(Reuters) -The New York Times handily beat expectations for second-quarter digital subscriber growth, benefiting from its bundling strategy and strong growth at sports publication The Athletic in a summer dominated by the Euros and other tournaments.
Shares of the company rose around 6% in early trading on Wednesday.
The UEFA Champions League and the National Basketball Association playoffs boosted readership for The Athletic, driving a 19.4% rise in subscription revenue to $29.3 million and a 30% jump in advertising revenue to $7.1 million.
Total advertising revenue for the New York Times grew just 1.2% as marketers opted to spend their ad budgets on social media platforms like TikTok and Reddit that have much higher viewership.
To attract a wider audience, the publisher of the New York Times newspaper has been expanding its content distribution over the past few years by bundling podcasts, lifestyle articles and recipes.
Bundle and multi-product subscribers now make up around 45% of the company's total subscriber base with expectations that the segment will exceed 50% by the end of next year, CFO William Bardeen said.
The Athletic is on track to become profitable by next year, company executives said on a post-earnings call.
NYT ended the June quarter with around 10.8 million print and digital subscribers, with a target of reaching 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027.
It added around 300,000 digital-only subscribers in the second quarter, beating expectations of 186,900 according to five analysts polled by Visible Alpha.
The company reported subscription revenue of $439.3 million for the second quarter, compared with estimates of $438.9 million, according to LSEG data.
Adjusted profit came in at 45 cents per share, compared with estimates of 40 cents, while its total revenue of $625.1 million was slightly lower than expectations of $625.2 million.
Advertising revenue rose to $119.2 million, while analysts were expecting $120 million.