New York Times Co. (NYSE:NYT) operates the New York Times newspaper and digital properties. The growth of the Internet in the early 21st century has provided a real threat to publishing houses, resulting in falling subscriptions and revenue. However, in its fourth-quarter and full-year report for 2017, the New York Times appeared to be reversing that trend.
The company released its Q4 and full-year results on February 8. In the fourth quarter the New York Times added 99,000 net digital subscriptions and 157,000 total net digital-only subscriptions. Advertising revenue jumped to represent one-third of company revenues. Total revenues increased 10.1% to $484.1 million in the fourth quarter and subscription revenues climbed 19.2%. The company expects to continue its surge in the first quarter of 2018 and predicts that subscription and advertising revenues will increase in the mid to high-single digits.
In an interview with Reuters, chief executive Mark Thompson said that the New York Times will benefit from the initiative by Facebook Inc. to prioritize “authoritative content” over other news sources. The campaign against “fake news” and “Russian meddling” has provided the old media with an opening as public and private entities move to throttle alternative sources in favour of traditional outlets. Whether this will totally reverse its protracted decline remains to be seen, but the early results have been favourable.
New York Times stock has increased 29.4% in 2018 thus far and is up 47% year over year. The “post-truth” era and the media hostility of the Trump administration has yet to impact the soaring revenues of the “newspaper of record”.
