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The New York Times Company says that its digital revenue exceeded print revenue for the first time ever during the second quarter.
The company reports that it brought in $185.5 million in revenue from digital subscriptions and ads in Q2, compared to $175.4 million on the print side.
While total revenue at the NYT fell 7.5 percent, print took a much harder hit. Digital ad revenue saw a 32 percent drop, while print revenue was down by 55 percent. Overall ad revenue slid 44 percent from Q2 2019, going from $120.8 million to $67.8 million.
Digital subscriptions were up by 669,000 (493,00 for NYT’s “core news product” and 176,000 for such digital offerings as the Cooking and Crossword apps), bringing the company’s total digital-subscription count to 5.7 million. Subscriptions from print-based bundles totaled just 800,000.
NYT chief executive officer Mark Thompson, who is stepping down on Sept. 8, said that the jump in digital subscriptions put the company in a good position to achieve its stated goal of 10 million subscribers by 2025.
The company will need healthy circulation numbers to keep it moving forward in what the company acknowledges is an increasingly difficult time for advertising. It predicts that overall ad revenue will see a 35 to 40 percent drop in the third quarter from Q3 2019, with even digital ad revenue expected to drop by 20 percent.
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