New York Times Co (NYSE: NYT) shares were surging Wednesday after the newspaper company said it reached a new high in digital and print subscriptions of 4.3 million.
This is the same New York Times that U.S. President Donald Trump regularly calls "failing" has its most subscribers ever.
And most of that is because of growth in new digital subscribers: roughly three-quarters of the subscriber base are the 3.3 million readers who pay for digital subscriptions, a segment that has ballooned by nearly 30% since 2017.
The news company not only appears likely headed toward its goal of $800 million in digital sales by the end of 2020, but said that in the three months ending in December it saw its biggest jump in digital subscriptions since it started seeing a "Trump bump" — a boost in interest in its publication after Trump’s election.
The Times’ share price has more than doubled since Trump became president. It opened at just under $28 on Wednesday, up from $13.30 on Jan. 20, 2017, the day Trump was inaugurated, and $11.05 on Nov. 8, 2016, the day Trump was elected.
Last summer, the Times said Trump had termed the newspaper as "failing," "fake" or with some other criticism more than 200 times since taking office.
The Times' report of record subscriptions and strong revenue comes as other digital media properties are contracting.
While the Times has offered buyouts and conducted some layoffs in the last couple of years, the company said that overall last year, its newsroom added 120 employees, and that the number of New York Times journalists is now 1,600 — apparently, the most it has ever had.
Shares let go of seven cents in Thursday’s first hour of trading to $29.62
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