New York Times quarterly revenue hit by weak advertisement spending

New York Times missed expectations for quarterly revenue on Wednesday, hurt by a slowdown in advertising sales owing partly to geopolitical events, sending its shares down more than 8%.
 

An uncertain economy has led to advertisers reducing their marketing budgets and sticking with safe havens such as Meta , while readers also cut back on subscriptions as they try to keep a lid on costs.
 

Marketers have not been wanting to carry their content next to some news driven by current events including the conflict in the Middle East, the company said.
 

Advertising revenue fell 8.4% to $164.1 million in the fourth quarter, lower than estimates of $177 million, per LSEG data.

"We continue to experience limited visibility in the advertising market, particularly around ongoing print declines," finance chief William Bardeen said.
 

The publisher reported revenue of $676.2 million for the quarter, missing estimates of $679.24 million. Adjusted profit of 70 cents per share beat expectations.
 

The Times' bundling push by combining its core news reports withdigital content ranging from games and sports helped drive 300,000 digital-only subscriber additions in the quarter, compared with 210,000 in the third quarter.
 

In what has been a challenging year in the ad market for publishers, companies such as Business Insider and the Los Angeles Times have resorted to laying off journalists, while the Washington Post had said it planned to offer voluntary separation packages.
 

For the first quarter, the company forecast digital advertising revenues to increase in the low-to-high single-digit percentage range, while total ad revenues are expected to decrease mid-single-digits.
 

Companies are likely to see a boost in advertising spend ahead of the November presidential election in the United States, with spending on political advertising expected to jump 30% this year from the last election in 2020, according to data from research firm Insider Intelligence.