Search Continues to Drive NYTimes Co Traffic and Revenue

The New York Times Co’s digital business revenues grew 26.5 percent in Q3 over the same quarter of ’06, the company said during today’s earnings call. The firm’s digital businesses, which include its flagship site and About.com, accounted for 11 percent of total revenue.

As far as online ad revenue breakouts, the company said display ads account for over 40 percent of online ad dollars, 23 percent comes from classifieds and 15 percent comes from sales of its paid archives.

SEO is directing much of the traffic that’s driving the firm’s steady online growth. “Over the long term, we expect to see the scale and inventory benefits that accrue to us through [SEO] significantly outweighing the revenue stream” from “the paid tier,” said SVP and CFO James Follo.

Follo also noted some recent digital-only advertisers on NYTimes.com, including Amex and Tiffany. Chanel was another; the luxury brand promoted a watch via a homepage image of the timepiece displaying the correct time.

The company will introduce a new online property, T Online, to complement its T Magazine style print mag in early December. “We’re in the process of selling this exciting new digital magazine to luxury advertisers,” said President and CEO Janet Robinson.

Other significant Web related events in Q3 included a restructuring of About’s operations, including the hiring of additional sales staff, as well as the launch of a new NYTimes.com branding campaign with the slogan, “All the News That’s Fit to Click.”