'NYT' Ad Page Counts Improve in July

By: Jennifer Saba During its quarterly earnings report last week, executives with Gannett indicated that advertising revenue was starting to show some signs of life. Now, a report from Wells Fargo newspapers analysts point to improving ad trends at The New York Times.

Analysts John Janedis, Jaime Morris, and Brendan Metrano wrote in a report that July page counts so far at the New York Times have grown throughout the month, driven by "large increases in financial and national auto advertising." Run-of-page counts are up 100% for both categories. Classifieds are still soft, with help wanted down 49% and real estate down 45%. Department store linage is off 7%, movies linage is down 28% and telecommunications is down 25%.

Over at The Wall Street Journal, the Well Fargo team estimates that July linage is down in the high 20% range, with color off about 40%.

Online-only recruitment company Monster.com is also feeling the downturn. Analysts said that top designated market area postings are down around 35% last week, versus 38% in the previous week.