The New York Times Company on Thursday warned of a dividend cut after posting a 51.4 percent decline in third-quarter net income led by an almost 30 percent decline in classified advertising.

Overall, advertising revenue dipped 14.4 percent to $398.2 million versus the year-ago quarter. Dragging that figure down was a 29.3 percent decline in classified advertising, which has migrated to sites like Craigslist.com and Monster.com.

In a conference call, Chief Financial Officer James Follo said the $0.92 per share dividend was the subject of “dynamic discussions” at every board meeting.

“It’s a question of how we want to allocate capital and making sure we have sufficient balance sheet capacity,” he said.

Shares of the company lost $.52, or 4.87 percent, to $10.16 at the market close.
 
Chief Executive Janet Robinson said that the company would take a non-cash charge against earnings in the third quarter of $100 million to $150 million to write down the value of its New England Media Group, which includes The Boston Globe, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, and the Boston.com web site.

Overall, net income fell to $6.5 million, or $.05 per share, from $13.4 million, or $.09 per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue declined 8.9 percent to $687 million.

In 1993, The Times Company paid $1.1 billion for The Globe and bought the Worcester paper for $296 million seven years later. In 2006, the company took a non-cash charge of $814.4 million to write down the value of those assets.

The Times is controlled by the Sulzberger family, which has a 19 percent economic stake, but management controls through ownership of super-voting shares. But the company has been under pressure from shareholders, including the hedge fund Harbinger Group, to rein in expenses and reignite growth through digital initiatives.

Online site About.com posted a 16.1 percent increase in revenue to $28.7 million and a 71.4 percent gain in operating profit to $10.8 million.

Ms. Robinson said that unique U.S. visitors to newyorktimes.com in September totaled 20.1 million, up 37 percent from the 2007 period, according to Nielsen Online.