Like other media companies, The New York Times is recognizing that its survival depends on growth in a lot of areas, not just display advertising or subscriptions.<\/p>\n
The Times\u2019 push to double digital revenue to $800 million by 2020 is built off a varied business model of agency work, subscriptions, ads and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no one single strategy for growing advertising,\u201d said Sebastian Tomich, who was just elevated to the Times\u2019 head of advertising from svp of advertising & innovation.<\/p>\n
Next year, the Times will push into a few areas outside its core but mature business selling display ads on NYTimes.com and less and less so in the print newspaper. Growth is expected to come from elaborate partnerships, like the Samsung-sponsored 360-degree videos that the Times publishes daily or a kid-aimed version of its popular news podcast, \u201cThe Daily,\u201d that the Times created for voice-activated device Google Home.<\/p>\n
The upside is big programs like these can command many millions of dollars. The downside is it can take up to nine months to sell them, and there are only so many companies in the market for them. Tomich has identified around 25 advertisers that are candidates for these and aims to sell five to 10 deals in the year ahead.<\/p>\n
Longer term, Tomich also sees growth coming from agency-like products and services via T Brand Marketing Solutions (formerly T Brand Studio), which could include running campaigns that run outside of Times properties.<\/p>\n
As its growth strategy evolves, so is the kind of talent the Times is looking for. The Times will always have salespeople, but it\u2019s de-emphasized that role as technology has made that function more efficient and clients are increasingly asking for creative expertise. As part of that shift, the Times let go several ad sales directors last week, the New York Post reported<\/a>. Now, there are fully 160 people in creative services, plus five to 10 business development leads that focus on the agency businesses. To sell those big partnerships, there\u2019s a new partnerships team led by Andy Wright that\u2019s set to have 18 people once fully staffed. Meanwhile, T Brand, now led by Amber Guild, a vet of The Martin Agency, is hiring creative and strategy people with agency backgrounds.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere the industry is heading, it\u2019s valuing creative people,\u201d Tomich said. \u201cTo compete as an agency, you\u2019ve got to have the people to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Closer collaboration with the newsroom will be another hallmark of 2018. To better systematize that effort, the Times named Allison Murphy to lead a new Ad Innovation team of about 30 people, separate from T Brand. Murphy is charged with developing new ad formats and leveraging Times journalism for advertisers.<\/p>\n That isn\u2019t supposed to mean Murphy will sit in on story meetings or that advertising will dictate news coverage; it\u2019s more she\u2019ll work with the Times\u2019 Reader Experience team on the product side (known familiarly as \u201cT Rex\u201d), led by svp Ben French, to identify editorial content that has an advertising opportunity. One such missed opportunity was a video the Times did on Justin Bieber<\/a>\u00a0in 2015 that was hugely popular but didn\u2019t have any special ad support.<\/p>\n Three years ago, the Times\u2019 scathing internal innovation report on itself<\/a> revealed a deep-set divide between news and advertising that was holding back growth. Today, under the threat of extinction, there\u2019s been far more willingness from news to cooperate with the business side, but the two still have their sensibility differences.<\/p>\n \u201cThe newsroom is still an untapped resource for advertising,\u201d Tomich said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s resistance; it\u2019s just foreign. There\u2019s not a lot of planning. There\u2019s a lot of serendipity.\u201d<\/p>\n The push into new buckets of marketing dollars comes at a point when the Times is getting more growth from subscriptions than advertising, to the point that it now talks about itself as a \u201cconsumer brand.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0The Times said it had 3.5 million paid subscriptions<\/a> as of the third quarter. Print advertising revenue decreased 20 percent, while digital ad revenue increased 11 percent. The pursuit of subscription dollars has led the Times to do things like lower its paywall meter count to five articles a month from 10 and start charging for Cooking\u2019s recipe content because the Times figures it can make more money from getting readers to pay directly than by selling advertising against that audience.<\/p>\n Those moves can have a short-term cost to a publisher\u2019s ad business, though. Publishers\u2019 ad problem has gotten bigger, with Google and Facebook gobbling up the majority of digital advertising and advertisers talking brand safety but continuing to allocate more of their budgets to the tech platform. That leaves publishers with little choice but to fight each other even harder for the scraps. For the Times, that means being more forceful about touting its quality, as defined not just by Pulitzers but its readers\u2019 willingness to pay.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to beat our chest more in the media market,\u201d Tomich said. \u201cGoing into next year, we\u2019re going to be much less modest. I want to be more vocal about how all inventory is not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Like other media companies, The New York Times is recognizing that its survival depends on growth in a lot of areas, not just display advertising or subscriptions. The Times\u2019 push to double digital revenue to $800 million by 2020 is built off a varied business model of agency work, subscriptions, ads and more. \u201cThere is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-data-labor-tech"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9sP0C-3a","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":73111,"url":"https:\/\/digiday.com\/media\/the-sustainable-model-rationalizing-the-new-york-times-plan-to-go-all-in-on-ads-with-subs-heavy-the-athletic\/","url_meta":{"origin":196,"position":0},"title":"\u2018The sustainable model\u2019: Rationalizing The New York Times\u2019 plan to go all in on ads with subs-heavy The Athletic","author":"rssmasher","date":"September 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Times-owned The Athletic is in the ads business. No news there. The question is \u201cwhy?