The New York Times Company had announced its second quarter status, with a net loss in Q2 because of a non-cash writedown for declining value in some of its smaller newspapers. The company had a net loss of $119.7 million, or 81 cents per share, compared with a profit of $32 million, or 21 cents at the same period of 2010. The company had an expense amounted to $161.3 million for writing down the value of assets at the News Media Group division.

So can their digital push help rivive sales and consumer interest?  Digital publishing, especially with magazines and newspapers, has had a bumpy transition, with many companies pegging their hopes on connected devices like tablets for new subscription options.  But even this space has had a volatile start.

As of the end of Q2, The Times had approximately 100,000 highly engaged users sponsored by Ford Motor Company’s luxury brand, Lincoln, who have free access to NYTimes.com and smartphone apps until the end of the year, and approximately 756,000 home-delivery subscribers with linked digital accounts, who receive free digital access.

The Times Q2 revenue dropped two percent, and overall ad dollars dropped four percent. Digital ad dollars were up a modest 2.6 percent, but it wasn’t enough to cover the 6.4 percent drop in print.  The company introduced digital subscription packages on NYTimes.com and across other digital platforms in Canada in mid-march, and globally at start of the second quarter. Paid digital subscribers to the digital subscription packages totaled approximately 224,000 as of the end of the second quarter. Paid digital subscribers to e-readers and replica editions totaled approximately 57,000 for total paid digital subscriber of 281,000 as of the end if the second quarter.

Total digital advertising revenues rose up to 2.6 percent to $84.6 million from $82.4 million. Digital advertising revenues at the News Media Group increased 15.5 percent to $58.2 million from $50.4 million mainly due to strong growth in national display advertising. Its revenue as percentage of total company advertising revenue were 28.0 percent for 2011 second quarter compared with 26.2 percent in the second quarter of 2010.

 “The second quarter was a historic one for our Company, as we successfully launched The New York Times digital subscriptions and began to see the early effect on our overall financial performance. We are pleased with how this initiative is rolling out, in particular performance of key metrics, including the volume of paid digital subscriptions, overall traffic rates and digital advertising revenues.

“In addition, during the quarter rate of home-delivery circulation declines slowed moderately, as we observed an uptick in new home-delivery orders and a decrease in attention following the launch as print subscribers of all frequencies receive all digital access at no additional cost,” CEO Janet Robinson said.

eMarketer predicts that magazine and newspaper advertising industry will decline as digital ad spending will rise.  In 2011, internet advertising is already the second-highest advertising medium behind TV.  But the combined advertising spends of newspapers and magazines are $4 billion higher. Next year, the situation could be reversed. Marketers will spend $2.9 billion more on internet advertising than on print.