• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, March 7, 2007

The New York Times Company may endure revenue drops in its newspaper properties, but CEO Janet Robinson predicts a 30% expansion in the company's online revenues in 2007--attributing most of this future increase to "organic growth," as opposed to new acquisitions.

She also pointed to new Web partnerships as key online revenue drivers, such as the company's partnership with online job clearinghouse Monster.com. "Our 19 newspaper Web sites will co-brand their online recruitment advertising Web sites with Monster." Robinson is also hopeful about the company's recent investment in Brightcove, a leading Internet video provider.

"We expect digital revenues will grow approximately to about $350 million," says Robinson, speaking at a Bear Stearns media conference. While not ruling out more online acquisitions in 2007, she said the company would focus on incremental growth in Web traffic and revenue by "attracting more users, deepening their engagement and then monetizing our readers' usage."

While substantial, the forecast of 30% growth in Internet revenues to $350 million in 2007 actually represents a slowing in percentage rate of increase, compared to previous years--down from 41.2% growth in 2006. In absolute dollar terms, the projected $76 million increase over $273.9 million in 2006 is also slightly down from the 2005-2006 comparison. In 2006, revenues grew $80 million compared to $193.9 million in 2005.

Citing the company's strong performance in recent months, Robinson boasted that "in January, the New York Times Company was the 11th most-visited parent company on the Web, with approximately 43 million unique visitors." Robinson noted the rapid rise of online revenue as a percentage of overall revenue--from 4% in 2004 to 6% in 2005, then 8% in 2006.

According to Robinson, the company's purchase of About.com is paying big dividends. "It excels at optimizing content for search. By increasing the exposure of our content through search, we are attracting additional users." The site itself "attracts more women than iVillage, more teens than MTV.com and more men than ESPN.com."