(Reuters) - New York Times Co (N:NYT) reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as its cost-cutting initiatives offset a decline in revenue.
The company said in October it would cut about 7.5 percent of its newsroom positions and shut its mobile app, NYT Opinion, to compensate for dwindling advertising revenue.
The newspaper publisher forecast advertising revenue for second quarter to fall at a mid-single digit percentage rate. The company said it expects operating costs to decrease at a low-single digit percentage.
Operating costs fell about 4 percent to $350.3 million in the first quarter.
The New York Times, like several newspaper and magazine publishers, has been under relentless pressure to replace an evaporating pool of print advertising dollars, once the lifeblood of newspapers, with digital ads and money from subscriptions.
Print advertising revenue decreased 11.1 percent in the quarter, while digital advertising revenue increased 10.7 percent. Total advertising revenue fell 5.8 percent to $149.9 million.
Circulation revenue grew marginally to $211.5 million, helped mainly by a 14.4 percent increase in revenue from digital-only subscription products.
The company reported a net loss attributable to shareholders from continuing operations of $14.3 million, or 9 cents per share, compared with a profit of $2.7 million, or 2 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, earnings from continuing operations rose to 11 cents per share.
Revenue fell 1.6 pct to $384.2 million.
Analysts on average had expected earnings of 8 cents per share on revenue of $384.3 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Up to Wednesday's close, the company's shares had fallen about 3 percent this year.