• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, August 1, 2013

The bottom-line boost provided by the New York Times Co.’s online subscription strategy may be tapering off, judging by the newspaper publisher’s latest results, which show revenues basically flat.
 
Total revenues slid 0.9% from $489.8 million in the second quarter of 2012 to $485.4 million in the second quarter of 2013. Reflecting continuing growth in digital subscription sales, circulation revenues increased 5.1% from $233.3 million to $245.1 million -- but this gain was more than offset by continuing decreases on the advertising side, where total revenues slipped 5.8% from $220.2 million to $207.5 million.
 
National advertising revenues fell 3.5% to $142.3 million, while retail ad revenues tumbled 12.9% to $31.3 million and classified revenues slid 8.6% to $27.9 million. Within the classifieds category, help wanted fell 11% to $6.3 million, real estate dropped 13.9% to $9.3 million, and automotive dipped 4.4% to $5.3 million.
 
Digital subscriptions have played an ever-increasing role in NYTCO’s business since the publisher implemented a paywall for its Web site in March 2011, but it remains to be seen whether these new circulation revenues can balance out losses on the advertising side in the long term.
 
From $851.1 million in 2010, total circulation revenues grew 1.4% to $863 million in 2011, then jumped 10.4% to $953 million in 2012, the first full year of the digital sub strategy.

However, the growth rate for circulation revenues slowed to 5.8% in the first half of 2013, while the rate of decline on the advertising side actually accelerated from a 5.9% drop in 2012 to an 8.5% drop in the first half of 2013.

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