The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

William Bardeen: Yes, I think let me make sure I’m clear that I think we’ve always experienced and continue to expect to experience the vast majority of our subscribers coming in organically. I think on any given quarter that can fluctuate. We’re very — in terms of the amount of marketing we’re actually spending, and so that sales and marketing line can fluctuate for a few reasons, but one of the main ones will just be how much media we’re putting into the quarter. We’re really ROI focused there. And we certainly consider leaning in when we see subscriber acquisition costs being particularly attractive. And that will — so I think you can expect that to fluctuate around the quarter. Overall, as you’ve seen, this is a line given our strategy and everything we’ve said about the way our model works that we have seen leverage on and that we continue expect to get leverage on overtime.

Anthony DiClemente: Okay. Do you have a follow-up?

Douglas Arthur: Yes, I have just a nitpick. On Page 17 of the press release, you’ve got this content licensing item very small, 563,000. Is that A, is that new and B, is that an add back to adjusted EBITDA?

William Bardeen: Okay. So we’re just making sure we understand what you were describing.

Douglas Arthur: I’m looking at the schedule on Page 17 with these — what’s broken out?

William Bardeen: Yes. So what that represents is essentially intercompany licensing between New York Times and The Athletic for use of athletic content at The Times.

Douglas Arthur: Okay. And I mean, it looks I mean, because you’re laying out your costs here. So it looks like it’s sort of a duplication add back. Is that in terms of normalized EBITDA, is that a fair way to think about it? We can deal with this later.

William Bardeen: It’s expense to NYT Doug and then revenue to the athletic. So for the consolidated company wouldn’t have an impact. If we’re — we can…

Douglas Arthur: Yes, we can follow on.

William Bardeen: We can follow on to make sure that we’re talking about the same thing, but if we understand you right, that’s the explanation.

Anthony DiClemente: All right. Well, with that, thank you all for joining us this morning. We look forward to talking to you again next quarter.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, the conference has now concluded. We thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.