NEW YORK TIMES CO (NYT) Business

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

OVERVIEW

The New York Times Company and, unless the context otherwise requires, its consolidated subsidiaries are referred to collectively in this Annual Report on Form 10-K as the “Company,” “we,” “our” and “us.”

We are a global media organization focused on creating and distributing high-quality news and information that help our audience understand and engage with the world, and this mission has contributed to our success. We believe that The Times’s original, independent and high-quality reporting, storytelling, expertise and journalistic excellence set us apart from other sources and are at the heart of what makes our journalism worth paying for. The quality of our coverage has been widely recognized with many industry and peer accolades, including more Pulitzer Prizes and citations than any other news organization.

The Company includes our digital and print products and related businesses, including:

•our core news product, The New York Times (“The Times”), which is available on our mobile application, on our website (NYTimes.com) and as a printed newspaper, and associated content, such as our podcasts;

•our other interest-specific products, including The Athletic (our sports media product), Audio (our audio offering available as a separate subscription through our news app), Cooking (our recipes and cooking content product) and Games (our puzzle games product), which are available on mobile applications and websites, and Wirecutter (our product review and recommendation offering); and

•our related businesses, such as our licensing operations, our commercial printing operations and other products and services under The Times brand.

As of December 31, 2025, we had approximately 12.78 million total subscribers, more than at any point in our history.

We generate revenues principally from the sale of subscriptions and advertising. Subscription revenues consist of revenues from standalone and multiproduct bundle subscriptions to our digital products and subscriptions to and single-copy and bulk sales of our print products. Advertising revenue is derived from the sale of our advertising products and services. Revenue information for the Company appears under “Item 7 — Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”

The Company was incorporated on August 26, 1896, under the laws of the State of New York.

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OUR STRATEGY

Our strategy is to be the essential subscription for curious people seeking to understand and engage with the world, which includes:

•being the world’s best general-interest news destination;

•becoming more valuable to more people by helping them make the most of their lives and engage with their passions; and

•creating a more expansive and connected product experience that makes our products indispensable.

Our current aim is to reach 15 million total subscribers by year-end 2027, up from approximately 12.78 million at the end of 2025. We believe that focusing on the following priorities will enable us to become an essential subscription for our addressable market and drive long-term, profitable growth for the Company and our stockholders.

Producing the best journalism

We believe that our original, independent and high-quality reporting, storytelling and journalistic excellence across topics and formats set us apart from others and are at the heart of what makes our journalism worth paying for. The impact of our journalism and its breadth is evident as we continue to break stories, produce investigative reports and help our audience understand a wide range of topics. Producing the best journalism also makes us a more attractive destination for the talented individuals who are vital to the continued success of our business.

We seek to extend our leadership in news by continuing to focus on four major areas: providing expert beat reporting on a broad array of important subjects, offering leading coverage of breaking news, producing signature journalism projects and excelling at ideas-based commentary and criticism.

While general-interest news is and will remain our primary value proposition, we are working to build leadership positions in a handful of areas that occupy a prominent place in global culture alongside general-interest news — including sports, cooking guidance, puzzle gaming and expert shopping recommendations.

In 2026, we plan to continue investing in our journalism and remain committed to providing a multimedia report of depth, breadth, authority, creativity and excellence, produced with a focus on independence and integrity.

Growing audience and engagement with our products

Our ability to attract, retain and grow our digital subscriber base depends on the size of our audience and its sustained engagement directly with our products. We will continue to focus on reaching a large non-paying audience while also creating a subscription experience aimed at building valuable daily habits that draw people into lifelong relationships worth paying for. Central to our strategy is our offering of a high-value subscription package — or “bundle” — of interconnected digital products that helps subscribers engage with everything we offer and provides multiple reasons to engage with our products each day.

Across all of our products, we have invested in bringing readers back to our content, exposing them to more of our offerings and providing an integrated product experience. Within news, for example, our live briefings keep users up to date on the latest developments across important storylines. Our suite of email newsletters reaches the inboxes of millions globally and plays a central role in engaging potential subscribers. Our mobile applications provide users with a seamless way to experience the breadth of the products we offer.

