Nobody tell the media-critic-in-chief, but the New York Times seems to be nowhere near “failing.”
The paper announced Wednesday morning that it made $36 million in profits in the third quarter, far more than the small gain it eked out in the same period a year ago. The boost came mostly from a 14 percent boost in subscription revenue, largely from online readers, even as ad revenue fell 9 percent.
The company said it now has nearly 2.5 million digital-only subscribers, up 59 percent from a year ago. Its hypervigilant Trump coverage has found an audience willing to pay monthly rates starting at $8 a month. Ad revenue is down on the print side, with the NYT citing decreases in “primarily in the luxury, travel, real estate, media, technology and telecommunications categories.”
The Times’ success in making money off digital subscriptions is spreading to other media publications that have traditionally relied on advertising for revenue. The New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal have seen big jumps in digital subscriptions, even from millennials, Politico reported last month:
After the election, a survey by the Reuters Institute found that a record 16 percent of U.S. consumers said they paid for online news in 2017, up from 9 percent a year earlier.
For his part, President Trump has used the term “failing @nytimes” at least 62 times on Twitter since announcing his candidacy for president in 2015, according to a search on the Trump Twitter Archive. The most recent was Oct. 15:
The Failing @nytimes, in a story by Peter Baker, should have mentioned the rapid terminations by me of TPP & The Paris Accord & the fast….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2017
…approvals of The Keystone XL & Dakota Access pipelines. Also, look at the recent EPA cancelations & our great new Supreme Court Justice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2017
The Times’ financial success has been a boon for shareholders: Its stock is up 72 percent in the last year. The company’s largest shareholder is Mexican telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim, who owns about 12 percent of the company, according to regulatory filings. Slim, the sixth richest person in the world, sold about $10 million in New York Times stock in July.
