The New York Times Company reported first-quarter 2026 results on May 6, showing continued growth in digital-only subscribers, digital-only subscription revenue, and digital-only average revenue per user.

The company added approximately 310,000 net digital-only subscribers compared with the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, bringing total subscribers to approximately 13.08 million. The Times ended the quarter with approximately 12.52 million digital-only subscribers. The company rounds subscriber metrics to the nearest ten thousand.

Subscription revenue continued to shift toward digital. Total subscription revenue increased 11.3% year over year to $516.9 million, while digital-only subscription revenue increased 16.1% to $389.0 million. Print subscription revenue declined 1.1% to $127.8 million, primarily due to lower domestic home-delivery and single-copy revenue.

Digital-only ARPU was $9.77 in the first quarter, up 2.4% from the prior-year period. The company said the increase was driven primarily by subscribers moving from promotional to higher prices and by price increases on certain tenured subscribers.

The quarter was not driven by subscriptions alone. Total advertising revenue increased 17.3% to $126.8 million, while digital advertising revenue increased 31.6% to $93.3 million. The company attributed the digital advertising increase primarily to strong marketer demand and growth in advertising supply.

Total revenue increased 12.0% year over year to $712.2 million. Operating profit increased 54.5% to $90.6 million, while adjusted operating profit increased 27.2% to $117.9 million.

The growth also came with higher investment. Sales and marketing costs increased 17.1% to $77.3 million, primarily due to higher marketing and promotion expenses and higher advertising compensation and benefits expenses.

The Times describes its business as spanning news, games, sports, cooking and shopping advice. For subscription operators, that product breadth is relevant context, although the company did not break out how much of the quarter’s subscriber growth came from bundles, single-product subscriptions, promotional step-ups, current news demand, or specific lifestyle products.

For the second quarter, The New York Times said it expects digital-only subscription revenue to increase 14% to 17% year over year and total subscription revenue to increase 10% to 12%.

INSIDER TAKE

The Times’ quarter is a useful benchmark for mature subscription businesses because the gains were not limited to subscriber count. Digital-only ARPU increased, digital-only subscription revenue rose 16.1%, and the company added approximately 310,000 net digital-only subscribers.

For operators, that combination is important. Mature subscription growth depends on more than acquisition volume. It also depends on paid conversion quality, promotional step-ups, pricing execution, product engagement, and the cost required to sustain growth.

The ARPU detail deserves particular attention. The Times tied the increase primarily to subscribers moving from promotional to higher prices and to price increases on certain tenured subscribers. That reinforces a practical operating lesson: promotional acquisition only works if the product experience can support the move to a higher price.

There is a caveat. ARPU is a useful indicator, but it is not a complete measure of subscriber quality. The release does not provide churn, cohort retention, promotional conversion rates, or lifetime value metrics. Those are the numbers operators would need to fully evaluate whether price movement is strengthening the subscriber base or lifting near-term revenue.

The Times’ broader product portfolio also matters, but it should not be treated as a fully isolated driver of the quarter. News, games, sports, cooking and shopping advice give the company multiple ways to build habit and reinforce the subscriber relationship. But without a breakout of bundle adoption, single-product growth, or product-level retention, the portfolio should be read as strategic context rather than a precise explanation for the quarter’s gains.

The other watch point is efficiency. The Times added subscribers and expanded ARPU while sales and marketing costs also increased. That makes the operator takeaway more nuanced: growth quality should be evaluated alongside acquisition spend, promotional economics, renewal behavior, and revenue per subscriber.

For subscription executives, the most useful lesson is the balance. The Times is continuing to grow digital subscribers, increase ARPU, and expand subscription revenue while investing more to support that growth. Mature subscription businesses should be asking similar questions: Are we adding the right subscribers? Are promotional customers stepping up successfully? Is ARPU increasing for durable reasons? And are the costs of growth improving or simply rising with revenue?