So much for President Trump’s description of “the failing New York Times.” The media company’s stock jumped 7.6 percent, to $28.41, on Thursday after reporting strong third quarter earnings and a record 4 million subscribers.
Revenues hit $417.3 million for the quarter, beating projections and topping last year’s $385.6 million for the same quarter. The 4 million subscriber mark reflected a combination of print and digital — with digital-only subscribers up 24 percent from a year ago, to 3.1 million.
Mark Thompson, president and CEO, said the figues vindicated the paper’s aggressive move to grow its digital operation.
“This was a strong third quarter for the Company. We added 203,000 total net new digital-only subscriptions in the quarter and grew total revenue by 8 percent against the same quarter in 2017,” he said in a statement.
“We’re executing on our subscription-first strategy; this quarter, subscription revenues accounted for nearly two-thirds of the Company’s revenues. We’re investing aggressively in our journalism, product and marketing and are seeing tangible results in our digital growth.”
The paper saw revenue from exclusively digital subscribers climb 18 percent to $101.2 million, up from $85.7 million a year ago. Total advertising revenue was up 7 percent.
The company also reported net income of $24.9 million, a sharp drop from the same quarter last year, which the paper attributed to the one-time sale of a paper mill the times has partially owned.