NYT Hit 11.6M Subscribers by Rethinking News as a Product
How The New York Times added 250k new digital-only subscribers in Q1 2025.
The New York Times just reported its strongest Q1 in years. Subscriber count is up. Revenue per user is growing. Digital subscription revenue hit $288.5 million. And none of this came from chasing ad scale.
It came from building like a product company.
In Q1 2025 alone, The Times added 250,000 new digital-only subscribers, bringing the total to 11.66 million. Out of those:
110K came from Games (!!!)
81K came from News
59K came from other products and bundles
The shift is clear: the NYT’s growth isn’t coming from just being read.
It’s coming from being used.
The Times isn’t a newspaper anymore.
It’s an app bundle.
A Platform Built for Habit
The Times now runs an app ecosystem built for daily use. Open the bundle on the App Store and you’ll see four apps with distinct use cases: news, games, cooking, and audio. Every one of them supports the core subscription funnel, from onboarding to re-engagement.
These aren’t just products. They’re rituals.
Wordle & Spelling Bee are morning games ritual.
“The Daily” is a walking companion.
The News app pushes personalized feed.
The Athletic is perfect for commute.
Even Cooking is the “added bonus”, quietly building a strong community.
“We have a large portfolio of products, and we’ve brought all of them into the app—especially games. What we see is a beautiful, symbiotic relationship with news,” said Emily Withrow, VP of Product and Head of Subscriber Experiences at The New York Times.
When they integrated Games into the main app, they ran a simple test: would users who came for crosswords stick around for headlines?
The answer was yes. Games bring people in. News keeps them there. And vice versa.
The Real Growth Engine: Bundles
52% of all digital subscribers are now on a multi-product bundle.
Yes, you read that correctly.
It’s not just upsell, it’s retention.
Because bundle users show:
Higher ARPU of $12.38, compared to the single-product ARPU of $9.54
Stronger retention across content types, which leads to more daily actives
Lower CAC as users onboarded via lower-cost products like Games convert faster
This is the new blueprint: build a portfolio that works together. And make bundling the core of your lifecycle strategy. Because this strategy lets them cross-sell and reinforce the Brand.
NYT is Playing the App Store Game Too
The New York Times is actively optimizing its App Store presence, with solid fundamentals and room to grow.
Runs Apple Search Ads on branded and high-intent terms like “crossword” and “news app.”, only in the US. An opportunity could be testing other English-speaking market like Canada.
Uses Custom Product Pages for their Games app; but most traffic still lands on the default page. More CPP segmentation could improve results.
Screenshots are optimized, highlighting awards, features and editorial strength.
In-app events are active for all apps (e.g. seasonal events, challenges, updates..).
Search Tab ads remain untapped, but could help with re-engagement and brand discovery.
They treat the App Store like a performance channel, not just a storefront.
And they’re doing it better than most modern app-first brands.
What other Media should be Copying
Look at the App Store today and you’ll still find legacy brands like Wired, Architectural Digest, or Bon Appétit with underdeveloped app strategies. Some don’t even have a native app; let alone a cross-platform bundle.
In 2025, that’s not just a missed opportunity - in my opinion, it’s an existential risk.
As AI floods the web with content and social traffic continues to decline, owning the full subscriber experience is no longer optional.
With its product-first strategy, the NYT built retention, habits, multi-entry funnels and strong monetization.
NYT in Q1 2025 is:
📲 11.66M digital-only subscribers
💰 $288.5 million in digital subscription revenue in Q1 2025 (see chart below)
📈 +14.4% YoY growth in digital sub revenue
🏆 35M+ lifetime downloads for the NYT News app
⭐ 30M+ lifetime downloads for the NYT Games app
Not only is the bundle growing, but the apps are scaling fast.
Takeaways
If you’re a Publisher, the real question in 2025 isn’t “should we launch an app?”. That was the question you should have asked in 2020.
Now, it’s about:
“How do we package our content into a product people use every day?”
If the answer is still “newsletters, YouTube, and ads,” you’re falling behind.
Instead, look at The Times:
They acquired Wordle when it exploded during Covid, onboarding millions into Games
They bundled it into the News app to raise engagement across the board
They priced it like an app company
And they optimized it for the App Store like a mobile-native product
They take risks and test new products, even if it means failing
No algorithm. No platform reliance.
Just a portfolio of branded experiences you control, monetize, and grow.
🎯 In case your missed it:
How (Not Boring) does organic growth: Design × Bundles × Apple Love
(Not Boring) Software is a developer a bit peculiar. They’re showing that good design, smart bundling, and a bit of App Store love can turn boring tools into a sustainable business.
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