We plan to continue to invest in engaging content and product features across our products, including video, audio and other multimedia programming and features. We see these investments as increasing the value of our bundle and contributing to our essential subscription strategy.

Growing subscribers, revenue and profit

We believe we are still in the early days of penetrating the global subscription journalism market, and we aspire to be the leader in that market. In this context, we view a large and growing subscriber base as our best lever for long-term value creation because it generates recurring consumer revenue; has the potential to generate more advertising, affiliate and other revenue opportunities; and contributes to higher marketing efficiency.

We plan to continue our emphasis on growing subscribers through our focus on promoting our bundle of interconnected products, which we believe provides the most value to our users and represents the best opportunity

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to monetize our digital products. While we aim to expose more of our subscribers to everything that we offer through the bundle, we continue to offer subscriptions to standalone products as well to attract the widest number of subscribers. We also make an ongoing effort to align our digital pricing model with users’ willingness to pay and the growing value of our products.

Revenue from premium digital advertising is an important and growing part of our business. We believe our journalism and other products attract valuable audiences and that we provide a trusted platform for advertisers’ brands. We continue to innovate advertising offerings that integrate well with the user experience, including solutions that use proprietary first-party data to help inform our clients’ advertising strategies.

We believe we can apply disciplined cost management while continuing to invest in journalism and product development in support of long-term profitable growth. We also aim to continue to maximize the efficiency and profitability of our print products and services, which remain a significant part of our business.

Using technology and data to propel our growth

Achieving our ambition will require products and technology that match the quality of our journalism. Over the past several years, we have invested substantially in the back-end technology and underlying capabilities that enrich the digital experience for users and empower our journalists and business operators. In 2026, we plan to continue prioritizing these areas, with a focus on strengthening our data management infrastructure, enhancing the platforms that power our multiproduct digital bundle, and advancing machine-learning and artificial intelligence (“AI”) applications across our business. We have already seen and expect to see further benefits from these investments as they help us better engage, habituate, convert and retain more subscribers.

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PRODUCTS

The Company’s principal business consists of distributing content through our digital and print platforms. In addition, we distribute selected content on third-party platforms.

We offer a digital-only bundle that includes access to our digital news product (which includes our news website, NYTimes.com, and mobile application), The Athletic and our Audio, Cooking, Games and Wirecutter products. Our subscriptions also include standalone digital subscriptions to each of these products. Digital subscriptions can be purchased by individual consumers or as part of group education or group corporate subscriptions. Individual consumers can subscribe to our products directly or through third-party app stores operated by Apple and Alphabet.

Our access model for our digital products generally offers users who have registered free access to a limited amount of content before requiring users to subscribe for access to additional content. We also make some of our content free as a way to generate large audiences that we monetize through advertising revenue, affiliate revenue or by eventually converting them into subscribers; this includes Wordle and Connections (daily digital word games) and portions of our audio and video journalism (which is distributed both on our digital platforms and on third-party platforms), Wirecutter content and Cooking content. We have made and may in the future make the choice at times to suspend limits on registered users’ free access to particularly important news coverage.

The Times’s print newspaper, which commenced publication in 1851, is published seven days a week in the United States. The Times also has an international edition of our print newspaper that is tailored for global audiences and is the successor to the International Herald Tribune, which commenced publication in Paris in 1887. Our print newspapers are sold in the United States and around the world through individual home-delivery subscriptions, bulk subscriptions (primarily by schools and hotels) and single-copy sales. Print home-delivery subscribers are entitled to receive free access to our digital news product, The Athletic, and our Audio, Cooking, Games and Wirecutter products.

SUBSCRIBERS AND AUDIENCE

Our content reaches a broad audience through both digital and print platforms. As of December 31, 2025, we had approximately 12.78 million subscribers across 234 countries and territories.

