The New York Times Surpasses 10 Million Subscribers

The New York Times announced during its Q4 and 2021 Year End earnings call Wednesday morning that, due in part to its January acquisition of The Athletic, the publisher has surpassed its internal goal of reaching 10 million subscriptions by 2025. The publisher shared a revised goal in light of its milestone: It will now aim to net 15 million subscribers, rather than subscriptions, by 2027. The shift in focus from subscriptions to individual subscribers reflects The Times’ stated intent to focus more heavily on promoting bundled subscriptions, said chief financial officer Roland Caputo. The Times saw success in overall revenue, which grew 16.7% year over year to $594 million, and it reached $2 billion in annual revenue for the first time since 2012. It also added 375,000 net new subscribers, making 2021 its second-best year for subscription growth behind 2020. “Since we launched our current strategy in 2015, we've been investing steadily into a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pioneer the development of a large and growing news and information market at a time when habits are up for grabs,” Levien told investors. ‘Beauty and Brains’—Ebony Magazine Revives Print to Celebrate Black Women in STEM A new focus on individual subscribers The Times announced a shift in strategy to focus more on individual subscribers, rather than subscriptions, as doing so will allow it to more meaningfully measure its scale, Caputo told investors. Someone who separately subscribes to The Times News and Cooking products is currently counted as two subscriptions, while someone who subscribes to the bundle offering only counts as one new subscription. As a result, The Times currently has 1.2 subscriptions per subscriber, according to the publisher. Notably, this means that the 15 million subscriber target The Times has for 2027 would be closer to 18 million subscriptions using its historical accounting measures. The Times will continue to offer standalone subscriptions, but it will focus its efforts on growing the number of people who subscribe to its bundled offering. Bundled subscribers have lower churn rates and higher ARPU than those who subscribe to news only, Levien said, and over 30% of subscribers already access more than one product. New audience research from The Times also suggests that, by adding products like Games, Cooking and sports, the publisher increases its total addressable market from 100 million English-speaking adults to 135 million. “Our ambition is to leverage the power of our brand and that news audience to also become a category leader in other areas that can occupy a big place in people's lives, like Games, Cooking, shopping, advice and sports,” Levien said. Record digital advertising The Times announced its largest-ever quarter for digital ad revenue: It generated $111 million, or 63% of total advertising revenues. The publisher beat the record it set for digital ad revenue in 2018 by 8%. Overall advertising revenue increased 27% to $176.8 million. The publisher attributed its growth to the health of the market, its suite of proprietary ad products grounded in first-party data, its audio offering and its ability to work with marketers on large, multiplatform partnerships. Higher churn in exchange for higher ARPU Churn rates rose for The Times in the fourth quarter, a drop-off the publisher anticipated. The quarter saw year-long promotions end, leading subscriptions to graduate to their full value, which resulted in higher turnover. The Times also attributed the rise in churn to three macro factors: A one-time effect of a regulatory change in an international market; a tightening of the rules governing the overall payments environment; and the impact of optimizations the publisher made to convert users earlier in the customer journey, Caputo said. The publisher sees the higher churn rates as a transition cost that will ultimately result in higher conversion rates and cumulative lifetime value.

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The New York Times Surpasses 10 Million Subscribers, Shifts Focus to Bundles

The publisher announced a new goal of 15 million subscribers by 2027

Mark Stenberg

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Mark Stenberg