The ‘secret’ to NYT’s subscription growth: Quality content

The New York Times is regularly cited as one of subscription publishing’s leading success stories, and for good reason: It’s amassed 9.17 million paid subscribers and says it’s on track to reach 15 million in the next five years. As a result, the subscription tactics and approaches employed by the publisher are watched closely by those across the world of media and publishing. Points of interest often include how it “bundles” features, its use of an AI-informed dynamic paywall, how it prices and promotes offers, retention tactics and more. What’s interesting about NYT, however, is the company rarely points to intricate paywall or product innovations as core drivers for its subscriber growth – at least publicly. Instead, its executives clearly and repeatedly attrib