Fat Cat, Thin Margin

Ever since 1896, when the late Adolph S. Ochs bought a decrepit Manhattan daily named the New York Times for $75,000, the paper has turned a profit every year, though not what one might expect from the fattest, most prestigious newspaper in the land. Sometimes the paper's profit margin has been paper thin: as little as $61,000 in 1954--on a gross income of $1,232.000. Last week Publisher Orvil E. Dryfoos issued the Times's 1961 annual report. As daily circulation rose to a record 713,514 and Sunday circulation to a record 1,384,200, the Times sold $100 million worth of ads. On gross revenues of $117 million, reported Dryfoos, the Times netted $587,986 after taxes. This was a gain of nearly $250,000 over 1960. But as usual, the major share of the total profit ($2,212,709) reported by the New York Times Co. came from a Canadian paper mill in which the Times holds a 42% interest. It still seems to pay better to turn out blank paper than to have the wit to say something on it.

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