New York Times Co.
Price History
Company Overview
Business Model: The New York Times Company is a global media organization focused on creating and distributing high-quality news and information. The Company generates revenues principally from the sale of subscriptions and advertising. Subscription revenues are derived from standalone and multiproduct bundle subscriptions to digital products (including The New York Times, The Athletic, Audio, Cooking, Games, and Wirecutter) and subscriptions to print products. Advertising revenue is generated from digital (display, audio, email, video) and print (column-inch ads, classified, preprinted) advertising products. Additional revenues come from licensing intellectual property, Wirecutter affiliate referrals, commercial printing, and leasing floors in its Company Headquarters.
Market Position: The Company positions itself as an essential subscription for curious individuals, distinguished by its original, independent, and high-quality reporting, storytelling, and journalistic excellence, which has been recognized with more Pulitzer Prizes and citations than any other news organization. As of December 31, 2025, the Company had approximately 12.78 million total subscribers, the highest in its history. The New York Times also held the largest daily and Sunday print circulation among all seven-day newspapers in the United States for the six-month period ended September 30, 2025.
Recent Strategic Developments: The Company's strategy aims to reach 15 million total subscribers by year-end 2027. Key priorities include:
- Extending leadership in general-interest news and building leadership in interest-specific areas like sports, cooking, puzzle gaming, and shopping recommendations.
- Growing audience and engagement, particularly through a high-value "bundle" of interconnected digital products to build daily habits and lifelong subscriber relationships.
- Aligning digital pricing models with user willingness to pay and the growing value of products.
- Innovating premium digital advertising offerings, including solutions using proprietary first-party data.
- Substantially investing in back-end technology, data management infrastructure, multiproduct digital bundle platforms, and advancing machine-learning and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
- Initiated legal actions against Microsoft Corporation, OpenAI Inc., and Perplexity AI, Inc. alleging copyright infringement and unauthorized use of its journalism and content in connection with generative AI products.
Geographic Footprint: The Company operates as a global media organization with approximately 12.78 million subscribers across 234 countries and territories as of December 31, 2025. International digital-only subscribers represented approximately 26% of total digital-only subscriptions. Its principal executive offices are located in New York, N.Y., and it maintains a printing and distribution facility in College Point, N.Y., along with 20 remote print sites across the United States and 22 international print sites. Employees are primarily located in the United States but are distributed globally.
Financial Performance
Revenue Analysis
| Metric | Current Year (2025) | Prior Year (2024) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Revenue | $2,824,918 thousand | $2,585,919 thousand | +9.2% |
| Operating Income | $431,557 thousand | $351,096 thousand | +22.9% |
| Net Income | $343,981 thousand | $293,825 thousand | +17.1% |
Profitability Metrics:
- Gross Margin: Not explicitly disclosed.
- Operating Margin: 15.3% (2025) vs. 13.6% (2024)
- Net Margin: 12.2% (2025) vs. 11.4% (2024)
Investment in Growth:
- R&D Expenditure: $264,347 thousand (9.4% of revenue)
- Capital Expenditures: $33,984 thousand
- Strategic Investments: The Company has invested substantially in back-end technology, data management infrastructure, multiproduct digital bundle platforms, and machine-learning and AI applications. It also continues to invest in journalism, multimedia content (video, audio), and innovative advertising offerings.
Business Segment Analysis
Overall Business Performance
Financial Performance:
- Total revenues increased by $239,000 thousand, or 9.2%, to $2,824,918 thousand in 2025 compared with 2024.
- Operating profit increased 22.9% to $431,557 thousand in 2025 from $351,096 thousand in 2024.
- Total subscription revenues increased 9.1% to $1,950,778 thousand in 2025. Digital-only subscription revenues increased 14.3% to $1,434,336 thousand, while print subscription revenues decreased 3.2% to $516,442 thousand.
- Total advertising revenues increased 11.8% to $565,993 thousand. Digital advertising revenues increased 20.0% to $410,634 thousand, partially offset by a 5.4% decrease in print advertising revenues to $155,359 thousand.
