New York Times — Financial Results
Strong Revenue and Profit Growth Across the Board in 2025
| Metric | 2025 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenues | $2.82B | $2.59B | +9.2% |
| Operating profit | $431.6M | $351.1M | +22.9% |
| Operating profit margin | 15.3% | 13.6% | +1.7 pts |
| Diluted EPS | $2.09 | $1.77 | +18.1% |
Revenue grew nearly twice as fast as costs (9.2% vs. 7.1%), which is the ideal combination — the business is scaling efficiently. Operating profit jumped 22.9%, meaning the company is converting a larger share of each dollar earned into profit. Earnings per share rose 18.1% to $2.09, or $2.46 on an adjusted basis.
Digital Subscriptions Added 1.4 Million Subscribers, Driving Revenue Higher
| Metric | 2025 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital-only subscribers | 12.21M | 10.82M | +1.4M |
| Digital subscription revenue | $1.43B | $1.25B | +14.3% |
| Total digital-only ARPU (revenue per subscriber per 28-day cycle) | $9.68 | $9.42 | +2.7% |
The company added 1.4 million net new digital-only subscribers in 2025, a strong pace of growth. Crucially, not only are there more subscribers — each one is paying slightly more on average, with ARPU rising 2.7% as promotional pricing expired and prices increased for longer-tenured customers. Bundle subscribers (those paying for multiple products like News, Games, and Cooking together) grew 24.3% to 6.48 million, which is significant because bundle ARPU of $12.67 is well above the overall average.
The Bundle Strategy Is Reshaping the Subscriber Mix
News-only digital subscribers fell 27% year-over-year, while bundle and other single-product subscribers grew sharply. The company is deliberately migrating customers toward higher-value multi-product bundles, which command nearly four times the per-subscriber revenue of standalone non-news products. Starting in 2026, management plans to stop reporting the subscriber breakdown by category, saying total subscribers and total ARPU better reflect how they run the business — worth watching as it reduces visibility into the underlying mix.
Digital Advertising Had a Standout Year
| Metric | 2025 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital advertising revenue | $410.6M | $342.1M | +20.0% |
| Print advertising revenue | $155.4M | $164.2M | -5.4% |
| Total advertising revenue | $566.0M | $506.3M | +11.8% |
Digital advertising — now 72.6% of total ad revenue — grew 20%, driven by a 19% rise in ad impressions and a 6% improvement in average rates. This suggests both more eyeballs and a better monetization rate per view. Print advertising continued its long-term structural decline at -5.4%, a trend management does not expect to reverse.
Free Cash Flow Surged 44%, Balance Sheet Remains Fortress-Like
| Metric | 2025 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating cash flow | $584.5M | $410.5M | +42.4% |
| Free cash flow | $550.5M | $381.3M | +44.4% |
| Cash and marketable securities | $1.17B | $0.91B | +28.1% |
Free cash flow (cash generated after capital spending) jumped 44% to $550.5 million. The company is debt-free and sitting on $1.17 billion in cash and investments. Management has committed to returning at least 50% of free cash flow to shareholders via dividends and buybacks over the next three to five years, and raised the quarterly dividend to $0.23 per share in February 2026.
Generative AI Lawsuits Are a Growing but Contained Cost
The company is suing AI developers it alleges used its journalism without permission to train AI models. Legal costs related to these suits rose 23% to $13.3 million in 2025. While management treats this as a one-time item excluded from adjusted profits, the costs are growing and the outcome remains uncertain — it could eventually result in settlements or licensing deals that either cost money or generate revenue.