What Happened?

Shares of newspaper and digital media company The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) fell 11.1% in the morning session after the company reported weak fourth quarter results. Its subscriber count fell below Wall Street's expectations, leading to revenue falling roughly in line with expectations. The company's guidance for Q1 2025 forecasts continued double-digit digital subscription revenue growth, but total advertising revenue could range from a slight decline to a small increase, indicating some uncertainty in ad performance​. Overall, this quarter was weak.

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What The Market Is Telling Us

The New York Times’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 4 moves greater than 5% over the last year. Moves this big are rare for The New York Times and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business. 

The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 3 months ago when the stock dropped 8% on the news that the company reported underwhelming third-quarter earnings. Its number of subscribers missed, and its EBITDA fell short of Wall Street's estimates. Notably, the company added 260,000 digital-only subscribers, below expectations, a deceleration from the 300,000 additions recorded in the previous quarter. Another disappointing aspect was the advertising revenue miss, amid a typically strong period for media companies, especially platforms with inventories relevant to the elections. Overall, this was a challenging quarter for the company.

The New York Times is down 6.3% since the beginning of the year, and at $49.09 per share, it is trading 13.6% below its 52-week high of $56.83 from October 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of The New York Times’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,433.

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