New York Times Reports Mixed Q4 Earnings On Higher Subscriptions, Lower Ad Revenues; Adds 300k Digital Subscribers

Wednesday, New York Times Co NYT reported fourth-quarter 2023 adjusted EPS of EPS $0.70, up from $0.59 a year ago, beating the consensus of $0.58.

The company reported sales of $676.22 million, missing the consensus of $679.24 million, up 1.3% Y/Y.

The company added approximately 300,000 net digital-only subscribers compared with the end of the third quarter of 2023, fueled by the bundle and multi-product subscriber additions, with total subscribers of 10.36 million and 9.7 million digital-only subscribers.

Also Read: OpenAI Reportedly Negotiating Content Licensing With CNN, Fox, Time Amid New York Times Lawsuit.

The total digital-only average revenue per user (ARPU) grew 3.5% Y/Y to $9.24, primarily due to subscribers graduating from promotional to higher prices and price increases on tenured non-bundled subscribers.

Higher digital subscribers and ARPU drove Y/Y growth in subscription revenues from digital products of 7.2%.

Digital advertising revenues decreased by 3.7%, largely due to the five fewer days in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to 2022 and the decline in revenue from podcasts and creative services.

The number of print subscribers declined to 660,000 from 730,000 a year ago.

Dividend: The company increased the quarterly dividend to $0.13 from $0.11, payable on April 18, with a record date of April 2.

In December 2023, The New York Times launched legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft Corp MSFT over claims of copyright infringement linked to the alleged unauthorized use of its published content to train artificial intelligence technologies.

Outlook: The New York Times expects first quarter 2024 digital-only subscription revenue growth of 11%-14%, with total subscription revenues growth of 7%-9%.

The company forecasts the first quarter of 2024 digital advertising revenues to increase in low-to-high-single-digits and total advertising revenues to decrease in mid-single-digits.

Price Action: NYT shares are down 6.87% at $45.00 on the last check Wednesday.

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