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The New York Times continues to improve its financial performance, the company revealed in its first-quarter 2025 results, which were released on May 7. The NYT added about 250,000 digital-only subscribers, compared to the end of Q4 2024—bringing its number of total digital-only subscribers to 11.06M. With the addition of its 600,000 print subscribers, the overall subscriber number hit 11.66M. By the end of 2027, the company aims to have 15M subscribers. Despite a 5.8 percent jump in operating costs, the NYT’s operating profit still rose 21.9 percent from Q1 2024. Digital advertising was up 12.4 percent to $70.9M, while print ad revenues slid 8.5 percent to $37.2 M. In addition, close to half (49 percent) of NYT subscribers have such extras as Cooking, Games and Wirecutter as part of their subscription, up from 43 percent in Q1 2024. ARPU (that’s “average revenue per user”) jumped 3.6 percent from the year-ago period. Even The Athletic, which had long been a money-loser, was $2.9M in the black. “Our strategy is working and our business is growing and demonstrating resilience amidst the current economic and geopolitical uncertainty,” said New York Times Company president and CEO Meredith Kopit Leven.
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One America News Network, a far-right, pro-Trump platform, will take over the job of providing newsfeed services to Voice of America and other US government-funded media outlets, according to US Agency for Global Media (parent agency to VOA) senior advisor Kari Lake. OAN’s services will be provided free of charge. This follows a move by USAGM to cancel contracts with wire services including Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse. OAN, which is owned by San Diego-based Herring Networks, faced defamation lawsuits over its false claims that Trump won the 2020 presidential election. “What they have done, in effect, is replace our 83-year legacy of producing reliable, authoritative news with the hard work and commitment of countless journalists with a contract to outsource our news-gathering to a source that is clearly partisan,” said Voice of America White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara, who has been put on indefinite leave.
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| Gemma Fox |
TIME hires Gemma Fox, who was previously deputy US editor for the Times of London, as editorial director, news. At the Times of London, Fox oversaw coverage of the 2024 presidential election. She was previously deputy foreign editor at The Independent and worked at Sky News. In her new role she will oversee TIME's news team. “Gemma will lead coverage of major news events across the newsroom, working closely with subject matter teams and collaborating across departments—including audience, photography, art, and video—to bring the news to life across platforms,” said TIME editor in chief Sam Jacobs in a memo sent to staffers on May 8.
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.
