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The company’s digital advertising revenue rose 12.6% as advertisers cut spending following the conflict in Ukraine, inflationary pressures and macroeconomic uncertainties.
Total first-quarter revenue was $537.4 million, compared with estimates of $546 million, according to Refinitiv data.
The Times’ recent acquisitions such as viral daily word game “Wordle” and sports news website The Athletic buttress its aim to pour more resources into podcasts, newsletters and other subscription-based news services.
The publisher has steadily added paid digital subscribers to its non-core news products and benefited from companies shifting more money towards digital ads. The company had a total of 9.1 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter.
“Wordle brought an unprecedented tens of millions of new users to The Times, many of whom stayed to play other games which drove our best quarter ever for net subscriber additions to Games,” Chief Executive Officer Meredith (NYSE:MDP) Kopit Levien said.
The company’s shares rose 1.6% to $39.50 in premarket trading on Wednesday.
The Times expects digital advertising revenue to increase in the low single digits for the second quarter. The company’s finance chief said advertisers avoided placing ads close to Ukraine coverage stories.
As the publisher inches closer to its subscriber goal of 15 million by 2027, The Athletic is eating into overall profits. The sports website lost $6.8 million over February and March.
The Times’ operating profit shrank to $6.28 million from $51.66 million a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 19 cents per share just ahead of estimates.
