In the quarter ended September 30, the NYT added 210,000 net digital subscriptions and earned $53.6 million, up 46.6% from the same period last year. The paper aims to have 15 million total subscribers by the end of 2027.
President and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien attributed the NYT’s growth in the quarter to its “bundling” strategy, which entails pushing people to subscribe to the company’s suite of journalism services, which includes nytimes.com, Wirecutter and The Athletic, as well as additional content like Gaming and Cooking.
The company also had success in converting subscriptions from promotional to higher prices in the last quarter. The NYT currently offers a free digital subscription for $1 per week, which increases after six months.
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“We expect at least half of our subscribers over the next few years to be on the bundle,” Kopit Levien told investors on an earnings call Wednesday. “That’s important because bundle subscribers are more engaged, stay longer, and monetize better than subscribers to any of the individual products.”
Of the company's 9.41 million digital-only subscribers, about 3.79 million subscribe to multiple products.
The New York Times saw its total revenue increase 9.3% year over year to $598.3 million. Despite a tough advertising market — with platforms like Google and Facebook less likely to recommend readers to its journalism sites — the NYT saw higher-than-expected ad revenue growth, thanks in part to The Athletic. The sports site saw its total revenue increase 45.8% year over year to $34.4 million.
The New York Times bought The Athletic for $550 million in January 2022 and subsequently eliminated its own sports desk, to focus on The Athletic. Although The Athletic has been operating at a loss since the acquisition, it showed improvement in its most recent quarter, reporting an adjusted operating loss of $7.9 million, down 34.5% from the same period last year.
Kopit Levien said the NYT is working to increase The Athletic’s visibility and improve its digital product. “I think the biggest opportunity at The Athletic is to get more people to know it exists, to read it, to engage with it,” she said.
Mai Anh (according to NYT, Poynter)
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