- Affiliate, licensing and other revenues increased 5.7% to $308,147 thousand, primarily due to higher licensing revenues.
Key Growth Drivers:
- Digital Subscriber Growth: A net increase of approximately 1,400,000 digital-only subscribers in 2025, reaching approximately 12.21 million. Bundle and multiproduct digital-only subscribers increased by approximately 1,170,000, or 24.3%.
- ARPU Expansion: Total digital-only average revenue per user (ARPU) grew 2.7% year-over-year to $9.68, driven by subscribers transitioning from promotional to higher prices and price increases on certain tenured subscribers. Bundle and multiproduct ARPU increased $0.49, or 4.0%, to $12.67.
- Digital Advertising Strength: Digital advertising revenue growth was primarily driven by a $66,400 thousand increase in display revenues, reflecting new advertising supply and strong marketer demand, with display impressions increasing 19% and the average rate increasing 6%.
- Licensing Revenue: Higher licensing revenues of $14,400 thousand, largely from commercial agreements with third-party digital platforms.
- Wirecutter Performance: Growth in Wirecutter affiliate referral revenues of $5,100 thousand.
Product Portfolio:
- Core News: The New York Times, available on mobile application, NYTimes.com, and as a printed newspaper, including associated content like podcasts.
- Interest-Specific Products: The Athletic (sports media), Audio (audio offering), Cooking (recipes and content), Games (puzzle games, including Wordle and Connections), and Wirecutter (product review and recommendation).
- Digital-Only Bundle: A high-value package including digital news, The Athletic, Audio, Cooking, Games, and Wirecutter. Standalone digital subscriptions are also offered.
- Print Products: The New York Times print newspaper, published seven days a week in the United States and an international edition. Print home-delivery subscribers receive free access to digital products.
Market Dynamics:
- The Company operates in a highly competitive and rapidly changing environment, competing for audience, subscribers, advertising, and licensees against a broad range of content creators, news aggregators, search engines, social media platforms, streaming services, and AI companies.
- Competition is based on content quality, product experience, brand strength, pricing, and visibility on third-party platforms.
- The digital advertising market is increasingly dominated by large platforms, with growing demand for formats like vertical short-form video and streaming.
- The media industry continues to experience secular declines in print subscription and print advertising revenues.
- Generative AI technology has negatively impacted the Company's traffic, audience size, and demand from subscribers, advertisers, and licensees, and has raised intellectual property infringement concerns.
Capital Allocation Strategy
Shareholder Returns:
- Share Repurchases: The Company repurchased approximately $165,341 thousand of Class A Common Stock in 2025, representing 3,006,757 shares. As of February 18, 2026, approximately $308,200 thousand remained under the February 2025 authorization.
- Dividend Payments: Totaled $110,363 thousand in 2025. The quarterly dividend per share was $0.72 in 2025.
- Dividend Yield: Not explicitly disclosed.
- Future Capital Return Commitments: The Company aims to return at least 50% of free cash flow to stockholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases over the next three to five years. The Board of Directors approved an increase in the quarterly dividend to $0.23 per share in February 2026.
Balance Sheet Position:
- Cash and Equivalents: $255,445 thousand as of December 31, 2025.
- Total Debt: The Company was debt-free as of December 31, 2025.
- Net Cash Position: Total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $1,167,852 thousand as of December 31, 2025.
- Credit Rating: Not disclosed.
- Debt Maturity Profile: No outstanding borrowings under its $400,000 thousand unsecured Credit Facility, which has a maturity date of June 13, 2030.
Cash Flow Generation:
- Operating Cash Flow: $584,489 thousand in 2025, an increase of 42.4% from $410,512 thousand in 2024.
- Free Cash Flow: $550,505 thousand in 2025, an increase of 44.4% from $381,339 thousand in 2024.
- Cash Conversion Metrics: Not explicitly detailed.
