The New York Times Company on Wednesday reported strong advertising and subscription revenue growth in the second quarter, adding 230,000 paid digital-only subscribers.
The Times now has 11.88 million total subscribers to its print and digital products, which include the news report, Cooking, Games, the Wirecutter product review site and The Athletic, a sports news site. The company has said it aims to reach 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027.
A vast majority of its subscribers, 11.3 million, subscribe only to the company’s digital products. The Times reported 580,000 print subscribers at the end of the second quarter, which ended June 30, down from 600,000 in the first quarter and 630,000 a year earlier.
Total revenue for the second quarter increased 9.7 percent from a year earlier, to $685.9 million. Adjusted operating profit increased nearly 28 percent, to $133.8 million.
Subscription revenue increased 9.6 percent year over year, to $481.4 million. Total advertising revenue increased 12.4 percent, to $134 million. Digital advertising revenue rose 18.7 percent, to $94.4 million, beating the company’s estimates, because of strong demand in areas like games and sports.
Another revenue stream for The Times — affiliate referral and licensing, mostly from Wirecutter — increased 5.8 percent year over year to $70.5 million.
Operating costs increased 6.2 percent, to $579.3 million. That included $3.5 million in pretax legal costs for an active lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI over the use of the news organization’s content to train generative artificial intelligence. (In May, The Times announced an A.I. licensing deal with Amazon for the use of its editorial content. The terms were not disclosed.)
The Times breaks out earnings results for The Athletic, which it bought in 2022 for $550 million, but it will stop doing that when it reports third-quarter results, it said. The Athletic reported an adjusted operating profit of $5.8 million, up from a loss of $2.4 million in the second quarter of last year. That increase was due to higher revenue from subscriptions, advertising and licensing.
The Times Company had $951.1 million in cash and marketable securities at the end of June, according to the news release announcing the quarterly results.
“We grew all of our major revenue lines, and we’re generating significant free cash flow,” Meredith Kopit Levien, the company’s chief executive, said in a statement.
The Times forecast that digital subscription revenue would rise 13 to 16 percent in the third quarter of 2025, with an increase in the low double-digits for digital advertising revenue.
Katie Robertson covers the media industry for The Times. Email: [email protected]
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