• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 28, 2012

The New York Times has become the first major daily newspaper to become primarily supported by revenues from consumers, not advertisers, according to a New York Magazine analysis of the New York Times Co.'s second quarter results. During the quarter, ad revenues for its Big 3 papers -- The New York Times, International Herald Tribune and Boston Globe -- fell to 6% to $220 million, a tad lower than their combined circulation revenues of $233 million, which were up 8.3%.

New York mag reported that it is the first major newspaper group to cross that line, which is something the overall media industry did some time ago, according to the long-term Communications Industry Report and Forecast by banker Veronis, Suhler, Stevenson, which showed consumer-spending on media overtaking ad-support of media years ago.

The NYT Co.'s boost in circulation revenues is due in part to an innovative and aggressive policy of marketing its online and digital subscriptions by allowsing consumers to view limitted number of articles monthly, before they need to upgrade to a pay tier.