Peter Kafka at AllThingsD reports on the New York Times’ earnings as a bellwether for digital advertising trends. Taken as a barometer for display revenues — I assume paid search is a minor contributor to the Time’s revenue stream as the channel is dominated by Google, et al — it indicates that display is holding its own during a period of general economic malaise and the old prevailing wisdom that display was dead as CPMs trended lower and click-throughs continued to deteriorate. The Times is fairly innovative without being obtrusive with its display inventory, so my take is they are seeing strong demand for their supply.
“Here’s the full breakout for the Times’ digital properties NYT.com About.com, etc, which appear to be doing pretty well:
Total Internet revenues increased 13.3 percent to $89.4 million from $78.9 million.
Internet advertising revenues increased 14.6 percent to $78.3 million from $68.3 million.
Internet advertising revenues at the News Media Group increased 21.6 percent to $47.4 million from $39.0 million mainly due to strong growth in national display advertising.
Internet businesses accounted for 16.1 percent of the Company’s revenues for the third quarter of 2010 versus 13.9 percent for the third quarter of 2009.”
via Ad Dollars Shrink at the New York Times, Again | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD.
Interesting fact – The Times has more Twitter followers than paid subscribers according to Journalistics:
“When it comes to Twitter followers, The New York Times is the top bird with more than 2.6 million followers. To illustrate how impressive this follower number is, The Wall Street Journal only has 464,591 followers in the #2 spot. The New York Times is the ONLY newspaper from the Top 25 with more Twitter followers than print circulation.”
Too bad they don’t get paid for Twitter followers…and for the most part, the headline IS the story…
Same is true when one looks at the quarterly statements from other publishing companies.
For example, this headline from last week:
Gannett’s Digital Revs Continue To Surge, As Print Declines Recede – http://ow.ly/2Wm1b
The question your post raises, at least in my foggy little head, will pay walls put a damper on interactive ad revenue, especially as services such as those provided by DART and Yahoo become smarter and more targeted?