NY Times Co. Scraps Monthly Revenue Reports

Apparently The New York Times Co. feels like four times a year is often enough to wallow in its own bad news.

On the Times Co.'s year-end results call, CFO James Follo just said the publisher will no longer be issuing monthly revenue reports, although it will continue to include month-by-month breakdowns in its quarterly releases. "For some time our industry has been moving away from providing monthly revenue releases," said Follo. "We believe that is consistent...with our focus on the long term."

And, hey, if that means the Times Co. gets beat up a little less often in the press...

More from the call:

-The stock market's nosedive means that the Times Co. now faces unfunded pension obligations of $625 million over the next seven years. Follo said there's no need to make any contribution this year, and he's hoping that $625 million will be smaller by the time action is necessary. "A lot of things will happen between now and the when we actually start funding," he said. "I would be surprised if there wasn't some government intervention because this is a fairly common issue...but of course you can't count on that."

Still, it could mean another big hit to the company's bottom line when it can afford it least. In response to an analyst's follow-up question about how the Times Co. plans to space out the contributions, Follo said, "Six hundred million over six years is $100 million per year, and that's the way I would view it."

-Total headcount across the company at year-end was down 9 percent from a year earlier, but CEO Janet Robinson says the number of editorial employees at The New York Times and the Boston Globe was more or less unchanged as hires on the digital side balanced out layoffs and buyouts on the print side.

-Ad revenue at About.com grew more slowly than it did at nytimes.com in 2009. Digital operations czar Martin Nisenholtz explained it this way: "The strength of the nytimes.com business is in its display line. It is able to get premium rates based on its brand and its audience. About has a harder time doing that."

-And of course the company has hired Goldman Sachs to shop its stake in New England Sports Ventures, whose holdings include the Boston Red Sox.