The New York Times (NYT) reported its third quarter earnings on Thursday before the stock market opened, beating earning expectations thanks to a three-year high in net digital subscribers which helped deliver a profit of $9 million.
Analysts had forecasted the paper would deliver $0.06 per share on revenue of $364.67 million, according to Yahoo Finance. Revenue was up slightly at $367 million while earning per share came in at $0.09.
Digital was the high point for the paper of record as it added 51,000 net subscribers — the largest net digital subscriber growth since the fourth quarter of 2012. The 51,000 additions brought the Times to a total of 1,041,000 digital subscribers.
The digital growth is “evidence of our ability to continue to grow our digital subscriber count more than four years after the launch of our pay model and of the high demand for our digital journalism,” CEO Mark Thompson said in a statement.
Print revenue declined less than 1 percent, much less than had been projected.
CEO Mark Thompson lauded the paper’s performance: “This was a strong quarter for The New York Times Company. We achieved significant growth in adjusted operating profit with strength across many areas of our business.”
“Total revenues grew in the quarter and we maintained a tight rein on costs. It was our best advertising quarter of the year, year-over-year, despite a decline in digital advertising revenue, with better performance in print. We remain bullish about our digital advertising business and expect it to return to growth in the fourth quarter. Moving forward, our focus remains on rapidly growing our digital business and maintaining the long-term strength and viability of our print operation.”
The paper kicks off its earnings call at 11 a.m. ET.