New York Times president and CEO Janet Robinson used Tuesday’s appearance at Bear Stearns 20th Annual Media Conference to outline the company’s blended approach to revenue as digital becomes more important. No denying that print is still the engine that drives the train (trite but true) despite a shift in digital’s overall revenue contribution to 8 percent in 2006 from 4 percent in 2004—but digital is driving growth. Robinson told the gathering: “In 2007, we will continue to build on our digital foundation. We expect digital revenues will grow approximately 30 percent to about $350 million, mainly through organic growth. We will focus on several key levers – attracting more users, deepening their engagement and then monetizing our readers’ usage.”
Monster.com: Robinson described the company’s recent agreement with Monster.com:
—the 19 newspaper sites will co-brand their online recruitment sites with Monster. That should start later this month with full implementation scheduled by the end of 2Q.
—new online job tools will be offered to job seekers and recruiters.
—Monster will add a “click to print” feature making reverse publishing easy for current online-only customers.
Verticals: NYCTO is continuing what Robinson calls the “aggressive development of key content verticals” online and in print, Examples include real estate, entertainment (enhanced by NYTCO acquisition of Baseline); travel. Together, those three accounted for page view growth three times the site’s average. (That could shift now that the Oscars have passed.)
About: It’s almost two years since NYTCO acquired About.com from Primedia, which never really knew what to do with it. Robinson said the value has increased and listed the ways its demos outstrip competitors—“more women than iVillage, more teens than MTV.com and more men than ESPN.com.’ Revenues rose an estimated 50 percent last year and the operating margin is fatter—38 percent compared to 27 percent in 2005 while it was owned by NYTCO.
R&D: Robinson and others at the company continue to stress the investment in R&D: “As a catalyst for organizational transformation, R&D is involved with any investment or alliance that cuts across our digital units. For example, R&D helped source our recent investment in Brightcove, the leading Internet video service. ... In the coming year, we expect R&D’s new product activities in mobile and video to intensify, and for them to help transfer Boston’s local search expertise to our other markets.”
(via MKTW)
Webcast | Transcript (partial) | Powerpoint
High-profile web-only reporting: One example of shifting priorities: Kit Seelye, a media reporter for the past two years, is leaving that beat to cover politics exclusively for NYTimes.com. (Gawker via Romenesko.)