Scoop: NYT eyes U.S. subscription bundle partners
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The New York Times is exploring bundled subscription partnerships with smaller publishers to expand its subscriber base in the U.S., sources told Axios.
Why it matters: The Times has been using partnerships to bolster its international subscriber base for the last few months. Now, it's in the early stages of bringing that strategy to the U.S. by focusing on deals that offer access to its lifestyle subscription products, such as cooking, games and sports.
- Examples of international subscription bundle partners include El País in Spain, Corriere della Sera in Italy, and Politiken in Denmark.
State of play: The Times recently reached out to The Ankler, a digital news startup covering Hollywood and the entertainment industry, about a deal that would have given The Ankler subscribers access to its subscription games content, two sources familiar with the pitch told Axios.
- The deal pitched would have essentially seen The Ankler providing NYT Games access as an added benefit to its subscribers.
- Subscribers to The Ankler would have received redeemable codes to access NYT Games. They would have been directed to the Times' account sign-up page to create an account.
- The Times has also considered offering potential partners access to its lifestyle journalism beyond games, such as cooking and sports.
Zoom out: The partnership did not ultimately materialize, but the pitch provides a unique window into the Times' subscription growth strategy.
- The hope is that subscribers from partner sites who create an account with the Times to redeem their access codes would be more likely to explore other NYT subscription products.
- It currently has a job posting listed on LinkedIn for a director who would help oversee the expansion of partner and enterprise subscriptions.
By the numbers: The Times has over 11 million total subscribers, 10.5 million of which are digital-only. It hopes to reach 15 million subscribers by 2027.
Between the lines: The Times' most engaged subscribers, according to data presented to its investors in 2022, are those who subscribe to multiple subscription products, or its broader subscription bundle.
- The company has significantly increased its subscriber base by offering subscriptions to lifestyle services adjacent to news content, like games, cooking, sports and consumer reviews.
- As of the third quarter of last year, bundle and multiproduct Times subscribers now make up 46% of the company's total subscriber base.
- Those subscribers, on average, drive a 7.5% higher average revenue per user (ARPU) than digital subscribers just to the Times' news report, per the Times' earnings report data from Q3.
The big picture: The Times has been building a suite of subscription products, both organically and through acquisitions, for the past few years.
- The Times launched a digital subscription for Wirecutter, the consumer reviews site it acquired in 2016, four years ago.
- It acquired The Athletic, a subscription sports journalism startup, in 2022. It added The Athletic to its all-access digital subscription bundle later that year.
What to watch: Other U.S. media brands have explored partner subscriptions as the paid journalism market becomes more saturated.
- On the enterprise side, Reuters and Gannett are partnering on a bundled subscription that will combine Reuters' global reach with Gannett's local footprint.
- The Information and Bloomberg tested a consumer subscription bundle a few years ago that would combine its inside tech journalism with Bloomberg's broader business coverage.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to say there are over 11 million total subscribers (not 11,090), of which 10.5 million (not 10,470) are digital-only.
