Market Currents

• Wednesday, December 23, 2009

• 10:27 AM Wells Fargo upgrades newspaper stocks, singling out Gannett (GCI +5.8%) and New York Times (NYT +6.1%). "After years of downward revenue estimate revisions, it appears as though the newspaper ad market is improving more quickly than we previously anticipated, particularly in December," firm says. Comment!

• Tuesday, December 15, 2009

• 09:22 AM After Goo.gl (GOOG) announces it is challenging Bit.ly as king of the short URL, Bit.ly fires back, saying it will begin creating custom URLs for partners including Bing (MSFT), New York Times (NYT), HuffPo, and WSJ (NWS). (via) Comment!

• Tuesday, December 8, 2009

• 10:54 AM A rare ray of hope for newspapers from McClatchy (MNI) at USB's media conference this morning. Management says it expects the ad revenue improvement that began in Q3 to continue through Q4, while expenses are still declining amid heavy cost cutting. MNI +9.6%. GCI +5.4%. NYT +2.7%. Comment!

• Thursday, October 22, 2009

• 08:51 AM New York Times (NYT): Q3 EPS of $0.16 beats by $0.17. Revenue of $571M (-16.9%) vs. $562M. Shares +2.7% premarket. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable pre-market earnings: AUO, BDK, BG, BMY, CBE, CELG, CHKP, CIT, CNX, DAL, DHR, DO, DOW, EMC, ERIC, ESV, ETR, FITB, GR, HBAN, HOT, HSY, JBLU, JNS, KMB, LCC, LH, LM, MCD, MJN, MMM, MRK, NCR, NIHD, NUE, NVS, NYT, ORI, OXY, PDS, PLD, PM, PNC, POT, R, RAI, RGC, RS, RTN, RX, SGP, STI, SY, T, TASR, TIN, TMO, TRA, TRV, UNP, UPS, XRX, ZMH Comment!

• Monday, October 19, 2009

• 15:16 PM The New York Times (NYT +4.8%) will cut newsroom staff by 8% - 100 positions - by year's end, according to a staff memo. Layoffs would come if voluntary buyouts don't reach the number. Details at NYT's Media Decoder blog. 1 Comment

• Wednesday, October 14, 2009

• 17:38 PM The New York Times Co. (NYT) takes The Boston Globe off the selling block, as reported bids of about $35M cash and pension assumptions lacked appeal. The Globe was threatened with closure when it was set to lose $85M this year, but finances have improved. Comment!

• Tuesday, September 29, 2009

• 09:40 AM Newspaper stocks catch a bid on the heels of Gannett's (GCI) rosy outlook. While ad revenues remain under pressure, bottom line numbers were well ahead of expectations due to significantly lower newsprint expenses. Early on: GCI +14%. NYT +9%. MNI +11%. LEE +27%. WPO +3%. Comment!
• 09:00 AM Premarket gainers: GCI +25%. MNI +15%. CIT +14%. WAG +10%. NYT +9%. CVS +5%.
  Losers: SQNM -41%. MBI -9%. Comment!

• Friday, August 7, 2009

• 07:43 AM The New York Times (NYT) confirms it hired Goldman Sachs to help sell its Boston Globe and Worcester Telegram & Gazette newspapers, as well as their websites, in response to a heavy advertising downturn and the migration of readers to the internet. 3 Comments

• Thursday, July 30, 2009

• 15:44 PM Michael Arrington wonders what would happen if the top 10% of The New York Times' (NYT) writers jumped ship and started their own company. "The interesting thing is that I think something like this would work, really work, if anyone tried it. And the guys at Politico and AOL seem to be doing just that." 2 Comments

• Friday, July 24, 2009

• 10:48 AM What's NY Times' (NYT) current thinking about charging for content? From yesterday's earnings call: "At this time our work is centered on a metered model and a Times membership model with special offerings. It is too early to say what this research will yield... We expect to have more to report in the fall." Comment!
• 09:12 AM Continuing a trend seen recently in McClatchy's (MNI) Q2 earnings, New York Times' (NYT) one growth area was - surprise - circulation revenue, which will soon overtake ad revenue for the first time ever. Ryan Chittum thinks the development has significant implications in the free vs. fee content debate. 1 Comment

• Thursday, July 23, 2009

• 11:41 AM After a nice post-earnings open and a quick selloff, New York Times Co. (NYT) swings back to +5.6%. CEO Janet Robinson says the publisher is sticking with its explorations of paid online content. Henry Blodget says: Nice job avoiding bankruptcy! "Running on fumes is a lot better than going bust." Comment!
• 09:48 AM Early enthusiasm for New York Times' (NYT -3.5%) earnings beat fizzles in a hurry. While the Times managed to cut costs aggressively, ad revenue declined 31.7%, an acceleration from Q1's 28% drop, while online ad sales fell a shocking 15.5%. 1 Comment
• 08:48 AM New York Times (NYT): Q2 EPS of $0.08 beats by $0.12. Revenue of $584.5+601M (-21.2%) vs. $601M. While it continued to experience difficult economic climate, it made significant progress in decreasing its cost base and reducing/restructuring debt. Shares +14.8% premarket. (PR) Comment!