The New York Times added 180,000 new digital subscribers in its second quarter, the company said on Tuesday, bringing its total close to 10 million subscribers.
The company reported adjusted operating profit of $92.2 million for the three months that ended in June, up from $76.2 million in the same period last year. The company reported total revenue of $590.9 million, a 6.3 percent increase from a year earlier.
Revenue from digital and print subscriptions was $409.6 million, up 6.8 percent. Digital advertising revenue increased 6.5 percent for the quarter, to $73.8 million, while print advertising decreased 8.6 percent, to $44 million. The company said revenue from other sources, including affiliate referrals through Wirecutter, The Times’s product-recommendation website, also increased.
The New York Times had about 9.88 million subscribers across print and digital at the end of June, 9.19 million of them digital-only subscribers. The company added 780,000 net digital-only subscribers in the 12 months through June.
Meredith Kopit Levien, the company’s president and chief executive, said in a statement that more than a third of the nearly 10 million subscribers were now subscribed to more than one Times product. The company now offers the core news report as well as Cooking, Games, Wirecutter and The Athletic. She said more than half of the new digital subscribers added in the last quarter subscribed to the entire bundle of products that The Times offers.
“We are proud of the progress we are making to build a larger and more profitable company,” Ms. Levien said in the statement.
The Athletic, the sports news website that The Times bought for $550 million in early 2022, lost $7.8 million in the quarter, down from a $12.6 million loss in the same period last year. Its revenue grew more than 55 percent, to $30.4 million, during that time. Advertising revenue more than doubled in that period, to $5.4 million. The Times added display advertising to The Athletic’s website and app in September.
At the end of the quarter, there were more than 3.6 million subscribers with either a stand-alone Athletic subscription or who can access the sports site through a Times bundle subscription.
Last month, The Times said it would disband its sports section in the coming months and instead integrate more sports coverage from The Athletic.
The New York Times Guild, which represents nearly 1,500 Times employees, accused the company of effectively shifting union work to The Athletic, whose journalists are not represented by a union. The union has filed a grievance with The Times, arguing that the move violated the company’s contract.
In a statement, a Times spokeswoman, Danielle Rhoades Ha, said that the company had ensured that no one would lose their job from the change, which would “provide readers with access to more sports journalism.”
“We disagree with the Guild’s position and believe that the collective bargaining agreement grants the newsroom the right to use third-party content to supplement its report,” Ms. Rhoades Ha said.
In May, The Times reached a deal with the union for a new contract after contentious negotiations that stretched more than two years. The contract gave members immediate salary increases of up to 12.5 percent.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
