New York Times Dives on Cloudy Outlook

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The New York Times(NYT) stock is taking a dive following a strong earnings report -- but one with a cloudy outlook.

New York Times stock has lost 7.2% at $10.83.

On the advertising front, the New York Times didn't provide much comfort to investors when it said that visibility remains limited for advertising looking ahead. The company expects the rate of decline for print advertising to continue to improve modestly from the fourth quarter of 2009, in the first quarter. Meanwhile, digital advertising is expected to perform in line with the fourth-quarter level.

The New York Times has begun taking steps to enhance the company's digital strategy by planning to introduce a paid model for NYTimes.com in 2011.

The New York Times reported fourth-quarter net income of $90.9 million, or 61 cents a share compared with $27.6 million, or 19 cents a share the previous year. Total revenues from continuing operations decreased 11.5% to $681.2 million from $769.5 million primarily due to lower print advertising. Earnings from continuing operations excluding severance and special items was 44 cents, up 22.2% from the previous year. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of 38 cents a share.

Newspaper stocks are generally down Wednesday.

The McClatchy Company(MNI) is down 2.6% at $4.60, Gannett(GCI) has fallen 1% to $13.80 and A. H. Belo(AHC) has slipped 1.1% to $6.12.

-- Reported by Andrea Tse in New York

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