New York Times reports 13.6% jump in profit

NEW YORK - The New York Times added about 300,000 new digital subscribers in the second quarter of the year, the company announced on Aug 7, propelling a 13.6 per cent year-over-year increase in earnings.

The company’s adjusted operating profit for the quarter, from April through June, rose to US$104.7 million (S$139 million) from US$92.2 million a year before. Overall revenue increased 5.8 per cent, to US$625.1 million, compared with the same period in 2023.

The Times now has more than 10.8 million total subscribers, of which 10.2 million are digital-only subscribers. The company has said it has a goal of 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027. A growing number of the digital subscribers - now nearly half - subscribe to more than one of the Times’ products, which include the news report, games, recipes, the Wirecutter review site and The Athletic, a sports news website.

Ms Meredith Kopit Levien, chief executive officer of the Times, said in a statement that the combination of the Times’ journalism and its lifestyle products gave the company “complementary offerings” with multiple opportunities for growth.

“Together we believe these make the Times resilient in a changing media landscape and well positioned for continued value creation,” Ms Levien said.

Subscription revenue in the quarter grew 7.3 per cent to US$439.3 million, compared with the previous year. Total advertising revenue was up 1.2 per cent at US$119.2 million. Digital advertising revenue increased 7.8 per cent year over year to US$79.6 million, while print advertising fell 10 per cent to US$39.6 million.

Adjusted operating costs grew 4.4 per cent in the quarter to US$520.4 million, from US$498.7 million a year earlier, which the company attributed to higher journalism, product development and administrative expenses, as well as the cost of continuing litigation against Microsoft and OpenAI.

The Athletic, which the company acquired for US$550 million in 2022, continues to lose money. But the losses shrank to US$2.4 million in the quarter, from US$7.8 million during the same period in 2023. Revenue at the website grew to US$40.5 million, up 33.4 per cent from a year earlier, because of a jump in the number of subscribers as well as an increase in revenue from display advertising.

The Athletic now has 5.3 million digital-only subscribers, which includes those who have a stand-alone subscription to the site and those who have access to it through a Times subscription bundle. That’s up from 3.6 million the same time in 2023.

The company forecast an increase in both subscription and advertising revenue across the Times in the third quarter of the year. NYTIMES