Paid digital-only subscribers totaled approximately 12.21 million as of December 31, 2025. This includes subscribers with paid digital-only subscriptions to one or more of our news product, The Athletic, or our Audio, Cooking, Games and Wirecutter products. International subscribers with a paid digital-only subscription represented approximately 26% of our total digital-only subscriptions as of December 31, 2025.

The number of paid digital-only subscribers also includes estimated group corporate and group education subscriptions. The number of paid group subscribers is derived using the value of the relevant contract and a discounted subscription rate. The actual number of users who have access to our products through group sales is substantially higher.

In addition, the number of paid digital-only subscribers also includes estimated family subscriptions. Each family subscription is priced higher than a comparable individual subscription, and the number of paid family subscribers is counted as one billed subscriber and one additional subscriber to reflect the additional entitlements in these subscriptions.

Our overall audience is orders of magnitude larger than our subscriber base, and comprises users who engage with our content on our own site and apps, as well as external platforms. This broad audience base serves as a vital engine for the growth of our subscription business, and provides an attractive offering for our advertising partners. By maintaining a reach that extends beyond paid relationships, we bolster the mission of our journalism and the long-term health of our business.

In the United States, The Times had the largest daily and Sunday print circulation of all seven-day newspapers for the six-month period ended September 30, 2025, according to data collected by the Alliance for Audited Media, an independent agency that audits circulation of most U.S. newspapers and magazines.

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ADVERTISING

We offer a comprehensive portfolio of advertising products and services principally to advertisers (such as luxury goods, technology and financial companies) promoting products, services or brands on digital platforms in the form of display, audio, email and video ads; in print in the form of column-inch ads; and at live events. Advertising revenue is primarily determined by the volume (e.g., impressions or column inches), rate and mix of advertisements.

Our digital advertising offerings include solutions that use proprietary first-party data to generate predictive insights and help inform our clients’ advertising strategies. Digital advertising includes revenue from display (which includes website and mobile applications), audio, email and video advertisements that are sold either directly to marketers by our advertising sales teams or, for a smaller proportion of advertising revenue, through programmatic auctions run by third-party ad exchanges. Digital advertising revenue also includes revenues generated by creative services fees. In 2025, digital advertising represented approximately 73% of our advertising revenues.

Print advertising includes revenue from column-inch ads and classified advertising, as well as preprinted advertising, also known as freestanding inserts. In 2025, print advertising represented approximately 27% of our advertising revenues.

Our business is affected in part by seasonal patterns in advertising, with generally higher advertising volume in the fourth quarter due to holiday advertising.

AFFILIATE, LICENSING AND OTHER REVENUES

We also derive revenue from other activities, which primarily include:

•The Company’s licensing of our intellectual property. We license content to digital aggregators in the business, professional, academic and library markets, in addition to licensing content to third-party digital platforms for access by their users and for other purposes. As part of our news and syndication services, we license articles, graphics and photographs both directly and through third-party sellers to a wide variety of clients, including newspapers, magazines, websites and other corporations. We also license content for use in television, films and books; provide rights to reprint articles; and create and sell news digests based on our content;

•Our Wirecutter product’s affiliate referrals (which generate revenue by offering direct links to merchants in exchange for a portion of the sale price upon completion of a transaction); and

•The Company’s commercial printing operations, which utilize excess capacity at our facility in College Point, N.Y., to print and distribute products for third parties.

Our affiliate referral revenue is affected in part by seasonal patterns in consumer spending, with generally higher affiliate referral revenue in the fourth quarter due to higher consumer spending.

