating profit of $68.5 million, excluding an $18.3 million charge. So even including that charge, the core media unit’s profits were near 4 times About.com’s.

As a Times employee, I sincerely hope that all of our units have splendid profits, and it’s quite true that financially the company did not do as well as last year, and that the industry faces tough times in general. But before you go off spouting assertions to fit your needs, please check your facts.

Derek Willis

The fact is that newspapers have been losing ground with advertisers for years, especially in the housing market. That industry created their own classified systems because newspaper sites didnt plug that hole.

So now when we hit a bump in the road we start firing to manage short term overhead. That is reasnable if you’re looking at quarterly reports but horrible long term. Smaller companies have come in with models that eat newspaper profits. These cmpanies are thriving still in the current market situation. And by and large newspapers have not reacted to these companies with products of their own.

It is time to get out of the past.

Jesus Christ on a stick, listening to you is like having General Motors listen to me
because I work at Jiffy Lube. Which I don’t. But you might as well.