New York Times profit beats estimates with 240,000 subscribers gained

The New York Times beat Wall Street estimates for its fourth-quarter 2022 earnings as more people signed up for its digital subscription packages. The new subscribers offset a slowdown in ad sales and helped the paper open a $250 million share buyback.

On Wall Street, the company’s shares rose 14.76% to US$ 42.13 after the newspaper’s earnings announcement on Wednesday (8)

The company added 240,000 digital-only subscribers in the fourth quarter, up from 180,000 in the previous three months.

In the year, the newspaper registered more than 1 million new subscribers, the second highest number since 2020.

“Each quarter, we see more evidence that there is strong demand for a suite of our news and lifestyle products,” said the company’s chief executive, Meredith Kopit Levien.

Activist asset manager ValueAct Capital Management, which has more than a 7% stake in the New York Times, has pushed the company to aggressively offer its all-access digital package, which includes product review site Wirecutter and news portal sports The Athletic.

In the quarter ended December, The New York Times’ revenue was $667.5 million, beating the $646.4 million estimated by analysts, according to Refinitiv. Adjusted earnings of $0.59 per share were also above the forecast of $0.43.

Digital advertising revenue was flat for the reported three months and the company expects the figure to decline by as much as 5% in the first quarter, reflecting weakness seen at other ad-reliant companies such as Snap.

The buyback announced on Wednesday is for New York Times Class A stock, and the company said it intends to return shareholders 50% of free cash flow in the form of dividends and share buybacks over the next three to five years.