Just when media and other analysts had been looking for the New York Times great subscription boom to run out of puff after a weak 109,000 new digital-only subs were reported in the June quarter, the company has gone and reported two major milestones in the three months to September – the first every time digital-only subs have topped 3 million and the first time ever that digital and print subs have topped 4 million.
In fact, the 203,000 digital-only subscriptions was the second highest quarterly rise ever – only behind the huge rise in the March 2017 quarter when President Donald Trump took power and 308,000 net new digital subs were taken up.
The milestones make the Times the widest circulating US paper ever and the most valuable newspaper business globally with a value of $US4.3 billion ($A6.1 billion or twice the value of Fairfax Media and Nine Entertainment combined).
That also puts the Times easily ahead of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channels daily prime time average of 2.4 million viewers. Fox News is by far the most watched US cable channel on a daily basis.
Spread across the entire day around 265,000 people watch, meaning the 4 million plus print and digital subs for the paper easily outweigh pro-Trump lunacies on the channel.
Rather than failing, as Donald Trump constantly claims, the Times is thriving and now has an assured future, thanks in part to him and his constant carping.
Most of the new subscribers last quarter signed up for news from The Times. About 60,000 subscribed to the company’s cooking and crossword sections, taking that number to close to 400,000 (which is more than the entire digital subscription base for Fairfax Media’s Australian metro papers). That left around 143,000 new subs for the paper alone.
Net profit reached $US24.9 million in the quarter down 23% from a year ago when the result was boosted by an asset sale. Operating profits (called underlying in Australia by some) jumped a very solid 30% to $US41.4 million for the three months to September.
Revenue from digital subscriptions rose to $US101.2 million in the quarter, up 18% year on year. Online advertising rose 17% to $57.8 million (after being weak for the first half).
Digital revenue over the first nine months of the year topped $US450 million, the fastest growing part of the business. Print ad sales fell by 0.7% and the solid rise in digital ad spend boosted overall advertising revenues for the quarter to $US121.7 million, up 7.1% from a year earlier.
The company’s share price rose nearly 7% to be up more than 50% so far this year. Its market value of $US4.35 billion is the highest for years. By way of contrast, the shares of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp fell 0.2% on Thursday to be down nearly 20% so far this year. News Corp’s market value of around $US7.7 billion ($A10.9 billion) depends heavily on the 61% owned REA Group which is valued at $A9.43 billion. News Corp and REA group report their September quarter figures next Thursday morning, Sydney time.
After accounting for the US property website and Foxtel, plus Harper Publishing the Murdoch papers in Australia, the UK and US are of negligible value. Certainly, the New York Times would now be the most valuable newspaper business globally, and all thanks to Donald Trump with an assist from his media bestie, Rupert Murdoch.
