Times Co. Reports Quarterly Loss After Sale of Globe

The Times Company said it had a loss of $24 million, a sharp drop-off from the same period a year earlier, when the company posted a $2.7 million gain. The loss is equal to about 16 cents a share, compared with a gain of 2 cents in 2012.

The third-quarter figures reflect the impact of the New England group and related factors such as income tax and interest expenses. The Times Company agreed in early August to sell the group for $70 million to John W. Henry, the owner of the Boston Red Sox, and completed the deal last week.

Analysts reacted mostly positively to the earnings report, heartened by the fact that The Times had shed peripheral assets like the New England group and was moving on to a new phase in its business strategy. Shares were up 1.2 percent in midday trading.

“It’s the first time we’re analyzing the company on a pure play basis in a sense without the New England Media Group,” said Alexia S. Quadrani, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase. “It’s a different experience. The results were relatively good. The advertising decline was the most modest decline we’ve seen in about three years.”

The company reported a $5 million loss in income from continuing operations compared with a $2.9 million loss the same time the year before.

Total revenue for the third quarter rose by 1.8 percent, to $361.7 million from $355 million the year before. Over all, the company’s total advertising revenue declined by 2 percent, to $138 million from $140.9 million, the lowest year-on-year quarterly decline in that category in three years. Print advertising revenue declined by 1.6 percent. Digital advertising revenue shrank by 3.4 percent, to $32.8 million from $33.9 million, and also declined as a percentage of overall revenue, to 23.8 percent compared with 24.1 percent in 2012.

A continuing bright spot was circulation, with revenue growing 4.8 percent. The number of paid subscribers to the company’s digital-only packages, which include the website, e-reader and other digital editions, was 727,000, a jump of more than 28 percent from the same time the year before, when it was 566,000. Operating profit was $12.8 million, a rise of 44 percent from $8.9 million a year ago.

Mark Thompson, the Times Company’s chief executive officer, said in a news release that the company had made encouraging progress.

“We increased our revenue, decreased our costs and, as a result, significantly increased our operating profits compared with the same quarter last year,” he said.

The company also announced in the third quarter that it would pay a dividend of 4 cents a share, its first dividend in five years.

The Times Company has undergone a significant transformation in recent years by selling off tangential assets and focusing on its core brand, The New York Times newspaper and website. In 2012, the company completed its sales of 16 regional newspapers, the About Group and its stake in the Fenway Sports Group.

Last week, it officially closed on the sale of the New England Media Group, which besides The Globe included BostonGlobe.com; Boston.com; the direct-mail marketing company Globe Direct; the company’s 49 percent interest in Metro Boston, a free daily paper; The Worcester Telegram & Gazette; and Telegram.com.

The company has now started to focus on expanding globally. Earlier this month, it renamed The International Herald Tribune as The International New York Times and continued to grow its plans to expand its international footprint.

“We also made significant progress on our strategic initiatives,” Mr. Thompson said in a statement about the company’s expansion plans. “But we recognize that, despite these positive developments, we still have a great deal of work to do to transform our business model and to achieve our goal of long-term sustainable growth.”