The New York Times Co. announced Wednesday that advertising sales plummeted 20.9 percent in November, the biggest drop of the year, due to the global recession, MarketWatch reported.

Online advertising was also weak, down 4 percent during the month.

Shares of The New York Times declined 4.5 percent to US$6.04 early on Wednesday. It hit an historical low of $4.95 in November, down more than 70 percent since the beginning of the year.

The decline was due to "weakness in the studio entertainment, national automotive, book and financial services categories, which offset growth in technology, media and advocacy advertising," according to the company. Retail advertising revenue also decreased on lower department store, mass market and fashion/jewellery advertising, MarketWatch reported.

The Times Co. experienced a sales drop of 16.2 percent in October. The company's New England Media Group, which publishes the Boston Globe newspaper, saw ad sales go down 23.3 percent while the NYT media group declined 21.2 percent and the regional media group was down 22.2 percent.

However, circulation revenue rose 4.2 percent for the month, according to Market Watch.