• by Sara Guaglione , November 1, 2018

The New York Times Company reported a 24.4% increase in digital-only subscriptions in Q3, compared with the end of the third quarter of 2017. That totals an additional 203,000.

It also grew total revenue by 8% against the same quarter in 2017.

NYTCO now has over 3 million digital-only subscriptions and more than 4 million total subscriptions.

Subscription revenues increased 4.5% in Q3 this year. NYTCO says this is primarily due to growth in recent years in the number of subscriptions to its digital-only products, such as Crossword and Cooking.

Revenue from digital-only products increased 18.1%, compared with the third quarter of 2017, to $101.2 million.

Of those 203,000 new digital subscriptions, 143,000 came from NYTCO’s digital news products, while the remainder came from its Cooking and Crossword products.

“We’re executing on our subscription-first strategy; this quarter, subscription revenues accounted for nearly two-thirds of the Company’s revenues,” stated Mark Thompson, president-CEO of The New York Times Company. “We’re investing aggressively in our journalism, product and marketing and are seeing tangible results in our digital growth."

Total advertising revenues increased 7.1% in the third quarter of 2018.

Digital advertising grew 17% to $57.8 million, or 47.5% of the company’s total advertising revenues, compared with $49.2 million, or 43.3%, in the third quarter of 2017.

This was due to growth in both creative services and traditional direct-sold advertising on NYTCO’s digital platforms, according to the company.

Total revenues for the third quarter of 2018 increased 8.2% to $417.3 million from $385.6 million in the third quarter of 2017.

Print advertising revenue decreased 0.7%.

Additional revenue came from renting out four and a half more floors of the company’s New York headquarters building, as well as affiliate referral revenue from Wirecutter, its product review and recommendation website.

In the fourth quarter of 2018, the company expects digital-only subscription revenue and digital advertising revenue to increase in the mid-teens, compared to the same quarter in 2017.