In addition to closing on The Athletic, The Times said this week that it was acquiring the viral online puzzle Wordle, which will be added to the Games app (and remain free, at least initially).
For the fourth quarter of 2021, the company reported adjusted operating profit of $109.3 million, a 12 percent increase from a year earlier, and revenue of $594.2 million, a 16.7 percent rise. Operating costs rose at virtually the same rate, to $500.1 million. Subscription revenue rose about 11 percent, to $351.2 million.
For the year, revenue grew 16.3 percent, to $2.1 billion — making 2021 The Times’s first $2 billion year since 2012. Operating costs were up 12.2 percent, to $1.8 billion. While subscription revenue grew 13.9 percent, to $1.4 billion, the year also represented a rebound for advertising, where revenue grew to $497.5 million, a 26.8 percent increase from 2020, though still 6.2 percent less than it brought in before the pandemic, in 2019.
The company said it expected subscription revenue to increase 11 to 15 percent in the current quarter, which includes two months with The Athletic as part of the company. The Times added that it expected digital subscription revenue to rise 23 to 28 percent and ad revenue to gain 17 to 21 percent. Costs will rise 18 to 22 percent, the company said.
The company’s board of directors raised the dividend 2 cents per share, to 9 cents, and authorized a $150 million stock repurchase, the company said. While the buyback will affect only Class A shares, which are available to the public, the dividend will apply both to those shares and to Class B shares, which are primarily owned by the Ochs-Sulzberger family that controls The Times.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/business/media/nyt-earnings-q4-2021.html
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