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COMPETITION

We operate in a highly competitive environment subject to rapid and, at times, unpredictable change and face significant competition in all aspects of our business. We compete for audience, subscribers, advertising and licensees against a wide variety of companies, including content creators, providers and distributors; news aggregators; search engines; social media platforms; streaming services; and AI companies, certain of which have attracted and any of which may further attract audiences, subscribers, advertisers and/or licensees to their platforms and away from ours. Our news and lifestyle products compete for audience, subscriptions, advertising, affiliate referrals and licensees with other providers of U.S. and global news and lifestyle information, from companies such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, BBC News, The Guardian, Financial Times, ESPN and other general interest and vertical media; and with customized news feeds, news aggregators, social media products, chatbots and other products and tools powered by generative AI, from companies such as Apple, Alphabet, ByteDance, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, OpenAI, Perplexity and X. In addition, we compete for advertising on digital advertising networks and exchanges with real-time bidding and other programmatic buying channels.

Competition for subscription revenue and audience is generally based upon content format and breadth, depth, originality, quality, relevance and timeliness; reputation and brand strength; product experience; visibility on search engines and social media platforms and in mobile app stores and the extent to which these direct traffic to our digital properties; and our subscription plans, pricing and content access models. Competition for advertising revenue is generally based upon the content and format of our products; audience levels, engagement and demographics; advertising rates; targeting capabilities; results observed by advertisers; and perceived effectiveness of advertising offerings. We believe that our original, independent and high-quality reporting, storytelling and journalistic excellence across topics and formats set us apart from others and are at the heart of what makes our journalism worth paying for, and we believe our journalism attracts valuable audiences and provides a safe and trusted platform for advertisers’ brands.

PRINT PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION

The Times is currently printed at our production and distribution facility in College Point, N.Y., as well as under contract at 20 remote print sites across the United States. We also utilize excess capacity at our College Point facility for commercial printing and distribution for third parties. The Times is delivered in the New York metropolitan area through a combination of our own drivers and agreements with other newspapers and third-party delivery agents. In other markets in the United States and Canada, The Times is delivered through agreements with other newspapers and third-party delivery agents.

The international edition of The Times is printed under contract at 22 sites throughout the world and is sold in approximately 65 countries and territories. It is distributed through agreements with other newspapers and third-party delivery agents.

The primary raw materials we use are newsprint and coated paper, which we purchase from a number of North American and European producers. A significant portion of our newsprint is purchased from Domtar Corporation, a large global manufacturer and distributor of paper, market pulp and wood products.

In 2025 and 2024, we used the following types and quantities of paper:

(1) Newsprint usage includes paper used for commercial printing.

(2) We use a mix of coated and supercalendered paper for The New York Times Magazine, and coated paper for T: The New York Times Style Magazine.

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HUMAN CAPITAL

By acting in accordance with our mission and our values — independence, integrity, curiosity, respect, collaboration and excellence — we serve our readers and society, ensure the continued strength of our journalism and business, and foster a healthy and vibrant Times culture.

The employees who make up our workplace are vital to the continued success of our mission and business and central to our long-term strategy. In order to attract, retain and maximize the contributions of a highly talented workforce from a diversity of backgrounds, we aim to: foster a culture that enables our mission, business and people to thrive; develop talent; provide equitable and competitive compensation and benefits (total rewards); and support employees’ health, safety and well-being.

Our Board of Directors (the “Board”) reviews and discusses with management a wide range of human capital management matters, including succession planning, talent development and workplace culture. In addition, the Compensation Committee of the Board oversees matters related to human capital management.

As of December 31, 2025, we had approximately 6,000 full-time equivalent employees, which includes more than 3,000 involved in our journalism operations. While we have employees located throughout the world, they are primarily located in the United States.

Maintaining an inclusive workplace culture where everyone can do their best work

We work to support a diverse staff, equitable systems and an inclusive workplace in a variety of ways.

•Promote a culture that aligns with our values. This includes setting and communicating clear expectations for our employees on how to approach their work and engage with, manage and lead each other, as well as a rigorous and transparent process for investigating workplace complaints and concerns. We have teams that work to ensure that our commitment to an equitable workplace is reflected in our employee programs and processes.

•Attract and grow talent. We seek to continuously improve our talent programs and practices to attract, develop and retain the best possible talent, including building candidate pools and pipelines that reflect diverse backgrounds and experiences, using inclusive and accessible job descriptions and focusing on consistent and fair processes.

