The New York Times came out with its quarterly report on Wednesday.
Wait, don’t skip this. I know what you might be thinking: Quarterly reports are boring. And, I’ll give you that. Most of the time, they are a bore because they generate little or no news. But this particular quarterly report was full of news.
Some of it good. Some of it bad. All of it interesting.
Let’s start with the good news. The Times has surpassed 6 million total (print and digital) subscriptions. SIX million. That’s a remarkable number. In a day and age when many newspapers are just trying to get to six figures, to break 6 million is a momentous achievement.
The Times reached that magic number after netting an incredible 587,000 new digital subscribers in the first quarter of 2020. Most (468,000) were for the news product and the rest (119,000) were for other digital products such as crosswords, games and cooking.
Don’t skim over that quarterly number either: 587,000. It might be true that many subscribers sign up at special first-time rates. But even if they were signing up at discounted prices, the equivalent of full subscriptions would still be a whopping number. The growth appears to be a reaction to people seeking out information about the coronavirus. In March alone, the Times had 2.5 billion pageviews — almost twice what it sees in a normal month.
Now for the sobering news. Like pretty much everywhere else, the coronavirus has drastically cut into the Times’ advertising revenue.
The Times reports overall ad revenue of $106.1 million — a drop of more than 15% from the previous quarter. Print ad revenue was down nearly 21% and digital ad revenue was down nearly 8%. And the really troublesome prediction: In a statement, Times president and CEO Mark Thompson said ad revenue could fall by as much as 55% in the second quarter. That’s a drastic decrease.
“Nonetheless,” Thompson said, “we believe that the company will emerge from this global crisis with a distinctive and valuable advertising revenue stream to complement a digital news subscription business, which is now by far the largest and most successful in the world.”
So what does it all mean?
The Times is unlike any other media outlet, so what’s going on there really can’t be compared to what’s going on anywhere else, especially in local shops around the country. The Times is not immune to the advertising trouble that is hitting everyone, but it might be the only outlet that can survive advertising woes because of its enormous digital subscription numbers.
All in all, that business of it being the “FAILING New York Times?” That’s simply not true.
Truth is Essential
In other major New York Times news on Wednesday, the news organization came out with a powerful new ad campaign built on the idea that the truth is essential when it comes to the coronavirus.
Although President Donald Trump is never mentioned, it clearly was produced to stand up against many of the false statements Trump has made over the past couple of months.
As an example, the ad — composed of nothing more than white sentences in front of a black screen with music and the sound of typing — says things such as “it’s not just a bad flu” and “bleach is not a cure” and “it won’t just disappear.” Click here to see the ad.
Give the Times credit: Aside from being a sensational news outlet, they certainly know how to produce strong ads.
The first story the Times printed about a mysterious “pneumonia-like illness” in China appeared on Jan. 6. Since then, the Times has published several thousand stories from 1,100 journalists in more than 20 countries.
The Latest, New, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Star War Fan, held her second official press briefing Wednesday. It lasted just under 30 minutes and ended with McEnany taking a shot at several news outlets.
You might remember that on Feb. 25 during an appearance on Fox Business, McEnany infamously said, “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here, we will not see terrorism come here, and isn’t that refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama?”
At the end of Wednesday’s press conference, McEnany was asked about that quote and whether she would like to take that back. Clearly waiting for that question at some point, McEnany started flipping through her notebook as the question was being asked. She said she was talking about travel restrictions from China.
But then she said, “I guess I would turn the question back on the media …” as she proceeded to read off past statements she attributed to Vox, The Washington Post, The New York Times and NPR. She concluded by saying, “I’ll leave you with those questions and maybe you’ll have some answers in a few days.” With that, she walked away.
Certainly, McEnany can push back against the media, but that parting shot — reading a bunch of quotes without full context as a response to a ridiculous quote she gave on Fox News — came off as petty.
Speaking of the White House, after reports that President Trump was thinking about disbanding the White House coronavirus task force, he tweeted Wednesday that it will carry on “indefinitely.”