The New York Times delivered a strong Q3 2025, with revenue rising about 9.5% to roughly $701 million and EPS climbing to $0.59 from $0.45 a year earlier, driven by accelerating digital momentum. Digital-only subscription revenue grew 14% to roughly $367 million, supported by continued subscriber gains, including 6.27 million bundled or multi-product digital subscribers, while digital advertising revenue jumped 20% to about $98 million. The quarter underscored the success of the Times’ shift toward a multi-product, digital-first model—boosting ARPU, expanding bundles and strengthening the ad business—even as print continues its structural decline.
The New York Times issued upbeat guidance for Q4 2025, projecting 13–16% growth in digital-only subscription revenue and 8–10% growth in total subscription revenue, signaling continued strength in its multi-product bundle and digital ecosystem. Digital advertising is expected to rise in the mid-to-high teens, while total advertising revenue is projected to increase in the high single digits to low double digits, reflecting improving demand trends and the Times’ strong positioning with premium audiences. Management also guided to mid-single-digit growth in affiliate, licensing, and other revenues, with adjusted operating costs up 6–7%, driven by tech investment and newsroom expansion.
The New York Times has taken a landmark step by suing OpenAI (and Microsoft) in late 2023 over alleged copyright infringement tied to AI training. Courts have allowed the case to move forward, rejecting OpenAI’s motion to dismiss most claims. A consequential data retention order—requiring OpenAI to store even deleted user chats—has also elevated the dispute into a broader battle over AI governance and privacy. OpenAI continues to dispute the claims and is seeking to reverse the retention requirement while defending the legality of its model training practices.
For all of 2024, The Times spent $10.8 million on legal fees tied to the lawsuit. It claims that OpenAI unlawfully used the paper’s content to improve its AI models and products.
The New York Times Co. (NYT) is a media company focused on creating and distributing high-quality news and information. Currently, the company makes money through print newspapers, online advertising, and newspaper circulation fees. In 2011, the company launched its paid subscription service for NYTimes.com, adding a digital circulation revenue stream. A growing number of digital subscribers - subscribe to more than one of The Times’s products, which include the The Times, games, recipes, the Wirecutter review site, and The Athletic, a sports news website. As of December 31, 2024, the company had approximately 11.43 million subscribers.
Online media provides more abundantly available information, at a faster rate and at cheaper prices when compared to print media. This has effectively rendered print newspapers obsolete, and online reading is made further easier by tablets/smartphones, both physical circulation and print advertising within newspapers should see a decline going forward.
Social networking leader Facebook has initiated a unique concept of "frictionless sharing" through their Open Graph tools, which enables publishers to instantly get their articles/content shared across a user's network of friends. Various media companies like Yahoo! and Washington Post have adopted the Open Graph to increase user engagement. We expect more websites to join the bandwagon if they increase both web traffic and user engagement. Additionally, the growing penetration and bandwidth capabilities of smartphones and tablets would play a major role in increasing traffic and viewership for media companies. NYT has also made headway in this segment by releasing smartphone and tablet-specific apps.
The price of the digital-only subscription to the main news product every four weeks increased to $17, from $15, the company mentioned during the Q1 2020 report. It was the first increase in the digital subscription price since The Times decided to charge readers for online content in 2011.
