New York Times Company lost $35.7m in third quarter of year, but the deficit was sharply down on a year ago after cost savings, boosting its shares.

The struggling publisher of the New York Times continued to battle with red ink as it ran up a loss of $35.7m (£21.5m) in the last quarter, although job cuts sharply narrowed the deficit and the company heralded signs of improvement in advertising trends.

In addition to its flagship title, the New York Times Company owns the International Herald Tribune, the Boston Globe, 15 regional newspapers and a collection of websites. After shedding a fifth of its workforce and enforcing a 5% pay cut on many of its remaining staff, the publisher's loss was significantly smaller than the $106m deficit a year ago.

The figures prompted a 17% jump in the company's shares during early trading on Wall Street.

Newspapers around the world are facing deep financial woes as companies cut back on their promotional spending and readers migrate to online offerings. A slump of nearly 30% in advertising revenue meant that, for the first time, the New York Times Company's newspaper division pulled in less money from advertisers than it did from readers through cover price revenue.

But the company's chief executive, Janet Robinson, said there had been tentative signs of an increase in activity since the end of the financial quarter in September: "We have seen encouraging signs of improvement in the overall economy and in discussions with advertisers."

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