(Reuters) -The New York Times forecast third-quarter subscription revenue growth above Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, as it bet on adding more customers through its bundled strategy. Shares of the publisher rose more than 4% in premarket trading. The NYT has been packaging its core news offerings with lifestyle-focused products such as Wirecutter, sports website […]
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New York Times forecasts subscription revenue above estimates on bundling strength
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(Reuters) -The New York Times forecast third-quarter subscription revenue growth above Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, as it bet on adding more customers through its bundled strategy.
Shares of the publisher rose more than 4% in premarket trading.
The NYT has been packaging its core news offerings with lifestyle-focused products such as Wirecutter, sports website The Athletic, and games, including Wordle, to enhance subscriber engagement and diversify revenue streams.
It added 230,000 net digital-only subscribers in the second quarter, more than Visible Alpha’s estimate of 215,800 additions.
Out of the total 11.30 million digital-only subscribers, about 6.02 million are bundle and multi-product subscribers. Overall, its subscribers now stand at 11.88 million.
In a busy news cycle, NYT’s wide array of popular podcasts, including The Daily and The Ezra Klein Show, and newsletters such as The Morning and DealBook are helping it attract customers.
The results follow The Times’ multi-year agreement with Amazon in May, marking its first licensing deal focused on generative AI technology.
The publisher expects subscription revenue growth to be between 8% and 10%, compared with analysts’ average estimates of a 7.3% rise, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Total digital-only average revenue per user grew 3.2% to $9.64, beating Visible Alpha estimates of $9.49.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Vijay Kishore)