Advertising, Fourth Quarter Earnings | featured news

New York Times profit tripled in the fourth quarter thanks to one-time items, including the sale of its share in Indeed.com, but the underlying business continued to erode on sharp advertising declines.

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.

Google's fourth-quarter earnings soared as the Internet giant posted strong growth in advertising clicks and avoided big charges that weighed down prior-year results.