The New York Times Company (NYT) Q4 2018 earnings summary

Executive summary

• FY18 revenue rose 4.4% to $1.75B; operating profit increased 7.7% to $190.2M, led by digital subscriptions, digital advertising and other revenue.

• Paid subscriptions reached ~4.3M at year-end; digital-only subscriptions grew 27.1% to 3.36M.

• Strategy centers on subscription growth, investment in journalism and product innovation; the target is at least 10M subscriptions by 2025.

Financial highlights

• FY18 net income attributable to common stockholders was $125.7M versus $4.3M in FY17; diluted EPS was $0.75 versus $0.03.

• Adjusted diluted EPS was $0.81 versus $0.76; adjusted operating profit was $262.6M versus $274.8M.

• Subscription revenue rose 3.4% to $1.04B; digital-only subscription revenue grew 17.7% to $400.6M.

• Advertising revenue was nearly flat at $558.3M: print fell 6.5% to $299.4M while digital grew 8.6% to $258.9M.

• Other revenue increased 36.0% to $147.8M; total revenue growth excluding FY17’s extra week was 6.2%.

Outlook and guidance

• At least 10M subscriptions targeted by 2025; FY19 priorities include further investment in journalism, product innovation and audience engagement.

• The Weekly was scheduled to premiere in June 2019 on FX and Hulu.

• Expected qualified pension contributions to meet minimum funding requirements: ~$9M in 2019; Madison liquidation distribution expected at $5M-$8M in 2019.

• Management expected cash, marketable securities and operating cash flow to cover financing needs over the next 12 months.