New York Times subscriber growth slows in uncertain economy

STORY: U.S. presidential elections typically boost engagement for media companies… but the New York Times did not gain as many digital subscribers as expected in the third quarter.

The Times added 260,000 digital-only subscribers from July to September….

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…about 20,000 less than what analysts polled by Visible Alpha expected.

Readers appear to have been cutting back on spending in an uncertain economy.

One analyst told Reuters that U.S. consumers’ interest in paying for news remains limited.

Still, digital ads helped the company rake in enough revenue over the quarter to be just shy of analyst estimates of around 640 million dollars.

The Times has set a goal to reach 15 million digital subscribers by 2027.

It’s strategy so far to drive growth has been through bundling its core news offerings with lifestyle-focused products such as Wirecutter, sports website The Athletic and games like Wordle.

On Tuesday, the company’s CEO said those offerings had been drawing in ad buyers… even as some advertisers avoid certain news topics.

However, the quarter’s disappointing results suggest that bundling strategy hasn’t been enough to totally stave off consumers’ inflation anxiety.