How The New York Times Has Performed During The Trump Presidency

Dave Royse
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New York Times Co (NYSE: NYT) shares were surging Wednesday after the newspaper company said it reached a new high in digital and print subscriptions of 4.3 million.

The same New York Times that President Donald Trump regularly calls “failing” has its most subscribers ever.

And most of that is because of growth in new digital subscribers: roughly three-quarters of the subscriber base are the 3.3 million readers who pay for digital subscriptions, a segment that has ballooned by nearly 30 percent since 2017.

The Trump Factor

The news company not only appears likely headed toward its goal of $800 million in digital sales by the end of 2020, but said that in the three months ending in December it saw its biggest jump in digital subscriptions since it started seeing a “Trump bump" — a boost in interest in its publication after Trump’s election.

The Times’ share price has more than doubled since Trump became president. It opened at just under $28 on Wednesday, up from $13.30 on Jan. 20, 2017, the day Trump was inaugurated, and $11.05 on Nov. 8, 2016, the day Trump was elected.

Last summer, the Times said Trump had termed the newspaper as "failing," "fake" or with some other criticism more than 200 times since taking office.

Bucking Media Trends

The Times' report of record subscriptions and strong revenue comes as other digital media properties are contracting.

Other major newspaper publishers, including Gannett Co Inc (NYSE: GCI) and McClatchy Co (NYSE: MNI) have laid off staff, as have digital-only news organizations, such as privately held Buzzfeed, which recently cut 15 percent of its staff.

View more earnings on NYT

The Cut reported this week that more than 2,000 writers, editors and other employees have lost jobs at media organizations just in the past two weeks.

While the Times has offered buyouts and conducted some layoffs in the last couple of years, the company said that overall last year, its newsroom added 120 employees, and that the number of New York Times journalists is now 1,600 — the most it has ever had.

New York Times shares were up 10.37 percent at $29.69 at the close Wednesday.

Related Links:

JPMorgan Buying New York Times Stock As More Consumers Buy Digital Subscriptions

NY Times' Digital Sales Won't Make A Big Impact For At Least 4 Years

Photo by Haxorjoe/Wikimedia.

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