New York Times NYSE: NYT executives used the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call to highlight subscriber growth, expanding digital revenues, and increased profitability, while outlining strategic priorities centered on product innovation and a larger push into video.
2025 results: subscriber gains and digital revenue milestone
Chief Executive Officer Meredith Kopit Levien said 2025 was “a great year” driven by execution against the company’s long-term strategy. The company added 1.4 million net new digital subscribers during the year, bringing total subscribers to 12.8 million and moving it “further down the path” toward its next milestone of 15 million subscribers.
Levien said engagement across the portfolio was strong and contributed to significant growth in digital advertising. She also noted that the company generated more than $2 billion in total digital revenues for the first time.
Chief Financial Officer Will Bardeen reported that full-year total revenue increased about 9%, as gains in digital were partially offset by ongoing declines in print. Digital subscription revenues rose approximately 14% for the year, and digital advertising increased 20%, he said. Adjusted operating profit (AOP) grew about 21% year over year to $550 million, and AOP margin expanded about 190 basis points to 19.5%.
Bardeen also said the company generated approximately $551 million of free cash flow in 2025, attributing the result primarily to “robust AOP” and a capital-efficient model, along with lower cash taxes related to a change in tax law for R&E expenditure deductions and net proceeds from the sale of excess land at a printing facility.
Fourth quarter: digital ads and subscriptions outperformed expectations
Management said fourth-quarter performance reflected contributions across the portfolio. The company added about 450,000 net new digital subscribers in the quarter, and digital-only subscription revenues increased roughly 14% to $382 million. Total subscription revenue rose about 9% to $510 million, in line with prior guidance, Bardeen said.
Advertising revenue exceeded the company’s expectations. Total advertising revenue increased about 16% to $192 million, while digital advertising climbed about 25% to $147 million. Bardeen said the digital advertising growth was driven mainly by strong marketer demand and new advertising supply.
Affiliate, licensing and other revenue increased 5.5% to $100 million, primarily from higher licensing revenue, and was in line with guidance, the CFO said.
On profitability, Bardeen said adjusted operating costs increased 9.7%, above the previously guided 6% to 7% range. He attributed the higher costs primarily to incentive compensation expenses tied to financial outperformance. AOP increased 13% to about $192 million, and AOP margin expanded 50 basis points to about 24%. Adjusted diluted EPS increased $0.09 to $0.89.
Pricing, ARPU, and disclosure changes
Bardeen said total digital-only average revenue per user (ARPU) increased year over year to $9.72 in the fourth quarter, reflecting step-ups from promotional to higher prices and price increases for certain tenured subscribers. He said the company was encouraged by results at pricing step-up points and remained confident in its ARPU trajectory, while noting that ARPU can fluctuate quarter to quarter based on factors such as subscriber mix, promotions, and the timing of targeted price increases.
For the first quarter of 2026, he said digital-only subscription revenue is expected to increase 14% to 17%, and total subscription revenue is expected to rise 9% to 11%. He also said the company expects to benefit in Q1 from an increase in the digital bundle price to $30 from $25, as a tenured cohort began paying those higher prices during the quarter. Bardeen said early results from testing have been “very encouraging.”
The CFO also announced a change to subscriber disclosures after the fourth quarter of 2025. The company will continue reporting total digital-only subscribers and total digital-only ARPU, but will discontinue reporting digital-only subscribers and ARPU by bundle and multiproduct, news-only, and other single-product categories, along with percentages represented by group corporate, group education, and family subscriptions. Bardeen said the remaining metrics align best with how the company manages the business for long-term growth.
Strategic focus: video expansion, AI use, and a multi-revenue model
Levien framed the broader environment as a “polarized, low-trust” ecosystem shaped by major platforms that can create headwinds for publishers. She argued The Times is positioned to navigate these challenges based on its subscription strategy and several advantages, including global-scale markets for its products, the company’s content creation engine, and innovation in formats.
Video featured prominently in management’s forward-looking commentary. Levien said the company sees a long-term opportunity to establish The Times as a preferred brand for “watching news in addition to reading and listening,” particularly as linear TV declines and viewing shifts to digital platforms. She described the company as being in the early stages of scaling video, citing “scalable formats” such as reporter videos, “Visual Investigations,” and turning hit podcasts into video shows. She pointed to the Watch tab in the core app, launched in 2025, and said the company is also distributing video in off-platform environments to support engaged audience growth.
On AI, Levien said the company continues to see headwinds but views its differentiated, habit-forming products as a source of resilience. She added that the company is already using AI to make its work more accessible and cited an AI-powered advertising product that she said is performing well.
Asked whether growing advertising could offset the need for subscription price increases, Levien emphasized the company’s multi-revenue-stream model and described advertising as an important monetization tool, particularly for high-engagement experiences such as free games and The Athletic’s audience growth efforts. She characterized the approach as a deliberate system that can also build funnels for future subscription growth.
Costs, capital allocation, and outlook
On costs, Bardeen reiterated that the company’s long-term goal is to grow revenues faster than costs while continuing to invest in areas that differentiate its journalism and products. For Q1 2026, the company expects adjusted operating costs to increase 8% to 9%, with Bardeen citing the year-over-year impact of ramping video production across the portfolio, including at The Times and The Athletic. He also said the company values flexibility to invest in sales and marketing when returns are attractive or when brand campaigns present opportunity.
For Q1, the CFO guided to digital advertising growth in the high-teens to low-20% range and total advertising growth in the low-double digits, while affiliate, licensing and other revenue is expected to rise in the high-single digits.
On capital allocation, Bardeen said there was no change to strategy. He reiterated that the top priority remains high-return organic investment in the subscription strategy, followed by returning at least 50% of free cash flow to shareholders over the midterm. In 2025, the company returned about $275 million to shareholders, including about $165 million in share repurchases and about $110 million in dividends. The company also announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.23 from $0.18 and said it ended the year with $350 million remaining on its share repurchase authorization. Bardeen added that any M&A would face a “very high bar.”
Management said it expects 2026 to bring another year of subscriber growth, revenue growth, AOP growth, margin expansion, and strong free cash flow, with Levien pointing to continued investment in journalism, new formats, and product enhancements as key priorities.
In response to a question about contract negotiations with the NewsGuild, Levien said the company has a long history of productive relationships with unions and is prepared to move through the contract period, adding that it remains confident The Times will continue to be a great place to work for employees represented in the negotiations.
About New York Times NYSE: NYT
The New York Times Company is a publicly traded media organization best known for publishing The New York Times newspaper and operating the NYTimes.com digital platform. The company produces daily print and digital journalism covering national and international news, opinion pieces, feature stories, and multimedia content. Alongside its flagship newspaper, the firm offers a range of subscription-based services, including Times Cooking, NYT Games, podcasts and newsletters, designed to engage a broad audience of readers and advertisers.
Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, The New York Times has built a reputation for in-depth reporting and investigative journalism.
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