NY Times discusses online ads and About.com (NYT 2Q05 conf call quotes)

New York Times Company (ticker: NYT) CEO Janet Robinson discussed her company's growth in online ad revenue and the performance of About.com on NYT's Q2 conference call. Excerpts:

Turning to online advertising, revenues for the News Media Group once again demonstrated exceptional growth, up 27%… Strong gains were posted in display and all of the classified categories. We are excited about the launch of Times Select, a new fee-based service that includes our distinctive columnists, easy and in-depth access to the Times archives… for just under $50 per year. Times Select will debut this fall, further diversifying our online revenue stream…

…About.com's revenues grew approximately 39% in the quarter. About.com's integration is progressing very well. For instance, joint sales calls are underway with major advertisers and several www.nytimes.com advertisers have begun advertising on About as a result of these introductions.

We are also pursuing innovative ways of driving traffic between About.com and nytimes.com. We have already begun promoting the Times' weekly short videos to About users. In just a few weeks, and without any new designs on About.com, the number of plays of Tony Scott's movie reviews and David Poe's electronic gadgets reviews on nytimes.com has jumped significantly, and we think that's just the beginning. The addition of About.com… has resulted in the 11th largest corporate online network …

(Quotes are from the CCBN StreetEvents transcript.)

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