New York Times Co Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Question: Benjamin Soff - Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. - Analyst : Yeah, good morning, everyone. Thanks for the question. So as you mentioned, you had an Analyst Day a couple of years ago where you provided multi-year guidance. Now in 2025, we're entering that window. You've obviously accomplished a lot over the past few years, and the entire landscape has evolved. So I was hoping you could reflect a bit on how the business has changed and how we should be thinking about those long-term targets? And then I have a follow-up.

Question: Benjamin Soff - Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. - Analyst : Great. And then for the bundled product, you saw ARPU inflect to positive growth this quarter. It's a big milestone. Do you anticipate that bundled ARPU can grow sustainably from here, or will it vary depending on the cadence of sub growth and the promos you're running?

Question: Thomas Yeh - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Thanks, good morning. Meredith, you mentioned your focus on growing the engaged pool across verticals. Is that a top of funnel comment on registered users? And how does that translate into the different types of investments, whether that's more content or tech or maybe a different approach to marketing? And then dovetailing that with the marketing expense in the quarter. Maybe for Will. I noticed the sequential step-up on paid media expenses. Can you dig a bit into the nature of your philosophy around ROI expectations on performance marketing and how we should think about the timing of when you might realize the ROI on that? Thank you. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 05, 2025 / 1:00PM, NYT.N - Q4 2024 New York Times Co Earnings Call

Question: David Karnovsky - JPMorgan - Analyst : Hey, thanks. With digital ads, Meredith, wanted to see if you could just expand on the rollout on the lifestyle products to date, curious how visible those ads are, say, on athletic and games relative to what you would see on news. And then I think growth has largely come from increasing programmatic supply. Should we think of that as the driver ahead? And then just a separate question. Your cash and securities balance is approaching $1 billion. Assuming no further change in capital allocation, how do we kind of think about the optionality here? Is there potential for M&A, for instance, that we should be thinking about? Any color would be great. Thanks.

Question: Kutgun Maral - Evercore ISI - Analyst : Good morning, and thanks for taking the questions. I wanted to follow up on the engagement front, and I was hoping you could expand on the strength you called out earlier, maybe you can unpack the trends you're seeing, particularly post-election. It seems like we're perennially in an unprecedented times and presumably this adds to the value of your products, but perhaps you could help us think about the opportunities you see with the current dynamics and how it shapes your efforts to continue pushing to bundle and perhaps this year lean more into monetization? Thank you.

Question: Vasily Karasyov - Cannonball Research - Analyst : Thank you. Good morning, Meredith, I wanted to follow up on your comments about advertising revenue and ask you this. Obviously, you have a lot of engaged audience and impressions for sale. And the press release calls out display as the main driver of advertising, digital advertising revenue growth. Do you see any opportunities for other formats like video, for example, that would allow you to charge high CPM, probably step up of growth in that revenue line? And if you could share with us what you think opportunities are and what you're working on, that would be great. Thank you.

Question: Doug Arthur - Huber Research Partners - Analyst : Yeah, good morning. Will, just leaning into this -- your answer on the media expense line item, I mean when you talk about opportunity, did you see like a sudden surge in traffic to the site and so you stepped on the gas? I mean, what's sort of the chicken and the egg there?