New York Times keeps loss-making Chinese website under review

New York Times Co chief executive Mark Thompson said the publisher is going to keep all its money-losing operations under review – including those in China – as he seeks to negotiate the newspaper’s increasing shift towards a digital landscape.

The New York Times’ Chinese-language website has been blocked in China ever since it published an article in October last year about the family wealth of then-premier Wen Jiabao.

Thompson said in an interview on Tuesday that the website, which was launched in a beta version in June last year, got off to an encouraging start.

“The fact that we can’t be seen officially inside China means the revenue is not as large as we would have wished it to have been,” he said.

“If it’s a loss-making operation, they are all under constant review.”

The Chinese site’s struggles are one of several hurdles Thompson faces a little more than a year after he became chief executive. He was director general of the BBC from 2004 to last year.