New York Times Co. Announces Newsroomwide Strategy Review
By SYDNEY EMBER

Buoyed by strong digital growth and cost savings, The New York Times Company reported on Thursday an increase in quarterly profit but said revenue was flat as its print business continued to decline. The earnings report came on the same day that a sweeping examination of the newsroom, which will include identifying further areas for cost reductions, was announced.

Dean Baquet, the newspaper’s executive editor, will lead the newsroom effort along with David Leonhardt, the founding editor of The Times’s digitally focused The Upshot, Mr. Baquet said in a note to the newsroom.

“We need to develop a strategic plan for what The New York Times should be, and determine how to apply our timeless values to a new age,” Mr. Baquet wrote.

“Although our digital revenue is growing strongly, we continue to feel the impact of declines in parts of our print business,” he added. “That means the company must continue to carefully manage its costs.”

Among the questions Mr. Baquet said he would seek to answer were which breaking news stories deserved the newsroom’s full digital, print and visual resources and whether the “system of powerful desks” could be a hindrance on wide-ranging topics like climate change and education that cut across coverage areas. He also said he would examine “which parts of our newsroom have not grown quickly enough” and how the newsroom would change as it became more internationally focused.

“We have to own up to the fact that the way people read us is different,” Mr. Baquet said in an interview. “We also have to own up to the fact that The New York Times is under financial pressure.

“Everything we do now has got to include a certain amount of thinking about costs,” he said.

He said The Times would always have a large newsroom, but it was “not going to get any bigger” and “we’re probably going to get a bit smaller.” He added that some areas of the newsroom, including those focused on multimedia and international coverage, could grow.

He did not rule out layoffs, but said he did not expect any in the immediate future.

“You should never say never,” he said. “But as of right now, I’m not anticipating any layoffs this year.”

Mr. Leonhardt, who was to join the Op-Ed page this year as a staff columnist, will delay the start of his column until the summer, Mr. Baquet said in his note.

In the quarterly report released on Thursday, The Times said its net income for the fourth quarter was $52 million, an increase of 48 percent compared with the same period in 2014. Company revenue was $445 million during the last three months of 2015, the same as the year-ago period.

For the year, revenue was $1.58 billion and net income was $63 million.

In the earnings release, Mark Thompson, the company’s chief executive, described the fourth quarter as “strong” and extolled the company’s progress, including its new virtual reality offerings and the growth of T Brand Studio, a unit that creates content for Times advertisers.

“The digital advertising market is undergoing profound change, and we are not immune to its volatility, but we believe that our strategic approach — to rapidly build out new high-value propositions for marketers in branded content, mobile, video and VR — is paying off,” Mr. Thompson said in an earnings call with investors.

Digital revenue remained an area of growth. Digital advertising revenue increased 11 percent during the fourth quarter, to $70 million, a number representing about a third of the company’s total advertising revenue.

For the full year, digital advertising revenue increased 8 percent compared with the previous year, to $197 million, and digital-only subscription revenue was $193 million last year, a roughly 14 percent increase from 2014.

The Times Company has set an ambitious goal to double its total digital revenue, a number that includes digital advertising and digital-only subscriptions, to $800 million by 2020.

The company said it added 53,000 net digital subscribers in the quarter, the most added in a quarter in three years. The Times now has close to 1.1 million paid digital-only subscriptions.

Print advertising revenue continued its decline, dropping 7 percent during the fourth quarter, contributing to a quarterly decline of about 1 percent in total advertising revenue compared with the last three months of 2014.

“One of our achievements in recent years has been to combine investment in digital growth with a tight grip on costs, and we are still determined to focus on both,” Mr. Thompson said. “We believe that alongside investment in our newsroom and elsewhere, there is scope for further structural savings across our cost base.”

Adjusted operating profit, the company’s preferred measurement for performance, grew to $118 million for the fourth quarter, from $104 million in the same period a year earlier. For the full year, the company reported adjusted operating profit of $289 million, from $256 million in 2014.

數位訂戶大增20％ 紐時加速改革編輯部

《紐約時報》4日公布2015年第四季財報，同時宣布計畫加速改革編輯部，以利加強因應數位時代與日俱增的挑戰和數位讀者與時俱進的需求。

新的改革將由總編輯巴奎特與紐時數位網站The Upshot的執行主編萊恩哈特總其事。The Upshot（意指「最後的結果」，源自射箭比賽裡最後一支射出而決定勝負的箭）啟動於2014年4月，以政治、政策與經濟為焦點，以數據分析與讀者互動取勝，大量運用數位圖表，方便讀者快速了解新聞。

紐時總編輯巴奎特在給編輯部的備忘錄中表示：「我們必須發展一套策略，了解紐約時報應該是什麼樣的報紙，以及把本報的永恆價格應用於一個新的時代。」

他說：「我們的數位營收不斷強勁成長，但我們繼續感受到印刷版下跌的衝擊，也就是說，我們必須仔細管理成本。」

此話何意？紐時執行長湯普森暗示編輯部即將有所異動。他說：「我們將一邊投資於數位前途，一邊檢討現有的成本支出。」他表示，紐時還有從結構層次節省成本的空間。

根據4日公布的財報，紐時第四季獲利從去年同期3490萬美元上升到5170萬（台幣17億3700萬），而營收維持4億4470萬美元。營運成本削減4.1%。

發行營收（有別於廣告營收）由於數位訂戶成長而有增加。2015年送報到家的價格提高，彌補印刷版售量下挫足足有餘。

紐時的「純數位」訂戶，第四季比笫三季增加5萬3000人，是三年來最大季增，並且使全年的唯數位訂戶達到109萬4000，比2014年增加可觀的20%。

第四季印刷版廣告營收下降6.6%，而數位廣告營收上升10.6%，達到6990萬美元，占全公司廣告營收34.1%，上年同期是6320萬美元，占全公司廣告營收30.5%。

以2015全年而言，印刷版營收下跌8.0%，而數位廣告營收上升8.2%，達到1億9710萬美元，2014全年是1億8220萬美元。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/05/business/media/new-york-times-q4-earnings-newsroom-strategy.html

2016-02-05．聯合晚報．A6．國際焦點．編譯彭淮棟