NYT earnings call transcript, November 4, 2026

Great.

Thanks for the question, David.

performance in the quarter, both because it's the biggest quarter of the year and because it's the last quarter of the year. It's just something to know about and kind of one of the reasons you'll see just a wider guide. But the basic framework for our guidance is unchanged. And just overall on cost investments, whether it's Q4 or beyond, the most important thing to say is the overall approach hasn't changed. So what does that mean? We're focused on closely managing costs while also making those long-term strategic investments that differ and differentiate us and build on our competitive advantages. This year, in particular, you saw us continuing. I highlighted my remarks, investments in video. And it's that disciplined approach that enables us to continue to target not just healthy revenue growth, but also year-over-year AOP growth for 2026 and also beyond. Great.

Thanks for the questions, Cameron.

Next question, please.

We have a lot of demand. We have really differentiated consumer products in those spaces. We have scale of engagement and strong targetability. And all of that sort of means marketers keep coming back. The ads work. It's a really, really unique platform. So that's my answer on ads. Here's what I'll say on password sharing, which is what I think you're asking me about. Two things there. One, what you might be referring to as we continue to be really excited about our family plan, which allows people to sort of in the sunshine, add people to their account in a way that we just think is like net positive in every way to our model. So that's probably what you're seeing us market assertively. And that does come with, you know, again, it's in the sunshine. So sort of almost the opposite of cracking down on passwords. word. And the other thing I'll say there is we still think we've got a big TAM to penetrate Family Plan. It's one of the ways that we're doing that. And what you see us doing and sort of aiming to keep penetrating that TAM in all the ways we're doing. And so that's, I don't know if that's what you're referring to, but that's how I would answer the question. Good. Great.

Thanks, David.

It sounds like you recently consolidated your video operations teams into one unified team. Can you share an update on the progress of the video strategy, and are the investments to stand-up videos still growing, or have you reached a steady state there? Thank you. I'll take that one, and let me just start by saying we've got really big ambitions in video for the Times to be as preferred a brand to watch as it is to read and listen, and this is a kind of long bet that we can grow engagement from the audience we have, and also grow audience, because we're going to engage new people in different ways. I'm not sure what you're referring to operationally. We've been in a sort of steady state of scaling production in the newsroom of video, and that's happening in myriad ways. So we've got a big and expansive shows group, and I referred to that in my prepared remarks, where we're putting a lot of resource and energy into a growing stable of shows that are getting more and more cultural resonance. We also continue to have a big effort on visual investigation. Which we've referred to in prior quarters in prepared remarks. We, today in my prepared remarks, do a very big effort in the development of short form video. We've talked about that pretty extensively. So a lot of reporter video. And then also now we're sort of leading some sizes like fashion critics, Vanessa Pree. We've got another one coming from one of the hosts of The Daily. So all that, I would just say, reflects a sort of big effort to sort of harness the investment we've already made in extraordinary journalists and journalism and put it into new forms.

And I think you've heard both Will and I talk about this as a key area of investment and we expect it to drive more. And ultimately, over time, we expect that to enhance our monetization. Great.

Thanks, Ben.

Operator, next question.

Yeah, thanks. I appreciate the question. Obviously, we're pleased to have healthy capital. and a very strong balance sheet, which means we've got financial flexibility, as you know. We're really thoughtful and disciplined in our approach to capital allocation, and it's all aimed at delivering attractive long-term returns for our shareholders. And for us, that means, as I think you know, continuing to prioritize organic long-term growth investment above everything, but also accelerating our capital return, as well as considering strategic M&A. You referred to, I mentioned this in my prepared remarks, that our framework for capital return includes a process that enables us to opportunistically accelerate share purchases when we believe there are particularly attractive return opportunities. We saw that in Q3. And so, with that acceleration, have at this point returned about 60 percent of our free cash flow so far this year. And I think you can expect, based on that framework, that that could happen again in the future. If we see attractive return opportunities. And then as far as M&A, while our growth investments are primarily organic, given the huge spaces we're in, as Meredith has said, the running room we see, we're always on the market considering potential M&A opportunities that might meet our high bar. And just to be clear about what we mean by our high bar, that's fitting with our brand and quality standards, accelerating our strategy, and providing an attractive risk-adjusted return on capital.

So, to sort of sum it up, that the discipline in our capital allocation framework means that we're aiming for the most attractive long-term returns on capital through both strategic growth investment and capital return. It's not either or, it's both. Great.

And that plays a big role in the ad model, too. And I continue to be really optimistic about ads as a long-term growth driver for the Times. Will? Yeah, just a couple of things on your expense question. I just wanted to make clear sort of the G&A expense growth comment was really about Q3. It was a bit higher in the quarter, specifically because of some higher professional services and one-time promotional expenses related to the 175th anniversary of the company. I think G&A, as you've seen over some time, and certainly we expect it to continue to be an area where we're really focused on efficiency. In terms of the guide and your question about incentive comps, what I really need to indicate there is more that the variability, you know, at this stage it's just hard for us to call exactly where it lands because at the end of the year, it's just hard. It's our biggest quarter and based on how our compensation works, you know, depending on where revenue lands, you can have some variability there, but I answered the question before about our guide, that's the only thing we guide to, and it's overall a framework of us continuing to have a real focus on efficiency while also make disciplined strategic investments for long term. sustainable growth. So that's what you're seeing in our guide and what you should expect to see going forward. Great.

Thanks, Jason.

Next question, please.

Hi, Kanan.

Let me take the first part of the question. Well, maybe you take the second part of the question. At the risk of repeating myself, I will just say, you know, a version of what how I answered the prior question. A lot of our economic model is driven by consistently strong subscriber engagement. And that is true for subs. It is. Also true for ads. And, you know, the risk of saying that twice, I think that plays a role in our ad strategy and growth. And in terms of where we came in relative to the guide, I think it's just exactly where ads land in a quarter can be hard to predict. So I don't think there's much more sort of to see there. Will, maybe you take the other part of the question? Yeah, sure. I mean, I'd sort of say, I mean, look, you highlighted this, but we're pleased with our growth in digital subscribers and digital subscription revenue in Q3. And both as a way to sort of think about that in Q3 and also going forward, we've been breaking the way we understand digital subscription revenue growth into three basic categories. So first is sub growth over the prior 12 months, even as sub additions can vary quarter to quarter. Second is mix. So the mix of those subscribers between higher price bundle subs and lower price single price subs. And then third is the pricing step up performance. And by step up, I mean two things. How well are subs transitioning off promotion to higher prices as well as the timing and performance of any price increases? So as I noted in my prepared remarks, we saw 13 percent year-over-year increase in average subscribers, ARPU growth getting us the rest of the way to that 14.6 percent digital subscription growth in third quarter.

The high end of our guidance range. We mentioned in the last call that we had anticipated a cohort impact from the paywalling of the mini in last year's Q3. And regarding the volume impact of that cohort, we were pleased with the retention performance in the quarter. And while that also meant sort of relatively large submix from lower-priced single product subs, the impact in quarters ARPU, we also continue to be pleased with pricing performance at all the step-up points across the portfolio. And then with that. With that color, I'll just go back to sort of the overarching question. Overall, strong digital subscriber growth is what we expect because the strategy continues to work as designed. We're focused on sustaining healthy underlying drivers of digital subscription revenue. That means continuing, as Meredith has said, to add significant value into our products, generating that strong engagement over time, and then asking users to pay a bit more over time as those products become even more differentiated and valuable. And I'll just tie it all together. All of that is good for the ad business. All of that sort of girds our confidence about the ads as a continued growth driver for the time.

Thanks, Kanan.

Let's take one last question, Operator.