Digital subscriptions rose, but those gains were mostly offset by a drop in advertising at The New York Times Co. in the second quarter, the company reported Thursday.
Second-quarter circulation revenues rose 5.1% thanks to a boost in digital subscriptions, but ad revenues were down 5.8%. Revenues from both were $245.1 million and $207.4 million, respectively.
Overall, the company -- which publishes The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The International Herald Tribune (which is will be renamed The International New York Times this fall) -- claims 738,000 digital subscriptions. That's a 40% jump over the same period in 2012 and validation that the company's paywall strategy is paying off.
Revenues from the company's digital subscriptions were $38.3 million, up 44.1% from the same period. Likely fueled by the Boston Marathon bombing coverage, The Boston Globe's digital subscribers jumped about 70% year over year.
The activity, however, was not quite enough to make up for falling ad revenues. Print revenue fell 6.8%, while digital ad sales also contracted 2.7% "largely due to ongoing secular trends and an increasingly complex and fragmented digital advertising marketplace," according to a company statement. At $51.2 million, digital ad revenues accounted for 24.7% of ad revenues vs. 23.9% for the same period in 2012.
Still, the results -- a net income of $0.13 per share -- were better than Q2 2012, when the company lost $0.58 a share on write-downs for the sale of About.com and the company's regional newspaper group.