Operational Excellence
Production & Service Model: The Company's model is centered on creating and distributing high-quality news and information. Content creation involves original, independent reporting and storytelling. Digital content is delivered via mobile applications and NYTimes.com, with selected content also distributed on third-party platforms. The print newspaper is produced at the Company's College Point, N.Y., facility and 20 remote sites across the United States, with an international edition printed at 22 global sites. Excess capacity at the College Point facility is utilized for commercial printing for third parties. The digital access model generally offers limited free content before requiring a subscription, while some content is made free to attract large audiences for advertising or conversion to subscribers.
Supply Chain Architecture: Key Suppliers & Partners:
- Newsprint & Coated Paper: Sourced from various North American and European producers, with a significant portion purchased from Domtar Corporation.
- Print & Distribution Partners: Agreements with other newspapers and third-party delivery agents for print distribution in the U.S., Canada, and internationally.
- Technology Partners: Relies on third-party app stores (Apple, Alphabet) for digital subscriptions, third-party ad exchanges for programmatic advertising, and public cloud infrastructure services for computing, storage, and bandwidth.
Facility Network:
- Principal Executive Offices: 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y., where the Company owns a leasehold condominium interest of approximately 828,000 gross square feet. Approximately 296,000 gross square feet were leased to third parties as of December 31, 2025.
- Manufacturing: A 570,000 gross square foot printing and distribution facility in College Point, N.Y., on a 27-acre site. Approximately four acres of excess land at this location were sold in February 2025 for net proceeds of approximately $33 million.
- Research & Development: Product development costs are associated with enhancing new and existing product technology, including engineering, product development, and data insights, indicating internal R&D efforts.
- Distribution: A network of 20 remote print sites in the United States and 22 international sites, supported by agreements with other newspapers and third-party delivery agents.
Operational Metrics:
- Newsprint usage: 51,000 metric tons in 2025, down from 55,000 metric tons in 2024.
- Coated and Supercalendered Paper usage: 7,400 metric tons in 2025, down from 7,900 metric tons in 2024.
- Digital advertising display impressions increased 19% in 2025.
- Average digital advertising rate increased 6% in 2025.
- Print advertising column-inch ads decreased 8.8% in 2025, while the print advertising rate increased 3.7%.
Market Access & Customer Relationships
Go-to-Market Strategy: Distribution Channels:
- Direct Sales: Utilizes its advertising sales teams to directly engage marketers.
- Channel Partners: Leverages third-party app stores (Apple, Alphabet) for digital subscription sales and third-party ad exchanges for programmatic advertising. Print distribution relies on agreements with other newspapers and third-party delivery agents.
- Digital Platforms: Content is distributed through its own digital platforms (NYTimes.com, mobile applications) and email newsletters, as well as selected content on external platforms.
Customer Portfolio: Enterprise Customers:
- Includes group corporate and group education subscriptions, which collectively represented approximately 6% of total digital-only subscribers as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2025.
- Advertisers primarily include luxury goods, technology, and financial companies.
- Licensing clients encompass digital aggregators in business, professional, academic, and library markets, as well as third-party digital platforms, newspapers, magazines, websites, and other corporations.
Geographic Revenue Distribution:
- International digital-only subscribers constituted approximately 26% of total digital-only subscriptions as of December 31, 2025, indicating significant international exposure.
- The Company serves subscribers across 234 countries and territories.
- Foreign income before income taxes was $8,744 thousand in 2025.
Competitive Intelligence
Market Structure & Dynamics
Industry Characteristics: The Company operates in a highly competitive and rapidly evolving media landscape. Key industry characteristics include:
- A secular shift from print-focused to digital, leading to ongoing declines in print subscription and advertising revenues.
- Intense competition for audience, subscribers, advertising, and licensees from a diverse set of players, including traditional media, content creators, news aggregators, search engines, social media platforms, streaming services, and AI companies.
- The digital advertising market is increasingly influenced by large platforms, with growing demand for formats like vertical short-form video and streaming.
