Ms. Levien emphasized that The Times would continue to invest heavily in its journalism, adding that she also favored the addition of digital games and other non-news content. Along with its main news offering, The Times has attracted subscribers with a crossword app and a cooking site.
“We have really big ambitions for The New York Times and we have big ambitions for independent journalism, more generally,” she said.
The Times has fared better than many other news organizations since readers started showing a preference for getting their news on screens, rather than print. Newspaper publishers, many now under hedge fund ownership, have cut back staff and resources in recent years. Roughly half of all newspaper jobs were eliminated from 2004 to 2019.
The Times Company has a healthy balance sheet, with about $687 million in available cash. Ms. Levien said she would not rule out acquisitions, while adding that the market for additional subscribers was vast — potentially as many as 100 million people, she said.
“The Times has a big opportunity to go after it,” she said.
Ms. Levien, who was the chief revenue officer at Forbes Media before joining The Times, said she was skeptical, at first, when she was approached to join the paper seven years ago.
“I asked people for advice, and just the sentiment was that it was a great journalism company, but maybe the best days of its business were behind it,” she said.
“But in the end,” she added, “I love the place and I love the mission.”
Growing up in Richmond, Va., she did not regularly have access to The Times, she said. When her parents, both native New Yorkers, occasionally brought the paper home, it struck her as different from the local daily she was used to reading.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/business/media/new-york-times-ceo-meredith-kopit-levien.html
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