New York Times CEO: Print journalism has maybe another 10 years

Authored by cnbc.com and submitted by jimmyolsenblues
image for New York Times CEO: Print journalism has maybe another 10 years

New York Times CEO: There will be many times more digital subscribers than print 2:13 PM ET Mon, 12 Feb 2018 | 03:06

The newspaper printing presses may have another decade of life in them, New York Times CEO Mark Thompson told CNBC on Monday.

"I believe at least 10 years is what we can see in the U.S. for our print products," Thompson said on "Power Lunch." He said he'd like to have the print edition "survive and thrive as long as it can," but admitted it might face an expiration date.

"We'll decide that simply on the economics," he said. "There may come a point when the economics of [the print paper] no longer make sense for us."

"The key thing for us is that we're pivoting," Thompson said. "Our plan is to go on serving our loyal print subscribers as long as we can. But meanwhile to build up the digital business, so that we have a successful growing company and a successful news operation long after print is gone."

READ MORE: New York Times CEO defends coverage of Kim Jong Un's sister as 'good reporting'

Digital subscriptions, in fact, may be what's keeping the New York Times afloat for a new generation of readers. While Thompson said the number of print subscribers is relatively constant, "with a little bit of a decline every time," the company said last week that it added 157,000 digital subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2017. The majority were new subscribers, but that number also included cooking and crossword subscriptions.

Revenue from digital subscriptions increased more than 51 percent in the quarter compared with a year earlier. Overall subscription revenue increased 19.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the company's fourth-quarter earnings and revenue beat analysts expectations, "even though the print side of the business is still somewhat challenged," Thompson said. Total revenue rose 10 percent from a year earlier to $484.1 million. New York Times' shares have risen more than 20 percent this year.

Even with the recent market volatility the stock is up 8 percent from last week.

Under Thompson's leadership, the New York Times has become the first news organization in the world to pass the 1 million digital-only subscription mark.

"Without question we make more money on a print subscriber," Thompson said. "But the point about digital is that we believe we can grow many, many more of them. We've already got more digital than print subscribers. Digital is growing very rapidly. Ultimately, there will be many times the number of digital subscribers compared to print."

flyZerach on February 13rd, 2018 at 16:35 UTC »

I was the paperboy for the local newspaper but around Christmas time last year, they fired me because 'I wasn't doing my work properly.' After Christmas I pick up a copy, turns out they're only printing twice a week now.

Should've just told me they were downsizing. Would've stressed me out less.

lovelylayout on February 13rd, 2018 at 13:49 UTC »

Newspaper employee checking in: Local dailies/biweeklies/weeklies are doing okay round these parts.

Some of our properties really need journalists and editors, though. The older editors are starting to retire and no one's stepping up to replace them. All the new journalism/mass comm graduates want to get into flashy, specified online pubs instead of reporting on city/county news and crime. :c

PM-ME-YOUR-BOOBS69 on February 13rd, 2018 at 12:15 UTC »

"We'll decide that simply on the economics," he said. "There may come a point when the economics of [the print paper] no longer make sense for us." While Thompson said the number of print subscribers is relatively constant, "with a little bit of a decline every time," the company said last week that it added 157,000 digital subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2017.

I guess that is a fair assumption. I don't know of a lot of people my age that still read a print newspaper. That is mostly the older generation. I just get my information and news online.

The big problem I see is that most people want to get all of their news for free.