New York Times Co Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Question: Benjamin Soff - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : I first wanted to ask about the strength in digital advertising. It sounds like some of that growth came from bringing on new supply, so I was wondering, can you talk about where that new supply is showing up in your portfolio and how it's performing relative to your base. And maybe a part of that, can you talk about where we are with the rollout on the games app with advertising?

Question: Benjamin Soff - Deutsche Bank - Analyst : One more if you have time. You saw a pretty nice step-up in bundle ARPU, both on a sequential basis and then the year-over-year decline moderated. Can you talk about what you're seeing with promo step-ups and how you see the path to getting back to bundle ARPU growth on a year-over-year basis?

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : I wanted to ask about the net ads with news entitlement. I think it has been seeing a smoother cadence in recent quarters and years relative to historical volatility quarterly just given some of the news cycle that kind of comes up and down. Can you talk about just how much a heavy news cycle still plays a role in quarterly volatility or the opportunity that you see in pulling in paid subscriptions on those moments relative to maybe just a broadening effect that you're seeing just given more of the holistic bundle offering that you're providing to these consumers these days?

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : That's helpful. If I drill down a bit just to the acceleration in digital subscription revenue growth reflected in your 4Q guidance, how much of that is maybe a function of just the continued build-up of cohorts coming up for pricing step-ups, or are you embedding some expectation for net ads to accelerate and benefit from? Typically, I think an election year gives you a little bit more juice in terms of the ability to bring in more subscribers.

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan - Analyst : Meredith, you've commented on these calls including today, a lot about how prior changes in social media or search impacted not only The Times but the whole news complex in terms of website traffic. I'm interested, we're a couple quarters in now on search results that include a healthy amount of content delivered with AI. Are you seeing any impact to traffic as a result, not just on news, but for other verticals like Athletic or Wirecutter? And then one for Will, you mentioned the strike. I know this just like literally started within the past hour or so, but can you just clarify what you've built in for your Q4 forecast in terms of cost or any disruptions which could impact the top line?

Question: Kannan Venkateshwar - Barclays - Analyst : Maybe one on subscriber trends. I mean, typically, you guys tend to see some tailwind in Q3 sequentially versus Q2. And then, of course, this is also an election quarter. But it looks like net ads actually slowed a little bit. So could you just provide some context on the sequential trends and maybe why it slowed down a little bit? And then also, the same thing for Q4, I guess. I mean, Will implicit in the guidance is obviously an acceleration in Q4, which you typically see in Q4. But when I look at the delta in terms of the degree of acceleration you normally see, it feels a little bit lower than usual. And I'm just wondering if price increases and some degree of churn is embedded in that guidance. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 04, 2024 / 1:00PM, NYT.N - Q3 2024 New York Times Co Earnings Call

Question: Vasily Karasyov - Cannonball Research - Analyst : Meredith, I wanted to follow up and ask you to elaborate on something you said in your prepared remarks, and I may misquote you here, but you said something about audience headwinds and other platforms impacting your audience growth. So could you please tell us what exactly you meant there? And did you feel that you needed to bring this up? Is that trend getting worse for you, and how you're planning on dealing with that?

Question: Douglas Arthur - Huber Research Partners - Analyst : Actually, I've got two questions. One -- first question, there has been a fair amount of chaos and churn at the Washington Post and the L.A. Times. Are you seeing any benefit from that?

Question: Douglas Arthur - Huber Research Partners - Analyst : Got it. Okay. And Will, just on the cost breakdown, if you take The Athletic out and just look at the movement in cost expenses, sales and marketing, product development, and G&A, there was a lot of unusual movement this quarter. I think sales and marketing was up 22% at The Times. It was down a year ago. Is there anything driving these categories unusually in the quarter?