New York Times Co. reported today that its fourth quarter profit grew more than 200% as the decline in print advertising slowed and online ad sales jumped. The company posted a net income of $90.9 million, or 61 cents per share, while in the same period last year the net income was posted $27.6 million, or 19 cents per share.

The New York based company posted revenue of $681.2 million declining by 11%. In the fiscal year 2009, the Times Co. posted a net profit of $19.9 million while in fiscal 2008 the company posted a loss of after $57.34 million.

The profit in the fourth quarter is being seen as a result of company's aggressive cost cutting strategy as operating costs in the fourth quarter decreased 15.5 percent to 580.7 million dollars.

"We were pleased to see advertisers increase their rate of spending across our newspapers, websites and other platforms as advertising trends improved during the fourth quarter," Times Co. president and Chief executive Janet Robinson said in a statement.

However the company also gave the guidance for the upcoming first quarter that is not an encouraging one. The company expects the rate of decline for print advertising to continue to improve modestly from the fourth quarter of
2009, in the first quarter of 2010.

Meanwhile, company is expecting digital advertising to perform in line with the fourth quarter level.