NY Times Reports Ad Revenue Down 12 Percent

The New York Times Company had a slight net loss in the second quarter, in part because of severance costs related to the closing of the company’s editing and prepress operations in Paris.

The company had strong growth in digital subscriptions, it said on Thursday, but digital advertising revenue, which has been a bright spot in the past, declined.

In its earnings release, the company said that it had added 51,000 net digital-only subscriptions in the quarter for its news products and 16,000 net crossword product subscriptions. The Times now has about 1.2 million digital-only subscriptions for its news products and 1.4 million total digital-only subscriptions.

The company reported a net loss of about $500,000 for the quarter, compared with net income of $16 million in the second quarter of 2015. The company took a roughly $12 million charge, largely in severance costs, in connection to the Paris closings. Total revenue fell 3 percent, to $373 million, from $383 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

The Times continued to struggle with declining advertising revenue, which fell about 12 percent, to $131 million. Print advertising revenue slid 14 percent in the quarter, and digital advertising revenue dropped 7 percent, to $45 million. Digital advertising revenue now represents more than a third of the company’s total ad revenue.