New York Times added 1.4 million digital subscribers in 2025

[NEW YORK] The New York Times added 1.4 million digital-only subscribers in 2025, including about 450,000 in the last quarter of the year, the company said on Wednesday (Feb 4).

The Times ended the year with 12.78 million total subscribers, a jump that puts it on a pace to reach its stated goal of 15 million by the end of 2027.

The increase was due in part to a change in how the company counts subscribers. In September, the Times introduced family subscriptions, which allow up to four users to share one account. Each of those subscriptions, which are priced higher than individual subscriptions, is counted as two subscribers.

Less than 3 per cent of the digital-only subscribers at the end of 2025 were the additional subscribers from family subscriptions, the company said.

Subscriptions for more than one product – the Times offers games, cooking recipes and tips, product recommendations, and sports coverage alongside the core news report – continue to increase. By the end of the fourth quarter, just over half of the total subscriber base paid for access to multiple products. (The company said it would no longer break out that figure in future earnings reports.)

Total revenue for the quarter reached US$802.3 million, up 10.4 per cent from a year earlier. Adjusted operating profit increased 12.8 per cent, to US$192.3 million. Operating costs rose 10.5 per cent to US$640.7 million.

Digital subscription revenue increased 13.9 per cent year over year to US$381.5 million for the fourth quarter, and total subscription revenue grew 9.4 per cent to US$510.5 million. Digital advertising revenue rose 24.9 per cent year over year to US$147.2 million, which the company attributed to strong marketer demand and new spots for advertising.

Revenue from affiliate and licensing increased 5.5 per cent year over year to US$100.2 million in the quarter.

Average revenue per digital subscriber was US$9.72 for the fourth quarter, increasing less than 1 per cent from a year earlier. The metric is used to help measure the health of the subscription business.

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Print subscription revenue continued to contract, falling 2 per cent from a year earlier to US$129 million. The Times had 570,000 print subscribers at the end of 2025, down from 610,000 at the end of 2024.

Meredith Kopit Levien, CEO of The New York Times, said in a statement that the fourth-quarter results “demonstrated that our strategy continues to work as designed.”

The company said it had US$1.2 billion in cash and marketable securities at the end of 2025. It also said its board of directors had voted to pay a quarterly dividend of 23 cents a share, up five cents from the previous quarter. NYTIMES