NY Times gains new readers, revenue falls

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times <NYT.N> showed signs of early progress in attracting paying customers to its flagship website.

The company said on Thursday it gained more than 100,000 new subscribers.

Those new readers are bringing in at least an estimated $26 million in annual revenue.

The New York Times started charging readers across the world for full access to its articles on NYTimes.com and related smartphone and tablet computer applications on March 28.

The publisher of its namesake newspaper and the Boston Globe also reported that lower print advertising sales dragged down first-quarter revenue and profit.

Total revenue fell 3.6 percent to $566.5 million.

Net income for the first quarter was $5.4 million, or 4 cents per share, compared with $12.8 million, or 8 cents per share for the same period last year.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba, editing by Dave Zimmerman)