go-Digital Blog on Digital Marketing

Here’s How Much Money The New York Times Was Losing On About.com (NYT)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-much-money-the-new-york-times-was-losing-on-aboutcom-2012-8

IAC has agreed to buy About.com from the New York Times for $300 million in cash, according to Bloomberg, and no wonder—the encyclopedia site was losing barrowloads of cash.

But the sale won’t fix NYT’s overall digital problems—it’s still seeing declining digital revenues, which mostly come from selling ads.

NYT bought About for $410 million in 2005, in one of those great, doomed attempts to move a newspaper brand into the digital age.

Here are About’s most recent top and bottom lines, according to Bloomberg, almost all of which come from ad sales:

The website’s revenue fell 8.7 percent to $25.4 million last quarter, and it posted an operating loss of $186.8 million …

IAC boss Barry Diller will combine About with Ask.com. Hopefully, he has a plan to fix About’s pitiful revenue side.

Meanwhile, here’s the picture at the Times before the sale, per the most recent 10-Q:

Digital advertising revenues decreased 4.0% and 7.2% in the second quarter and first six months of 2012, respectively.

That portends more structural changes at the paper in the near future.

Related:

• The New York Times’ Worst Nightmare Just Came True: Digital Revenues Are In Decline

Please follow Advertising on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »