New York Times Reports 13.6% Jump in Profit

The New York Times Company added about 300,000 new digital subscribers in the second quarter of the year, the company announced on Wednesday, propelling a 13.6 percent year-over-year increase in earnings. The company’s adjusted operating profit for the quarter, from April through June, rose to $104.7 million from $92.2 million a year before. Overall revenue increased 5.8 percent, to $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’s products, which include the news report, games, recipes, the Wirecutter review site and The Athletic, a sports news website. Meredith Kopit Levien, chief executive of the Times Company, said in a statement that the combination of The Times’s 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 percent, to $439.3 million, compared with the previous year. Total advertising revenue was up 1.2 percent, at $119.2 million. Digital advertising revenue increased by 7.8 percent year over year to $79.6 million, while print advertising fell 10 percent to $39.6 million. Adjusted operating costs grew 4.4 percent in the quarter, to $520.4 million, from $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 $550 million in 2022, continues to lose money. But the losses shrank to $2.4 million in the quarter, from $7.8 million during the same period last year. Revenue at the website grew to $40.5 million, up 33.4 percent 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 last year. The company forecast an increase in both subscription and advertising revenue across the Times Company in the third quarter of the year. Katie Robertson covers the media industry for The Times. Email: katie.robertson@nytimes.com More about Katie Robertson The New York Times Inside the Media Industry — The Washington Post: The Post is creating a division under Will Lewis, its C.E.O., to find valuable audiences in new places, such as on social media. His last company shows that may be a tough road. — CBS News: Just two days after Norah O’Donnell announced that she would depart the show, CBS News executives said she would be replaced by John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois. — How YouTube Took Over TV: The platform first known for viral videos now attracts more viewers on television than Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon Prime Video. — Hollywood’s Red State Message: After a period of openly using movies to display progressive values, studios seem to be bending to conservative audiences. “Twisters” is emblematic of that shift. — The ​​Battle for the Murdoch Empire: Rupert Murdoch has moved to change the family’s irrevocable trust to preserve his media businesses as a conservative force. Several of his children are fighting back.