By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg

The New York Times added about 250,000 digital-only subscribers during the first quarter, and reported increases in both subscription and advertising revenue compared with the prior-year period.

"Our strategy is working and our business is growing and demonstrating resilience amidst the current economic and geopolitical uncertainty," said Times Chief Executive Meredith Kopit Levien.

The results

More than 11.6 million people now subscribe to at least one of the Times's digital or print products. Those include news, as well as games and cooking offerings, the Athletic and Wirecutter, its consumer product-review site.

Revenue rose more than 7%, to $636 million, while net profit increased to $49.6 million, or 30 cents per share. Analysts polled by FactSet expected the company to earn 34 cents a share on revenue of $635 million.

Revenue at the Athletic increased by 28%, to nearly $48 million. That included an 18.5% increase in subscription revenues, to nearly $33 million. The Athletic made an adjusted operating profit of $2.9 million in the quarter, compared with a loss of $8.7 million in the year-ago quarter.

The context

The New York Times said it ended the quarter with slightly more than 11 million digital-only subscribers, of which nearly 6 million were bundle and multiproduct subscribers.

Digital-subscription revenue rose more than 14%, to $335 million. Total subscription revenues increased 8.2% to $464.3 million.

Digital-advertising revenue made up 65.6% of total ad revenue for the company in the first quarter, up from nearly 61% in the prior-year period. Declines in the entertainment and luxury categories weighed on print ad revenues, the Times said. Total advertising revenues increased more than 4%, to $108 million.

The Times recorded $4.4 million in pretax litigation costs in the quarter related to its copyright lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, first filed in late 2023.

The outlook

The Times said it expects digital-only subscription revenues to increase between 13% and 16% in the second quarter, from the 2024 period. It forecast a high-single-digit increase in digital advertising revenue, and total ad revenue to be flat or increase by low single digits.

Write to Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg at Jeffrey.Trachtenberg@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 07, 2025 08:08 ET (12:08 GMT)

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