Posted on 12/02/2004 7:47:20 AM PST by Pharmboy
NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Times Co. told investors Thursday that its fourth quarter and full-year earnings would come in below Wall Street estimates on weaker-than-expected advertising in the fourth quarter and higher costs for promotion, printing, distribution and newsprint. The company also said it would begin expensing the cost of stock options and its employee stock purchase plan. It also said that it would no longer provide estimates for full-year earnings, focusing instead on quarterly estimates, due to the greater uncertainty in the current environment for media companies.
The company, which also publishes The Boston Globe and The International Herald Tribune, said it now expects to report fourth-quarter earnings of between 69 and 73 cents per share, compared with 73 cents in the comparable period a year ago. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had expected earnings of 75 cents per share.
The Times' shares were off 68 cents at $40.38 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
For the full year, the Times now expects to earn $1.90 to $1.93 per share, versus Thomson First Call estimates of $1.96 per share. Both the quarterly and full-year estimates exclude a one-time gain from the sale of the company's headquarters building of approximately 50 to 55 cents per share, of which 40 to 45 cents per share is likely to be recognized in the fourth quarter.
In 2005, the company will begin expensing its stock options, a move that has been advocated by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson. The Times said it expects to record pretax expenses for stock-based compensation of $24 million to $33 million in 2005, or 12 to 16 cents per share.
Chief financial officer Leonard Forman said while advertising revenues had shown "modest" improvement in the fourth quarter compared with the same period a year ago, "they have not been as strong as we had anticipated."
"We believe that 2005 will be another challenging year," Forman said.
Mutual Funds don't contain shares of Pravda or The WWW.
But but but any Democrat will tell you that the mainstream media is conservative because they are a large corporation and out to protect their interests. They must consider Moveon.org to be conservative now since they raked in $30million this election cycle.
Well newspapers have recently been caught cooking the books on their circulation figures to warrant higher advertising rates. Wouldn't surprise me that they lie to Wall Street too.
Who knows, maybe some left wing controlled mutual fund might own Pravda stock, if there is any.
"Well newspapers have recently been caught cooking the books on their circulation figures to warrant higher advertising rates. Wouldn't surprise me that they lie to Wall Street too."
Actually that is lying to Wall Street. It is interesting that the lunatic left wing AG of NY is not investigating the NY Slimes on this criminal activity.
Maybe we will be able to erect these Tombstones all over America before the 2008 election.
Don't expect the mainstream media to cover this scandal the way they covered Enron.
The Chicago Tribune which owns the LA Slimes is up to its neck re inflated subscribers and news stand stories.
One of the NYC newspapers was found guilty of this and had to make refunds to it advertisers. The advertisers paid rates based on the lies about circulation.
The NY Slimes is being investigated on this now.
I have a neighbor who makes me look moderate and he has been getting the NY Slimes dropped off in his driveway for years. One day I challenged him about it. His youngest is a soph in the local college, and he has had at least one of three children in college for a decade. They have been required to subscribe to the NY Slimes at a highly discounted rate as a requirement for some of their classes.
This fellow believes that if the college student subscribers are ever audited properly, the NY Slimes will be in real trouble. He says that this a normal practice in liberal colleges/universities across the nation to require a subscription to the NY Slimes for certain classes.
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