Print to digital: 2020 was an accelerant for print media to go digital, and the NYTimes made the most of it

2/9/21 7:00PM

2020 was a bad year for many news organisations — particularly local print newspapers that had to contest with all the restrictions of COVID, on top of the existential threat of social media, where more than half of us now reportedly get our news.

The only organisations that seemed to thrive in that environment were the big ones. Indeed, the biggest of them all, The New York Times, had a very good year. The NYT added more than 2.3 million digital-only subscribers — taking the company's total subscriptions to more than 7.5 million. 2020 was also the first year that the NYTimes made more revenue from digital subscriptions than print for the first time in its history.

‍Slow and steady wins the race

‍For the NYTimes the transition to digital has been slow, but nonetheless impressive. The journey technically began 25 years ago when the company launched the nytimes.com website. Since then there have really been two transitions happening at the same time. One is from advertising to subscription, and the other has been from print to digital.

‍The "not-news" bit

‍The small blue-green bar at the top of this chart is particularly interesting. It represents the NYTimes revenue from digital products that aren't news — think games, cooking and audio. That segment has grown particularly quickly; $9m of revenue in 2016 turned into $14m, then $22m then $34m and finally $54m last year. If that division was a hot Silicon Valley start-up it would probably be thinking about an IPO soon.

Max Knoblauch6h

American Airlines joins the flock, hiking bag fees amid higher jet fuel prices

American Airlines on Thursday announced that it, too, will be hiking the fees it charges customers to check luggage.

With the move, all four of the major US airlines, which together control about 80% of the US market, have now hiked their baggage fees in recent days amid surging jet fuel prices.

The change will go into effect on tickets bought on or after Thursday, the same day Southwest’s hike begins.

Since late March, JetBlue, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Canada’s WestJet, and Southwest have hiked their fees. Experts expect more major carriers to follow, and to potentially tweak the pricing of other ancillary revenue sources like seat assignments and carry-on luggage.

American Airlines updates bag fees and Basic Economy fares

The change will go into effect on tickets bought on or after Thursday, the same day Southwest’s hike begins.

Max Knoblauch7h

Less than a year after implementing them, Southwest is also hiking its bag fees

Southwest Airlines has joined the growing list of airlines opting to hike their bag fees amid sustained higher jet fuel costs.

Starting today, the first checked bag at the carrier — which implemented bag fees less than a year ago — will jump from $35 to $45, and the second from $45 to $55. Southwest quietly disclosed the change Tuesday.

Southwest assigned the decision to “part of an ongoing analysis of the business and against the evolving global backdrop.”

As of Wednesday, jet fuel prices dropped to $4.16 a gallon, per the Argus US Jet Fuel Index, down from $4.81 on Tuesday following President Trump’s ceasefire announcement, which sent travel stocks soaring. Major airlines have shed some of those gains in premarket trading Thursday.

With the move to hike bag fees, Southwest joins JetBlue, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Canada’s WestJet, all of which also boosted fees this month. Experts expect more major carriers to follow, and to potentially tweak the pricing of other ancillary revenue sources like seat assignments and carry-on luggage.