NYT: Not Quite All News is Fit to Print

(MoneyWatch)  Buried in its earning report this morning is the decision by The New York Times to stop releasing monthly revenue reports. Since the news continues to be bad, month after month, the Times apparently wants to cut back those monotonous headlines about how poorly it is doing from 12 a year to four.

Makes sense, I guess, sort of the equivalent of me not looking at my IRA account balances, right? If you don't look, maybe the worst isn't true. And if you don't tell anyone, maybe the problems will just go away.

The Times' Q-4 net income ($27.6 million) fell basically to half of what it was a year earlier ($53 million), but the company still beat expectations on Wall Street, so its stock is rising today. The company is winning points for its elaborate $250 loan/investment deal with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, as well as for its negotiations to sell/leaseback its Manhattan headquarters for $225 million, plus an effort to sell its minority stake in the holding company that owns the Boston Red Sox, which is worth an estimated $200 million.

It says all of these funds will be used to pay down its $1.1 billion debt, which is coming due this year and next. It was carrying just $57 million in cash as of the end of 2008.

A bell-weather for the entire newspaper industry, the Times reported that ad online revenue, which now accounts for roughly 12 percent of its total, declined 3.5 percent in the quarter. If and when the company's performance begins to turn around, look to the digital side for growth, as there's little evidence what has been lost on the print side will ever be returning.