The (Not Failing) New York Times — Mine Safety Disclosures

Having recently passed 10m subs, NYT is shooting for 15m by 2027. If the bundling play works, news might become just a small part of the company’s business.

The New York Times will triumph financially, dramatically so, and utterly fail as an intellectual institution, at least by its former standards. The editorial branding will be august pronouncements about ‘the paper of record’, but the business model is pure Netflix: All The News Fit To Binge.

The new NYT strategy is centered around getting existing subscribers to use more of its products, including:

• Cooking, which has a library of 20k+ recipes, guides, and lessons


• Games, which has its flagship crossword puzzle, along with Spelling Bee, Tiles, and newly acquired Wordle


• Reviews, which offers access to thousands of Wirecutter product recomme

... See more

But there is a lot of work ahead of us on the operational side. We need to continuously deliver an amazing product to consumers worth paying for. No one balks at paying for a cell phone, gym membership, Netflix, BabyYoda+, Peloton and every other subscription. Why should they balk at paying for news if the product is actually important to them?

The Times, Peretti allowed, has since refined a very good subscription business model, which has allowed it to make better journalism by hiring more and better talent. This is not a controversial opinion. But the next part may be: The New York Times, Peretti argued, can’t really be called “the paper of record” anymore — because of that same subscri... See more

While newspaper executives would argue that, in 2019, it more difficult to persuade consumers to pay for journalism, a private 2PM poll identified that the average earner between $90,000 and $250,000 pays for 17.2 monthly subscriptions across media, entertainment, and utility. Of that 17.2 monthly recurring fees, an average of 5.7 were devoted to w... See more