Operating profit at The New York Times Company, excluding depreciation, amortization, severance and a special 2009 item grow more than 500 percent to $83.3 million in Q1 2010, according to the latest quarterly earnings release. Profit for the quarter of $52.7 million compared most favorably with the Q109 loss of $61.7 million. Total Q110 revenues were down 3.2 percent, an improvement over last quarter’s 11.5 percent decline.

Digital advertising revenue grew 18 percent, whiile print ad dollars decreased 12 percent. About Group ad revenues jumped 30 percent, with growth in both cost per click and display dollars. As a whole, national advertising wsa down six percent year over year, while retail revenue dropped 11 percent and classifieds 15.9 percent. Real estate saw the highest classified drop, at a YOY change of 23.9 percent. Recruitment decreased 17.1 percent, and automotive 13.4 percent.

Circulation revenue grew 4 percent, thanks to higher subscription and newsstand prices at The Boston Globe and The New York Times.

“We were very pleased to report continued strong improvement in our operating performance,” said Janet L. Robinson, president and CEO,” in the earnings release. “In the first quarter, we experienced significant positive trending in both print and digital advertising revenues relative to the fourth quarter. As the quarter progressed we sw acceleration in the rate of advertising spending across our newspapers, Web sites and other platforms, reflecting a firming of economic conditions…We believe with the significant progress we are making in reinventing our enterprise, providing even more compelling journalism, creating new products, becoming more productive and expanding our reach, we are well-positioned to thrive in the evolving media marketplace.”

In a note to staff today, New York Times editor Bill Keller announced that the newspaper will cut 100 jobs from the newsroom by year’s end.  That represents about 8 percent of the news staff.

Keller’s memo said that he hopes the reduction can be achieved by voluntary buyouts, noting that everyone in the newsroom will receive a buyout offer.  He says if the reduction target is not met by buyout volunteers, they will be forced to resort to layoffs to make the number.

Keller also notes that the editorial, op-ed and business departments also face budget cuts, but he did not speculate on staff reductions in those departments.

A comment thread following an item about the cuts on the Times’ Media Decoder blog has many readers offering to pay for online access to Times content.