SETH SUTEL
Associated Press
March 11, 2008 at 2:48 PM EDT

NEW YORK — Expanding The New York Times Co.'s online operations is an “absolute priority,” the company's CEO told investors Tuesday as the Times faced pressure from investors.

Chief Executive Janet Robinson noted that the Times launched 50 blogs in the last year and has also enhanced topic-themed areas on its website in health, business and technology and inked one deal with CNBC to provide online video and another with Monster.com to create co-branded job search sites.

“In this era, no media company can afford to be an island,” Robinson said at a question-and-answer session during a conference sponsored by Bear Stearns and made available through a Webcast.

Robinson didn't refer explicitly to a challenge being mounted by Harbinger Capital Partners, an investment firm that has taken a 19 per cent stake in the company. But her remarks appeared aimed at assuring investors that the Times was moving aggressively.

Harbinger, working with a New York University marketing professor, is trying to get its own set of four directors elected to the Times board, saying the company should move more quickly to shed disparate assets and invest even more in the online operations of its flagship newspaper.

Times Chief Financial Officer James Follo, who also appeared at the conference Tuesday, said the company frequently evaluates how it is allocating its resources and would consider any asset sale that would be prudent for investors.

“We love all our assets but we're not married to any one of them,” Follo said. The New York Times newspaper was the sole asset he said was off the table.

To illustrate how strong the Times' brand has become online, Robinson noted that the newspaper's website saw a 60 per cent increase in Web traffic on Monday afternoon after it posted a story about New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement in a prostitution scandal.