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The New York Times Co. today reported $55.2M in Q4 net income compared to a year ago $56.8M loss and a 265K surge in digital subscribers, the biggest gain since the 2016 presidential election.
Paid-only digital subs rose 27.1 percent from the 2017 Q4 period. Of the 265K new subscribers, 172K were for the news site with the others split between cooking and crossword products.
Mark Thompson CEO said the NYTC ended 2018 with 3.4M digital subscriptions and 4.3M total subscriptions.
The company chalked up $709M in 2018 digital revenues, which is three-quarters of the way to achieving its five-year goal of $800M by 2020.
In a sign of bullishness, Thompson plans to grow the subscription base to more than 10M by 2025.
Wall Street cheered the NYTC performance, bidding its stock up 13.6 percent to a 52-week high of $30.56.
The stock traded as low as $21.34 during the past year.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
USA TODAY brings on Jamie Stockwell as VP of news, effective March 30. Stockwell was most recently deputy managing editor of news for the Washington Post... YouTube expands its likeness detection capabilities to a pilot group of government officials, journalists and political candidates... The AP Fund for Journalism adds 50 news organizations to its local news program, bringing the total number of participating newsrooms to 100. 
Versant Media Group, the NBCUniversal cable TV spin-off, today reported its first financial results as 2025 revenues dipped 5.3 percent to $6.7B and standalone EBITDA dropped 9.1 percent to $2.2B.
