Unprecedented Times: The NYT just hit a major milestone

11/9/23 7:00PM

Good Times

‍Shares in the New York Times Company jumped some 6% on Wednesday after the media giant reported that it had passed the 10 million subscriber mark, creeping closer to its target of hitting 15 million subs by 2027, with sales also up 9.3% year-over-year.

The NYT, like the Financial Times, saw print subscriptions slump in the last quarter — though the 172-year-old paper more than made up for this drop by adding over 800,000 digital-only readers / gamers / sports fans in the last year, as it continues to refresh its offerings. A booming subscriber business leaves the NYT less exposed to the fickle nature of advertising, which accounted for less than 20% of its revenue in Q3.

‍The Times it is a-changin'

‍The Gray Lady’s certainly growing old gracefully, thanks to a few acquisitions in recent years: it picked up trendy sports outlet The Athletic in January 2022, for example, and bought the viral — if fading — game Wordle in the same month. Forays into dedicated cooking, online games, and consumer recommendation products (like Wirecutter) have helped to broaden the digital appeal of the news org — a strategy that CEO Meredith Kopit Levien labels “multiproduct bundles”.

Max Knoblauch1h

Premium seats help push airlines higher following third-quarter results

Shares of American Airlines are climbing toward the carrier’s best trading day since August 12, when ultra-budget rival Spirit issued its initial warning about its ability to survive. American’s shares are up more than 7% on Friday afternoon.

Investors’ optimism comes a day after American posted a better than expected full-year earnings forecast. In a call with investors, American said that it’s ramping up its premium cabin offerings.

“Our ability to grow capacity in premium markets will be further supported as we take delivery of new aircraft and reconfigure our existing fleet. These efforts will allow us to grow our premium seats at nearly two times the rate of main cabin seats,” said CEO Robert Isom. American’s CFO Devin May said that nose-to-tail retrofits of certain widebody jets will bump the number of premium seats available on those planes by 25%.

Extra legroom has been a boon for major carriers, particularly this quarter. Delta Air Lines said its premium product revenue grew 9% in Q3, compared to a 4% drop in economy seat revenue. Similarly, United Airlines said its premium revenue grew 6%, outpacing economy. Shares of both airlines were up more than 3% on Friday.

Carriers with less exposure to first- and business-class tickets like Southwest Airlines and JetBlue didn’t see the same amount of momentum on the day.