Web 3.0 & NYT (Part 5)

Conclusion

NYT is working on organizing its online business on the basis of key verticals, which will allow it to extend its popular classifieds sections like auto, jobs, real estate, travel, and entertainment, increase user engagement and aid in monetization of the sites. The partnership with Monster to build its online recruitment product offering is a step in the right direction.

NYT has sold assets over the course of the past year to focus on its core business and has also made several small acquisitions and investments totaling about $70 million over the same period. These are strong, strategic fits and financially prudent steps. The Company expects each of these properties to have an attractive ROI. NYT plans to make many more strategic acquisitions.

Mobility is at the heart of the group’s activities. The Company’s mobile website @The Times has been experiencing enormous growth with page views more than tripling in the quarter. The Company expects mobile services to be a major growth driver and plans to launch innovative new mobile products, built off this new competency. The advent of Apple’s iPhone is a welcome event, given the company’s ambitions to be read by people on the move, especially commuters.

The About Group along with Boston.com, NYTimes.com and Gainesville.com are the key drivers of online revenues for NYT. The About Group continued its strong revenue growth, increasing 27.4% YoY in August. NYT expects online revenues to be $350 million in 2007 and grow by 30% year over year in the medium term.

The Company needs to continue making small acquisitions to establish itself in each of its key verticals. The Company needs to integrate along the Web 3.0 framework and adopt a more aggressive strategy wrt user generated content, by encouraging more Anchor Content – User Content / Pro-Am interplay.

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4]

This segment is part 5 in the series : Web 3.0 & NYT
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