New York Times quarterly revenue beats estimates on strong subscriber growth

(Reuters) – The New York Times Co beat second-quarter revenue estimates on Wednesday as a jump in subscribers helped the company paper over a coronavirus-induced collapse in advertising spending.

The Times, which competes for ad dollars with big players like Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google, has been shifting towards a subscriber-backed model in an effort to cut its reliance on advertising.

It launched its digital-only subscriptions in 2011 and offers crosswords and podcasts including the popular “The Daily” in addition to its core news product.

The media company that gets more than half of its revenue from subscriptions said it added 669,000 digital subscribers in the quarter.

Subscription revenue rose 8.4% to $293.19 million, helping the company tide over a 43.9% drop in advertising revenue.

The company’s total revenue fell 7.5% to $403.75 million, above analysts’ estimates of $387.18 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Net income attributable to stockholders fell to $23.66 million, or 14 cents per share, in the quarter ended June 30 from $25.17 million, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier.

(Reporting by Neha Malara in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)