The Athletic: The NY Times’s Crowning Achievement in 1st Quarter

By Christiana Sciaudone • May 7, 2025
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The New York Times reported nice growth for the first quarter, but it was the company’s sports division that took home the bacon for the quarter.

The Times breaks down results by NYTG, which appears to be everything minus The Athletic, and The Athletic, which speaks for itself. The following is compared to the first quarter of 2024.

To be entirely fair, The Athletic is coming in at much lower initial figures. Overall revenue at NYTG totaled $589 million to The Athletic’s $47.6 million.

It’s proof that The New York Times’ thesis for buying The Athletic is beginning to play out after a number of years of the publication being a drag on operating profits. It generated $2.9 million in adjusted operating profit, up from an $8.7 million loss in 2024.

Still, it’s noteworthy that the first quarter, which coincided with U.S. President Donald Trump’s unpredictably tumultuous first weeks in office and a battery of non-stop news about DOGE, peace treaties and deportations—legal and otherwise—growth hasn’t been faster.

From Q4 2024 to Q1 2025, it added 320,000 bundled subscriptions; whereas, from Q4 2023 to Q1 2024, it added 330,000 bundled subs. It’s slightly lower growth. On the other hand, from Q4 2023 to Q1 2024, it lost 240,000 news-only subscribers—likely moving over to one of the bundle offers—while from Q4 2024 to Q1 2025, it only lost 140,000. That could suggest more folks are sticking around for the news because of Trump.

What these earnings do show is the strength of The Athletic’s brand. There’s also no shortage whatsoever of websites, newsletters, podcasts, YouTube channels, etc for consuming sports news and yet people are showing up for a paid sports site.

Separately, The Athletic hit five million newsletter subscribers recently, for a 67% year-over-year increase, The Drum reported. That came after “one of the best weeks in the history of the company” during the NFL draft week, The Athletic’s director of creative development Chris Sprow said. Hitting six million isn’t far off.

Also notable from the NYT results:

  • The Times now has 5.76 million bundled subscribers, representing more than 50% of the total 11.66 million subscribers, itself up by 250,000 net digital-only subscribers compared with the end of the fourth quarter of 2024.
  • Digital-only average revenue per user increased 3.6% year-over-year to $9.54 as subscribers were transitioned from promotional to higher prices and prices were increased on tenured non-bundled subscribers.
  • Digital ad revenue increased 12.4% year-over-year primarily with strong marketer demand and new ad supply.

The outlook for the current quarter compared to the second quarter of 2024:

  • Digital-only subscription revenue up 13% to 16%
  • Total subscription revenue up 8% to 10%
  • Digital ad revenue up high-single-digits
  • Total ad revenue flat to up low-single-digits
  • Affiliate, licensing and other revenue up mid-single-digits
  • Adjusted operating costs increase 5% to 6%