Business

Times reports Q2 loss, nears CEO choice

The New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger, Jr. told Wall Street that the search for a new CEO is still at least three months away from its conclusion — and signalled clearly that they are looking for a strong digital leader.

Janet Robinson, the CEO who snagged a severance package of over $20 million when she was ousted in mid-December, was seen as a traditional CEO with strong ties to the ad community.

The guessing game has advanced candidates including former Dow Jones Executive Vice President Gordon Crovitz, Google executive and former Time magazine president Eileen Naughton and former head honcho of the BBC, Mark Thompson.

But sources say that none of the rumored names are on the short list the board of directors seems to have in hand, with help from executive head hunter Spencer Stuart.

“Our board has made meaningful progress in the search for a new CEO and we expect to have something to share with you before the end of this quarter,” Sulzberger said in a conference call yesterday to report quarterly results.

That probably suggests an announcement in the mid-September range, sources said — nine months after Robinson was given the old heave-ho.

“Our new CEO must have strong business and digital management skills, understand the power of brands and must be able to successfully lead the launch of products that are critical to our future,” he said.

One observer, Douglas McIntyre, editor of 24/7 Wall Street, said the high payoff given to Robinson has probably complicated the seach for a new CEO because potential candidates may expect a similarly rich package to take the job.

McIntyre also said that the power of Sulzberger as chairman of a public company that is still controlled by Sulzberger family members is complicating the search.

“The CEO of the New York Times Company is not the CEO — nor will they ever be,” he said.

The board is handling the search but Sulzberger and his first cousin and board member, Michael Golden, are believed to hold sway.

Said Douglas Arthur at Evercore: “I would expect any decent potential CEO to get a very good sense of what the boundaries are. No one any good is going to take the job if they don’t think they can run the company the way they want, but it’s an issue for sure.”

The Times Co. reported a net loss of $88.1 million in the three months ended June 30 — including an after tax charge of $126.1 million for a writedown on the About.com group.

Without the writedown the company said it would have earned $21 million.

The company’s paywall, which went up in March 2011, has yielded 509,000 digital subscribers to the flagship Times and the International Herald Tribune.

The Boston Globe, which only put the paywall up this year, counts 23,000 paid digital subscribers.

Total revenue rose 0.6 percent to $515.2 million, even though advertising declined 7 percent and print advertising dropped 8 percent. Circulation revenue jumped 8 percent.

Digital subscription packages were seen as a big driver of the revenue increase.

It was the first time revenue had increased at the company since 2010.

The stock jumped nearly 11 percent, to $7.80.

Sulzberger made no mention of the company’s contentious labor negotiations with its largest union, the Newspaper Guild, where members have been without a contract since March 2011.

Time raid

Out on the West Coast, Time Inc. is shaking up another title.

Kitty Morgan, the new editor of Sunset, has raided Martha Stewart Living to hire Miranda Crowell as her deputy editor. Crowell held the same job at MSL and will be relocating from New York to San Francisco. She’s going to be responsible for the home, food and garden coverage for the 1.26 million circulation monthly.

Crowell held similar responsibilities at MSL, where she also helped develop interactive content for iPad issues.

Morgan, who took over earlier this year, shook up the staff a week ago. As a result, creative director Mia Daminato and executive editor Christine Ryan are out.

No new creative director has been tapped yet, though it seems Crowell will take over many of the duties held by Ryan as the No. 2 editor.

Sunset also eliminated the position of a New York-based eastern ad director.

Through its August issue, ad pages for the Time Inc.- owned title were down 10 percent to 352.

While there have been no across-the-board edicts from Time Inc. CEO Laura Lang to cut staff or budgets, individual magazines seem to be tightening the belt on their own as they head into the budget-planning months for next year.

A Sunset spokeswoman said that the restructuring there will not change the size of the staff.