This is a summary of the first quarter fiscal 2008 earnings call conducted by The New York Times Co.(NYT) on April 17, 2008
Management
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President, Chief Executive Officer, Director Janet L. Robinson
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Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications Catherine J. Mathis
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Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President James M. Follo
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President and General Manager - The Times Scott H. Heekin-Canedy
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Senior Vice President - Digital Operations Martin A. Nisenholtz
Key Investor Issues:
- The firm reported a loss of $335,000 from a profit of $23.9 million or 17 cents a share in 2007.
- Revenues dropped 4.9% to $747.9 million.
First Quarter Highlights:
Total revenues decreased 4.9% to $747.9 million from $786.0 million with ad revenues down 9.2% as the environment remained depressed though circulation was up 1.9% and other revenues up 7.2%.
- Performance varied by category with national advertising down 3.8%, retail down 11.1%, and classified down 22.6%.
- At the Times media group, ad revenues decreased 6.9% in the quarter.
- Classified advertising decreased in all three major categories, real estate, recruitment, and automotive with retail advertising revenues down due to decreased advertising from department stores, home furnishing stores, and mass market advertisers.
- The New England media group’s advertising revenues decreased 16.3% and ad revenues in the national category declined as a result of lower financial services, telecommunication, national automotive, and travel related advertising.
Operating costs decreased 1.1% to $723.3 million from $731.5 million.
- Depreciation and amortization declined 5.6% to $41.9 million from $44.4 million, because of lower accelerated depreciation expense for the assets at the Edison, N.J., printing facility, which was closed last month.
- Foreign currency translation increased expenses by $2.4 million and there were approximately $4 million of non-recurring costs associated with the consolidation of two New York area printing plants.
- Newsprint expense decreased 23.4%, with 17% of the decline resulting from decreased consumption and about 6.4% resulting from lower prices.
- The equity grant buy-outs, currency translation, consolidation expenses, and newsprint price effect, operating cost before depreciation and amortization decreased 3%.
The media company reported a loss of $335,000 from a profit of $23.9 million or 17 cents a share in 2007 as revenues dropped 4.9%.
- Operating profit before depreciation and amortization and the non-cash charge was $66.4 million compared with $98.9 million in the first quarter last year.
- Cash and cash equivalents were $47 million and total debt was approximately $1.1 billion, while total capital expenditures amounted to $33 million.
Fiscal 2008 Outlook:
- The firm revised project income downwards to $16 million to $20 million for the year.
- The company is executing well on its program to reduce 2007 cost base by $230 million by 2009, excluding the effects of inflation, buy-outs, and one-time costs and expects to achieve $130 million in savings this year.
- Total capital expenditures will be $150 million to $165 million, including approximately $42 million for the consolidation of our New York area plants
- The New York Times expects income tax rate to be between 40% and 43%.
Key questions and answers from the first quarter fiscal 2008 earnings call conducted by The New York Times Co. on April 17, 2008]
John Janedis: Can you give us a better idea on how the $130 million in savings will flow throughout the year?
James M. Follo: Those non-comparable factors were about $23 million and impacted our first quarter by about $16 million. The effect of the Edison plant consolidation began in the second quarter.
We expect that some of the headcount reduction programs that we have put in place recently will be fully effective in the third quarter.
John Janedis: Can you talk about March at the New England media group?
Janet L. Robinson: We are seeing financial advertising. There was growth in the first quarter in department stores but that is beginning to wane towards the March timeframe.
There is progress that has been made in Boston in regard to the cost reduction
Barton Crockett: Is there anything you see in May and June that would suggest any type of variance from the trend we have seen?
Scott H. Heekin-Canedy: The recession is having an impact on spending patterns. We have got good visibility into May and June at this point and you are not going to see something different from that March/April average.
