• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, February 10, 2010

The New York Times Co. announced that total revenues declined 11.5% in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008, from $770 million to $681 million. That marks a slowing in the rate of decline relative to previous quarters.

The decline in overall revenues at NYTCO was due to a 14.7% decline in advertising revenue to $398 million, with total revenues at the company's news media group slipping 12.8% to $645 million. For the full year 2009, advertising revenues fell 24.5% to $1.34 billion, while the news media group's total annual revenues fell 17.9% to $2.32 billion.

Over the course of the year, the company's total revenues declined 18.6% in the first quarter, 21.2% in the second, and 16.9% in the third, while advertising revenues declined 27%, 30.2%, and 26.9%, respectively.

The company had good news in its digital businesses, where Internet revenues increased 10.3% to $102 million in the fourth quarter -- including a 10.6% increase in online ad revenues to $90.6 million, partly offsetting a 20% decrease in print ad revenues.

The NYTCO fourth-quarter results follow comparable quarterly figures from McClatchy, which reported a 16.5% decline in total revenues, and Gannett, where total revenues fell 14.4%.

While still negative, these low-double-digit losses hold out hope that the newspaper business may be exiting the prolonged downturn caused by imploding ad revenues -- or at least, approaching the exit.

According to the Newspaper Association of America, total print and online ad revenues have declined for 14 straight quarters through the fourth quarter of 2009.