The New York Times Company announced a significant increase in both profit and revenue for the first quarter. Profit rose to $879 million, while revenue reached $7.122 billion, marking a 12% year-over-year increase.
The media group reported a quarterly net profit of $879 million, or $0.54 per share, compared to a net profit of $496 million, or $0.30 per share, in the same period last year. Excluding one-time special items, earnings per share were $0.61, surpassing the $0.47 per share forecast by FactSet analysts.
Total quarterly revenue grew by 12% to $7.122 billion, exceeding Wall Street's expectation of $6.999 billion. Subscription revenue increased by 11% to $5.169 billion, driven by growth in digital-only product revenue, which offset declines in home delivery and single-copy retail sales of the print newspaper.
Total advertising revenue surged by 17% to $1.268 billion, attributed to strong marketer demand and an expansion in advertising inventory. The company added approximately 310,000 net new digital-only subscribers during the quarter, bringing the total number of digital-only subscribers to 12.5 million. The total subscription base across all products reached approximately 13.1 million by the end of the quarter.
For the second quarter, The New York Times expects subscription revenue to grow between 10% and 12% year-over-year, while advertising revenue is projected to increase by a high-single-digit percentage.
Following the earnings release, the company's shares rose 3.3% in pre-market trading to $79.77.
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