New York Times Q1 Profit Tops Views

reported better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter. The New York-based company posted a quarterly loss of $14.3 million, or $0.09 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $1.74 million, or $0.02 per share. Excluding items, the company's adjusted earnings came in at $0.11 per share. Its revenue slipped 1.6 percent to $384 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.08 per share on revenue of $384.3 million. The average estimate among 4 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.09 per share and revenue of $384.65 million. Adjusted operating profit climbed to $59.2 million from $56.6 million. Operating costs slipped 4.2 percent to $350.3 million versus $365.8 million. "We got off to a solid start in early 2015, as our Company maintained its digital momentum," said Mark Thompson, president and chief executive officer. "We increased our digital subscriber count by 47,000 in the first quarter, more than in any quarter over the past two years, bringing us to a total of 957,000 paid digital subscribers. The strong digital consumer growth in the first quarter was largely attributable to improved retention and higher traffic to the website, partially as a result of our recent audience development efforts." New York Times shares closed at $12.81 yesterday.