The New York Times reports quarterly results, stock price in focus now

The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) reported its fourth quarter and full-year 2024 results, with the stock price rising 3% in pre-market trading.

The Company ended the fourth quarter of 2024 with approximately 11.43 million subscribers to its print and digital products, including approximately 10.82 million digital-only subscribers. Of the 10.82 million digital-only subscribers, approximately 5.44 million were bundle and multiproduct subscribers.

Compared with the end of the third quarter of 2024, there was a net increase of 350,000 digital-only subscribers. Compared with the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, there was a net increase of 1,110,000 digital-only subscribers.

Average revenue per user or “ARPU,” a metric we calculate to track the revenue generation of our digital subscriber base, represents the average revenue per digital subscriber over a 28-day billing cycle during the applicable quarter.

Total digital-only ARPU was $9.65 for the fourth quarter of 2024, an increase of 4.4 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2023 driven primarily by subscribers transitioning from promotional to higher prices and price increases on tenured non-bundled subscribers.

Total subscription revenues increased 8.4 percent to $466.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Subscription revenues from digital-only products increased 16.0 percent to $334.9 million due to an increase in bundle and multiproduct revenues and an increase in other single-product subscription revenues, partially offset by a decrease in news-only subscription revenues. Print subscription revenues decreased 7.1 percent to $131.6 million, primarily due to lower domestic home-delivery revenues which was largely due to one less Sunday in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the fourth quarter of 2023.

Fourth-quarter 2024 total advertising revenues increased 0.6 percent to $165.1 million while digital advertising revenues increased 9.5 percent and print advertising revenues decreased 16.4 percent. Digital advertising revenues were $117.9 million, or 71.4 percent of total Company advertising revenues, compared with $107.7 million, or 65.6 percent, in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Digital advertising revenues increased due to higher revenues from direct-sold display advertising as well as higher revenues from programmatic advertising that were largely driven by new advertising supply across our products. Print advertising revenues decreased primarily due to declines in the luxury, classifieds, and entertainment categories Total Revenues In the aggregate, subscription, advertising and other revenues for the fourth quarter of 2024 increased 7.5 percent to $726.6 million from $676.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Meredith Kopit Levien, president and chief executive officer, The New York Times Company, said, “The fourth quarter capped another strong year for The Times in which we made further progress toward becoming the essential subscription for every curious person seeking to understand and engage with the world.

Our market-leading news and premium lifestyle products proved more valuable to more people in 2024. Deep engagement fueled our multi-revenue stream model, and enhanced our durability even in a dynamic information ecosystem. Altogether, this momentum gives us confidence that we can deliver another year of healthy growth in subscribers, revenue, and profitability, as well as strong free cash flow.”