More Grim Milestones for the New York Times

According to documents filed with the SEC in February 2010, 2009 marked another grim milestone in the accelerating decline of the New York Times. Having already seen its weekday circulation drop below one million for the first time in decades earlier in the year, we can now confirm that the New York Times has now lost more than half its Sunday circulation in its home 31-county market in New York since its circulation levels last peaked in 1993.

The table below, taken from the New York Times' SEC filings for its annual reports from 1993 through 2009 for its Sunday circulation data provides the hard data presented visually in the chart above.

New York Times Average Sunday Circulation, 1993 through 2009
Year	Sunday Circulation	Sunday Percentage of Total Circulation in NYC	Sunday Circulation Within NYC Market	Sunday Circulation Outside NYC Market	Percentage Decline of Total Sunday Circulation
1993	1,783,900	63	1,123,857	660,043	0.0
1994	1,742,200	63	1,097,586	644,614	-2.3
1995	1,720,300	60	1,032,180	688,120	-3.6
1996	1,701,800	60	1,021,080	680,720	-4.6
1997	1,651,400	59	974,326	677,074	-7.4
1998	1,638,900	58	950,562	688,338	-8.1
1999	1,671,200	56	935,872	735,328	-6.3
2000	1,686,700	55	927,685	759,015	-5.4
2001	1,659,900	53	879,747	780,153	-7.0
2002	1,682,100	51	857,871	824,229	-5.7
2003	1,682,100	49	824,229	857,871	-5.7
2004	1,669,700	47	784,759	884,941	-6.4
2005	1,684,700	44	741,268	943,432	-5.6
2006	1,637,700	44	720,588	917,112	-8.2
2007	1,529,700	42	642,474	887,226	-14.2
2008	1,451,300	41	595,033	856,267	-18.6
2009	1,405,200	40	562,080	843,120	-21.2

Looking at the New York Times' total weekday circulation, we confirm a sharp decline has taken place in 2009, with the newspaper's total circulation now 18.9% below its 1993 peak value. In 2008, that percentage loss of peak circulation stood at just 12.6%, which makes 2009 the single worst year for the weekday newspaper's fortunes on record. In historical terms, the New York Times' 31-county home market circulation of 422,048 in 2009 has dropped below the daily circulation figure of 450,000, which marked the low end of the range the newspaper successfully maintained during the years of the Great Depression.

We've summarized all the annual data for the New York Times' Sunday edition circulation that was presented in the chart above in the table below. Clicking the "Year" links provides the relevant NYT's SEC filing for the indicated year, from which we obtained the newspaper's circulation data, which is reported in the section of the annual report in which the company's management discusses its business:

New York Times Average Weekday Circulation, 1993 through 2009
Year	Weekday Circulation (Mon-Fri)	Weekday Percentage of Total Circulation in NYC	Weekday Circulation Within NYC Market	Weekday Circulation Outside NYC Market	Percentage Decline of Total Weekday Circulation
1993	1,183,100	64	757,184	425,916	0.0
1994	1,148,800	64	735,232	413,568	-2.9
1995	1,124,300	62	697,066	427,234	-5.0
1996	1,111,800	62	689,316	422,484	-6.0
1997	1,090,900	62	676,358	414,542	-7.8
1998	1,088,100	61	663,741	424,359	-8.0
1999	1,109,700	60	665,820	443,880	-6.2
2000	1,122,400	59	662,216	460,184	-5.1
2001	1,143,700	58	663,346	480,354	-3.3
2002	1,131,400	55	622,270	509,130	-4.4
2003	1,132,000	53	599,960	532,040	-4.3
2004	1,124,700	50	562,350	562,350	-4.9
2005	1,135,800	49	556,542	579,258	-4.0
2006	1,103,600	48	529,728	573,872	-6.7
2007	1,066,600	47	501,302	565,298	-9.8
2008	1,033,800	46	475,548	558,252	-12.6
2009	959,200	44	422,048	537,152	-18.9

Given these dramatic declines and the indications provided by the company's senior leadership, we would predict that even more layoffs of newspaper staff will be seen in 2010, despite what the newspaper's own senior management indicated just three months ago and its reported profit in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Disclosure: Ironman does not hold any positions in the New York Times (NYSE: NYT).