NYT foresees ad drop due to coronavirus

The New York Times Company says it foresees a 10% drop in digital ad sales this quarter due to coronavirus.

“Like many companies, in recent weeks we have begun to see some economic impact from the coronavirus,” said CEO Mark Thompson in a SEC filing with a March 2 date.

“Unlike many news publishers, our business is heavily skewed towards subscriptions rather than advertising. We’ve seen no adverse impact on subscription growth, or on the expected rise in subscription revenue, which remains strong and consistent with the guidance we gave in our most recent earnings call,” he said. “However, we are seeing a slowdown in international and domestic advertising bookings, which we associate with uncertainty and anxiety about the virus. We therefore now expect total advertising revenues to decline in the mid-teens in the current quarter, with digital advertising revenues expected to decline 10%. We remain broadly in line with all the other guidance numbers we gave in the call in early February.”

Thompson planned to make the comments March 2 at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in Japan.

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