New York Times | featured news

The New York Times Co. said Wednesday that its fourth-quarter earnings more than tripled, helped by cost cutting, an improving ad market and lower pension costs.

The publisher of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and 15 other daily newspapers had its smallest ad revenue decline in a year. Ad revenue dropped 14.7 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period of 2008, compared with a 26.9 percent year-over-year decline during the third quarter.

Starting in early 2011, visitors to NYTimes.com will get a certain number of articles free every month before being asked to pay a flat fee for access.

According to internal sources, the New York Times may soon be charging users for its online content. In a move that would bring the publication parallel to the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and the Financial Times, the New York Times seems to have settled on a system that would allow online readers to sample a certain amount of content before being prompted to subscribe.

The new service presents news online by topic and was developed in collaboration with The New York Times and The Washington Post.

USA Today suffered a steep drop, losing the top spot in weekday circulation for the first time since the 1990s to The Wall Street Journal. The New York Times’ weekday circulation fell 7.3 percent.

The New York Times Company reported a $35.6 million loss for the third quarter on falling advertising revenue, but deep cost-cutting and newspaper price increases helped beat projections.

The New York Times said on Monday it would cut 100 newsroom jobs through buyouts or layoffs as it tries to counter lost advertising revenue.

The New York Times Company and the paper’s largest union agreed to cuts in wages, benefits and job security.

David Rohde, a New York Times reporter who was kidnapped by the Taliban, escaped Friday night and made his way to freedom after more than seven months of captivity.

The paper's owner, New York Times Co., has threatened to shut it down unless its unions make $20 million in concessions.