New York Times Co at JPMorgan Materials Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. So you are now well into what you've termed the next phase of your journey, part of which is focused on transitioning The Times from a single product to a bundled offer. So how would you benchmark your progress at this point toward long-term goals? And where are you focused currently?

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. That was a great high-level overview. We'll touch upon all that. So this past quarter, New York Times crossed 3 million bundle or multiproduct subscribers. I think you called out a record for bundle starts, bundle upgrades. I wanted to see if you could speak to how you've repositioned marketing and product towards the bundle strategy to get that uptake from new and existing readers.

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. So that increased engagement that you spoke about before? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 23, 2023 / 5:55PM, NYT.N - New York Times Co at JPMorgan Materials Conference

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. Sorry about that. Is the engagement primarily a sub who is mainly on news now taking another product? Or is that sub who was on news just by being in your ecosystem or engaging with news more as well, right? Is it more verticals or -- yes.

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Got it. Okay. So The Times begin to ramp the bundle strategy. I think around this time last year that followed the athletic acquisition, so I'm assuming that means some of those initial bundle cohorts are now either lapping or coming up to the end of their promotional period. So any early view on retention versus like a news promo sub? How fast do you think you can kind of graduate them to that full price?

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : And going back to the stat or target you just gave or maybe where the bundle could go as a percentage of overtime right? If we think about your subscriber base, there's a minority but still material portion that's international. Is the bundle offering -- does that resonate as much abroad? Does that require you to tweak that non-news product somewhat to make it more palatable for those audiences?

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Everywhere. Okay. I want to touch upon the topic of traffic. So for most of The Times digital journey, I think social media could be relied upon as a distribution funnel for your product. That option is not gone, but maybe because of TikTok or the way others responded to TikTok, it's maybe a diminished source of referral. And you've been out in front of this, you've highlighted this, but maybe focusing in a bit. Are you seeing this impact on a particular kind of segment of your reader, potential sub? And then what are you can -- what can you do to sort of widen that funnel back?

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : And on that topic, I think with the athletic you're doing more daily sports coverage, more live sports coverage. How do you win mind share there versus someone who might just go to ESPN for that type of coverage? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 23, 2023 / 5:55PM, NYT.N - New York Times Co at JPMorgan Materials Conference

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Understood. So you recently announced that you will execute a price increase for tendered subs. I think first, this is for news and Games, then Cooking later in the year. And obviously, it's interesting because, arguably, we're heading towards a slower, economic period you can debate that. But can you give some background on the decision here, the confidence that you can execute this with fairly limited churn?

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. On the earnings call, I think Roland highlighted it was going to be 1 -- around 1.5 million subs that we get a price increase notification this year. And I think we can estimate around 1.2 million of those are news, some getting just news, some getting news plus another product. Should we think of that figure as sort of your fully tenured news base and the balance are on promo or -- you're shaking your head so I think...

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : The answer is no.

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. And then for those multiproduct subs that are buying news plus Cooking or news plus Games, is this an occasion to kind of use a price increase to get those people into the bundle? I mean I think the difference is $3 or something like that.

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Got it. I want to move on to advertising. So The New York Times Group reported digital ad sales down 12% in the first quarter. There's some nuance there between direct sold versus programmatic and creative services and podcasting. Maybe you can comment on that. But also just as we're past the halfway mark through the quarter, I wanted to see if there's any update you could provide on the demand environment. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 23, 2023 / 5:55PM, NYT.N - New York Times Co at JPMorgan Materials Conference

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Got it. You recently announced the hiring of a global Chief Advertising Officer. I think this is the first time outside the company.

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Since you? Okay. Got it. Maybe you can speak to how that ties into the longer-term goals for The Times and the athletic?

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Got it. I want to shift topics a bit and ask you about AI, which has been a topic of... REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 23, 2023 / 5:55PM, NYT.N - New York Times Co at JPMorgan Materials Conference

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Yes. So I'm interested to get your early view on how you think this could potentially impact how consumers get their news and information. And what does that mean for The Times in terms of risk or opportunity in your relationship with your readers?

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Got it. We have about 5 minutes left. If anyone in the room has a question, you can raise your hand. We've got one over there in the aisle, 2 actually. Unidentified Analyst Your prior comments is a perfect segue to what my question is. And I'm thinking in terms of AI and deep fakes, and I agree with you, trust is at an all-time low. I think that's an objective fact at this point. And my personal opinion is probably going to get worse before it gets better. I think about where AI is in terms of deep fakes and what real news is. How do you think about that and sort of combating that so we can actually have a foundation where we say, okay, this is objective truth. We may not agree with it or we may not want to debate it, but we -- here's a fact pattern that we can discuss and not have to worry about did President Biden or President Trump say this or not say this because there's AI that wrapped around it that may have been put into place to really spark a reaction from various sites. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MAY 23, 2023 / 5:55PM, NYT.N - New York Times Co at JPMorgan Materials Conference

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Great. Go ahead. Unidentified Analyst Just one question on subscriber adds. When you look at the last few years of the news cycle and the tentpole news and the pace of subscriber adds and what you're experiencing now, has this experience changed your point of view on the subscriber target or the pace of additions because were you adding subscribers at an extraordinarily high rate because we were going through an extraordinary period, and so you should just modulate your perspective on the rate of growth going forward.

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Mike. Unidentified Analyst Follow-up question in the last -- observation in the last one. Seasonally, I'm wondering about the volatility in the Presidential Election cycle, really that -- because that's -- in the past, I think Trump created a lot of headlines that were very timely.

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. Unfortunately, I think we're out of time. So we'll have to end it there. Thanks so much, Meredith.