The New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger and President and CEO Janet Robinson spoke at the company shareholders’ meeting yesterday. Both gave some interesting comments about the future of the company’s digital earnings and strategy. Their comments -- excerpted from the transcript available on The Wall Street Journal's Web site -- are below.
Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman of The New York Times Co.:
“The new online marketplace has dramatically increased competition, expanded markets, lowered barriers of entry and reduced prices for hundreds of business sectors. Just ask book and music sellers, electronic good manufacturers and retailers, or travel and real estate agents. Distance and time have vanished. The consumer is more in charge than we could ever have imagined even just a short decade ago. And the rate of change is accelerating.
“We are well aware of the tremendous dislocations and challenges the digital world has created for us and for all in our industry, most obviously in our financial performance. Even as we see strong digital revenue growth, we continue to see declines in our print revenue. To address this, we have been dramatically reducing our cost structure, efforts that will be ongoing.”
Janet Robinson, president and CEO of The New York Times Co.:
“Both Arthur and I have spoken about our powerful and trusted print brands. They remain a strategic cornerstone of all we do, for print audiences remain significantly larger than their web counterparts.
“We believe that newspapers — in print — will be around for a very long time. This point of view is not about nostalgia or a love of newsprint. Instead, it is rooted in fundamental business reality: newspapers continue to be a very profitable business.
“That is why we continue to invest in print products such as Play, Key, Design New England and Fashion Boston and in the content of the daily and Sunday editions of our papers.
“But we are also preparing for the ongoing digital transformation, and getting ready to support our news, advertising and other critical operations as digital platforms become more pervasive in our industry.
“Now let me build on what Arthur said about enhancing our presence in the digital space and how it has been paying off from a financial standpoint. In 2006, our Internet revenues made up more than 8% of our total revenues, compared with just 4% in 2004. Last year our online advertising revenue grew 41%.
“These are significant numbers and growth rates. Together they give us confidence and we are building on these successes both by aggressively developing new online products and enhancing our online areas. This will help us to achieve three goals: attract more users, deepen their engagement through relevant content and increasingly make more revenue from their visits.”