The New York Times, the publisher controlled by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, reported a decline in fourth-quarter profit as advertising sales continued to slide at the shrinking newspaper.

The media group’s ad business fell 6.3 per cent from a year earlier to $212 million, the 13th straight quarterly decline.

The profit, excluding one-time items, was 26 cents a share, compared with the average analyst estimate of 16 cents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Circulation sales fell 3.9 per cent to $208 million, and digital subscriptions climbed 19 per cent to 760,000.

The company has become more reliant on readers than on advertisers for annual revenue, and chief executive Mark Thompson is working to lure more subscribers by creating packages of news coverage at different prices, including a limited plan that will cost less than its current offering.

Mr Thompson is also trying to reverse the steady drop in advertising by revamping the sales staff.

He hired a new top sales executive, Meredith Kopit Levien, who is spearheading a native-advertising program, which lets marketers craft messages made to resemble the newspaper's articles.

The company’s shares rose less than 1 per cent to $13.84 yesterday in New York. The stock has climbed 68 per cent in the past 12 months, compared with a 16 percent increase for the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index.

Total fourth-quarter sales dropped 5.2 per cent from a year earlier to $444 million. Analysts forecast $441 million on average.

The company’s dividend, reinstated in December after a five-year pause, costs the publisher about $24 million on an annual basis.

The Ochs-Sulzberger family, which controls the publisher, stands to make as much as $3.1 million a year from the payouts, far smaller than the $20 million it got as recently as 2008.

Reuters