The New York Times Co. (NYT,Trade) on Thursday forecast a sharp fall in third-quarter earnings, joining a growing group of media companies suffering from a summer slump in advertising. The announcement sent the publisher's shares down 5 percent and came after similar warnings from Dow Jones & Co Inc. (DJ,Trade), Belo Corp. (BLC,Trade), Media General Inc. (MEG,Trade), as well as online media giant Yahoo Inc. (YHOO,Trade). "I think overall there is a watering down of (advertising) budgets," Laura Ries, president of Ries & Ries, a marketing strategy company in Atlanta, said. Advertisers have not increased their budgets to match the...