The New York Times Co. today reported $33M in Q3 operating profit compared to $8.9M a year ago due to higher digital subscription revenues and lower severance costs, which offset the continued decline in print ad sales.
Revenues advanced 6.1 percent to $385.6M, sparked by a 13.6 percent gain in subscription sales. Print advertising revenues tumbled 9.0 percent to $113.6M.
The company counted 2.5M paid digital-only subscribers as of the Sept. 30 end of Q3. That’s a net increase of 154K subs from the end of Q2 and a 59.1 percent hike from a year ago.
Digital advertising, which accounts for 43.3 percent of total ad revenues, grew 10.8 percent to $49.2M from the '16 period, driven by smartphone, programmatic and branded content revenues.
The 20 percent drop in print revenues was due to a fall-off of display advertising in the real estate, luxury, travel, media, technology and telecom categories.
CEO Mark Thompson anticipates high-teen growth in subscription revenues and high single-digit decline in ad revenues during Q4.
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.
Trump Media & Technology Group is discussing a spin-off of the Truth Social platform following the expected closing of its $6B merger deal with TAE Technologies... Condé Nast sells off Them, the digital LGBTQ-focused platform it launched in 2017, to Equalpride, publisher of Out, The Advocate, Out Traveler, Health PLUS Wellness and Pride.com... CBS News has parted ways with longevity influencer Peter Attia, one of the 19 contributors that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss brought on as part of her plan to present a wider variety of voices on the platform. 
Symbolic.ai forms a partnership with News Corp to begin using the company’s AI-native publisher platform in the newsrooms of News Corp publications to augment research, writing and publishing... Mediaite launches a newsletter that promises to give readers a summary of—media newsletters... The Fund for American Studies launches the Journalism Excellence Fellowship, a program that will provide promising young journalists the opportunity to work alongside top writers, reporters, and media professionals.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has roots going back to 1786, is going out of business, the paper’s owners, Block Communications, announced on Jan. 7... GQ editor Will Welch is stepping down to take on a new Paris-based role with the musician Pharrell, who is also men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton... Semafor says it has raised $30 million on a $330 million valuation, following its first profitable year. 
