The New York Times is crowing about a quarterly rise in revenue today, and that comes thanks to increases in both print and digital ad revenue. Digital subscriptions saw some of its strongest growth in recent memory, with the NYT now counting 799,000 users as paid digital-only subscribers, an increase of 39,000 from last quarter.
NYT CEO Mark Thompson cited the launch of some new digital subscription products in early April as part of the cause behind the unheralded growth. Those include the new NYT Now app, which features curated selections from the New York Times’ firehose of content, and Times Premier, which offers value-added features to Times subscribers who are willing to pay more. While the company didn’t share exactly how much these new services had contributed to its success during the quarter, Thompson did say in a statement that NYT Now specifically is gaining a lot of early traction in the market.
The New York Times apparently wants to get more of a good thing while the getting is good, too, so it’s looking to further unbundle its core offerings with standalone software that could eventually spin into still more new revenue streams. To that end, it plans to launch dedicated apps devoted to food and to opinion. Recall that early this year Yahoo debuted a new dedicated food vertical website (alongside one for tech) and it makes sense that NYT would also be spinning off some of its own efforts aimed at capitalizing on what is one of the more popular and marketable areas of media coverage.
While very different companies, it’s interesting to see NYT pursuing a strategy similar to that of Facebook in seeking growth. One app to rule them all is an approach whose usefulness is being called into question in every industry, and media is no exception.