•Offer opportunities for colleagues to connect. We have a wide range of communities that help colleagues create a sense of belonging with each other and within the Company; allow space for shared experiences and interests; connect with executive sponsors; and receive mentoring, career development and volunteering opportunities.

•Publish our demographics. Each year, we release data on the composition of our U.S.-based staff. Our reporting currently can be found at www.nytco.com/our-culture/. The contents of these reports are not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K or in any other report or document we file with the SEC.

Developing talent

We recognize the importance of creating opportunities for employees to develop and succeed at every level.

Identifying and putting in place effective executive leadership is critically important to our success. Our Board of Directors works with senior management to ensure that plans are in place for both short- and long-term executive succession. The Board conducts an annual detailed review of the Company’s leadership pipeline and succession plans for key senior leadership roles.

We value ongoing development and continuous learning throughout the organization. We strive to support and provide enriching opportunities to our employees, including through a range of training, professional development resources, and programs such as our employee mentorship program. We also continue to work to further elevate how we lead, manage and promote people, including bolstering feedback, support and performance enablement systems. We conduct periodic engagement surveys to gauge the experiences, concerns and sentiments of employees in areas such as career development, manager performance and culture.

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Providing equitable and competitive total rewards

We offer comprehensive total rewards, which are designed to meet the needs of our current and future employees; support the Company’s strategic goals, mission and values; drive a high-performance culture; and offer competitive and equitable pay. In line with our business goals, our total rewards philosophy links compensation to performance. Every two years — most recently in 2025 — we perform a pay-equity study, an in-depth review of our compensation practices conducted with an outside expert to identify, assess and address any inconsistencies in pay for similarly situated employees. We offer comprehensive benefits to eligible employees and their dependents, including defined contribution/retirement (401(k)) plans with a company match, as well as an employee stock purchase program, which provides eligible employees the opportunity to purchase our Class A Common Stock at a discount.

Supporting employees’ health, safety and well-being

Our employees’ well-being is vital to our success, and their physical, mental and financial health are top priorities. We have invested in a variety of programs based on region that help support their day-to-day wellness needs and goals, including, but not limited to, health benefits, family building support, access to licensed professional counselors (including therapists trained in journalist occupational culture, stressors and resilience factors), health coaching and advocacy services, fitness resources, child and elder care, financial wellness programs, work/life support resources and more.

Collective bargaining agreements

Approximately 43% of our full-time equivalent employees were represented by unions as of December 31, 2025. Some of our unions are seeking to include additional employees in their units, including employees from The Athletic. The following is a list of our collective bargaining agreements covering various categories of the Company’s employees and their corresponding expiration dates. In addition, approximately 24 of our employees at The Athletic formed a union in Canada in 2025, and we are in the process of negotiating an initial collective bargaining agreement with those employees. As indicated below, our collective bargaining agreement with The New York Times Guild, under which approximately 23% of our full-time equivalent employees are covered, will expire on February 28, 2026. Collective bargaining agreements with the Drivers’ Union, the PaperHandlers’ Union, the Stereotypers’ Union and the Machinists’ Union under which approximately 3% of our full-time equivalent employees are covered, will expire on March 30, 2026. Negotiations for new contracts are ongoing. We cannot predict the timing or outcome of these negotiations.

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AVAILABLE INFORMATION

We maintain a corporate website at http://www.nytco.com, and we encourage investors and other interested persons to use it as a way of easily finding information about us. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and all amendments to those reports, and the Proxy Statement for our Annual Meeting of Stockholders, are made available, free of charge, on this website as soon as reasonably practicable after such reports have been filed with or furnished to the SEC. In addition, we may periodically make announcements or disclose important information for investors on this website, including press releases or news regarding our financial performance and other items that may be material or of interest to our investors. Therefore, we encourage investors, the media, and others interested in our Company to review the information we post on this website. We have included our website addresses throughout this report as inactive textual references only. The information contained on the websites referenced herein is not incorporated into this filing.

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