The New York Times Company (NYT) has reported a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit as the newspaper publisher added 300,000 paid digital subscribers in the final months of 2023.
The company announced Q4 2023 earnings per share of $0.70 U.S. compared to $0.59 U.S. that was the consensus expectation of analysts. Profits were up 8.5% from a year earlier.
Revenue in the quarter totaled $676.2 million U.S, which was slightly lower than the $679.2 million that was forecast on Wall Street. Sales were flat from the year ago quarter.
However, The Times said that it had 10.36 million subscribers at the end of last year, 9.7 million of them digital-only.
The continued growth helped to push the media company’s annual revenue for digital subscriptions above $1 billion U.S. for the first time.
The New York Times Co. has a goal of reaching 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027.
The company continues to push bundled subscriptions that include its main newspaper, as well as games such as Wordle, product review site Wirecutter, and The Athletic sports website.
The Athletic, which The Times purchased two years ago for $550 million U.S., continues to lose money. But its loss shrank to $4.4 million U.S. in Q4 2023 from $9.6 million U.S. a year earlier.
Revenue at The Athletic grew 31.3% to $38.5 million U.S. during the final quarter of last year.
Overall advertising at The Times declined in the fourth quarter, decreasing 8.4% to $164.1 million U.S. Digital advertising fell 3.7% while print advertising dropped 16.2%.
The number of New York Times print subscribers also continues to decline, falling to 660,000 at the end of 2023 from 730,000 at the end of 2022.
The company said that it had $709.2 million U.S. in cash on hand at the end of 2023.
Stock of The New York Times Co. has risen 32% in the last 12 months to trade at $48.52 U.S. per share.