NYT: We Love the Credit Crisis!

Will the struggling financial sector be the savior for the struggling newspaper sector?

The New York Times Co. reported a pretty dismal third quarter this morning: declining advertising revenue, slowing online ad growth, an increasingly lopsided balance sheet, possible dividend cut. (Update: Things are so bad that S&P cut the media company's debt to junk late Thursday.)

But there were two good pieces of news, both directly attributable to the battles currently being fought by the financial sector.

Traffic to NYTimes.com has soared because of the crisis -- the site saw three of its ten heaviest days of traffic ever during the week of October 5, when the S&P 500 experienced its worst week in history. In September, page views for the site's business pages grew by 66 percent over the same month last year.

More traffic is great, but more advertising would be greater for the ailing news franchise. And while the New York Times Co. saw total revenues decline during the quarter, it did note that one of the best performing sectors in ad sales was none other than the troubled financial services sector.

"When there is a deliberate reason for them to get a message out, they use these vehicles," said New York Times Co. chief executive Janet Robinson during a conference call. Banks and other financial companies sought to reassure their customers and to poach new ones through advertising campaigns.

Schadenfreude, from one besieged sector of the economy to another.

by Megan Barnett

Earlier: Watch Marc Andreessen give the NYT some advice. Shut down the print operations.