\u201d It\u2019s not because the publisher suddenly realized that its subscriptions-focused sports title didn\u2019t scale nine months after it acquired it. It is another subscription business leaning on ads to get it through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Data-Labor-Technology Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Data-Labor-Technology Stories","link":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/category\/data-labor-tech\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3836,"url":"https:\/\/adexchanger.com\/ad-exchange-news\/digital-advertising-subscriptions-spur-new-york-times-2017-revenue-growth\/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ad-exchange-news+%28AdExchanger.com%3A+Exchanging+Ideas+On+Digital+Media+Optimization%29","url_meta":{"origin":196,"position":1},"title":"Digital Advertising And Subscriptions Spur New York Times\u2019 2017 Revenue Growth","author":"rssmasher","date":"February 8, 2018","format":"image","excerpt":"AdExchanger | The New York Times is making good on its goal to rev digital subscription revenue, but not at the expense of its other key growth driver: digital advertising. The Times\u2019 total subscription revenue surpassed $1 billion in 2017 as the company added 157,000 net new, digital-only subscriptions in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Data-Labor-Technology Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Data-Labor-Technology Stories","link":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/category\/data-labor-tech\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/ad-exchange-news\/~4\/7wsq-C_Zk7U","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":109988,"url":"https:\/\/www.mediapost.com\/publications\/article\/412881\/perplexity-backs-off-putting-ads-in-chatbot-answer.html","url_meta":{"origin":196,"position":2},"title":"Perplexity Backs Off Putting Ads In Chatbot Answers, Focuses On Subscriptions","author":"rssmasher","date":"February 17, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Perplexity is not seeking deals to place ads in chatbot answers, Financial Times reports. Instead, the AI search firm is moving ahead with subscriptions and business sales and plans, while focusing more on monetization than it did before, executives said during a roundtable discussion.","rel":"","context":"In "Data-Labor-Technology Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Data-Labor-Technology Stories","link":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/category\/data-labor-tech\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":109949,"url":"https:\/\/digiday.com\/media\/in-graphic-detail-subscriptions-are-rising-at-big-news-publishers-even-as-traffic-shrinks\/?utm_campaign=digidaydis&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=general-rss","url_meta":{"origin":196,"position":3},"title":"In Graphic Detail: Subscriptions are rising at big news publishers \u2013 even as traffic shrinks","author":"rssmasher","date":"February 16, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"After the pandemic-era surge in news publishers\u2019 subscribers, year-over-year gains are harder to come by, pushing publishers to prioritize retention, moving subscribers to higher-priced tiers and bundles, and product expansion. Digiday analyzed the subscription and paid reader revenue trends among major news publishers that have publicly shared these numbers, including\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Data-Labor-Technology Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Data-Labor-Technology Stories","link":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/category\/data-labor-tech\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38171,"url":"https:\/\/digiday.com\/media\/we-need-you-to-fill-the-gap-publishers-are-making-a-hard-sell-for-subscriptions\/","url_meta":{"origin":196,"position":4},"title":"\u2018We need you to fill the gap\u2019: Publishers are making a hard sell for subscriptions","author":"rssmasher","date":"May 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"News publishers aren\u2019t mincing words in their messages to push subscriptions, directly appealing to readers to support journalism and even make up for lost advertising revenue. The New York Times has run display ads reading, \u201cIn times of uncertainty, let facts be your guide.\u201d It even appeals to some readers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Data-Labor-Technology Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Data-Labor-Technology Stories","link":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/category\/data-labor-tech\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29352,"url":"https:\/\/digiday.com\/media\/digiday-research-digital-publishers-still-see-growth-direct-sold-display-ads\/","url_meta":{"origin":196,"position":5},"title":"Digiday Research: Digital publishers still see growth in direct-sold display ads","author":"rssmasher","date":"October 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the latest update to our ongoing research series tracking publishers\u2019 changing revenue mixes and sources. Direct-sold ads are the brightest spot for publishers\u2019 online revenues, according to Digiday Research. Of the 135 publishers surveyed by Digiday in a wide-ranging research survey this fall, more than 50% of publishers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Data-Labor-Technology Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Data-Labor-Technology Stories","link":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/category\/data-labor-tech\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/datalabortech.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}