New York Times partially offsets print declines with ‘unprecedented’ digital growth
The New York Times has found itself to be the latest casualty of changing patterns of newspaper readership after recording a precipitous 16% fall in print advertising revenues over the course of 2016, fueling a 9% decline in total advertising revenue.
Over the quarter, print advertising declined by an eye watering 20% but this was offset somewhat by a 6% rise in digital revenues over the year, boosted by the sale of an additional 514,000 digital-only subscriptions – 276,000 in the last quarter as readers lapped up news on the US election.
This fed through to a 3% rise in circulation revenue in 2016 to $881m, while digital-only subscriptions leapt 17% to $233m over the same period.
All in all the NYT now counts three million subscribers, going some way toward lessening its reliance upon advertisers.
Times chief executive Mark Thompson has labelled the digital performance as "unprecedented", boasting of "spectacular audiences" over the last quarter.
The paper’s overall financial situation remains precarious however with total revenue declining by 2% for the year to $1.6bn. Adjusted operating profit meanwhile dipped to $241m last year from $289m in 2015.