- Evolving digital advertising standards and privacy regulations (e.g., reduced third-party cookie support) impact targeting and measurement capabilities.
- The emergence and rapid development of generative AI technology are significantly altering the market, impacting content discovery, traffic, audience engagement, and intellectual property rights.
Competitive Positioning Matrix:
| Competitive Factor | Company Position | Key Differentiators |
|---|---|---|
| Technology Leadership | Moderate/Developing | Substantial investments in back-end technology, data management, multiproduct digital bundle platforms, and AI applications. |
| Market Share | Leading | Largest daily and Sunday print circulation among U.S. seven-day newspapers (as of Sep 30, 2025). Achieved 12.78 million total subscribers, a historical high. |
| Cost Position | Competitive | Focus on disciplined cost management while continuing strategic investments in journalism and product development. Efforts to maximize efficiency and profitability of print operations. |
| Customer Relationships | Strong | Emphasizes high-quality, independent journalism and a high-value digital bundle to foster deep engagement and long-term subscriber relationships. |
Direct Competitors
Primary Competitors:
- Traditional and Digital News Outlets: The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, BBC News, The Guardian, Financial Times, ESPN, and other general interest and vertical media.
- Technology and Social Platforms: Apple, Alphabet, ByteDance, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, which control content discovery and distribution.
- AI Companies: OpenAI, Perplexity, X, which pose threats through content aggregation, generation, and potential intellectual property infringement.
Emerging Competitive Threats:
- Generative AI products that are trained on or display content similar to the Company's without permission or fair compensation, potentially diverting traffic, audience, and revenue, and harming brand reputation through misinformation or misattribution.
- New entrants and disruptive technologies that can quickly emerge and leverage new technologies more rapidly.
Competitive Response Strategy: The Company's strategy to maintain competitive advantage includes:
- Prioritizing the production of original, independent, and high-quality journalism.
- Expanding its value proposition through a high-value digital bundle that integrates news with interest-specific products.
- Investing in engaging multimedia content (video, audio) and product features.
- Developing innovative advertising solutions leveraging proprietary first-party data.
- Investing in technology and data infrastructure to enhance user experience and operational efficiency.
- Vigorously pursuing legal remedies against AI companies for unauthorized use of its intellectual property.
Risk Assessment Framework
Strategic & Market Risks
Market Dynamics:
- Competition: Significant competition from a wide array of media, technology, and AI companies for audience, subscribers, advertising, and licensees, potentially impacting market share and revenue.
- Technology Disruption: Rapid advancements in generative AI technology pose a risk by altering the market for products and services, potentially impacting traffic, audience size, subscriber/advertiser/licensee demand, and brand reputation through unauthorized content use and misinformation.
- Customer Concentration: Dependence on third-party platforms (e.g., Apple, Alphabet) for a portion of subscriber acquisition, affiliate referral, and licensing revenue, with risks from changes in their terms, fees, or user experiences.
- Economic Conditions: Vulnerability to economic weakness, instability, and volatility (e.g., recession, inflation, high interest rates), which can lead to reduced advertising spending and consumer discretionary spending on subscriptions.
- Brand and Reputation: Risk of damage from incidents eroding consumer trust, perceptions of unreliability or bias, decline in trust in media, negative publicity, or inadequate customer service.
Operational & Execution Risks
Supply Chain Vulnerabilities:
- Supplier Dependency: Significant reliance on newsprint suppliers (e.g., Domtar Corporation) and print/distribution partners. Disruptions in supply chain or significant cost increases could adversely affect operating results.
- Geographic Concentration: International operations expose the Company to risks inherent in foreign operations, including adverse laws, regulations, political instability, and currency fluctuations.
- Capacity Constraints: Not explicitly detailed as a current constraint, but the ability to manage and grow the business cost-effectively is a general operational risk.
- Employee-related Costs: Main operating costs are employee-related, sensitive to inflationary pressures and competitive talent markets, which may limit operating flexibility and ability to reduce costs proportionately with revenue declines.
- Pension Plan Obligations: The size and volatility of single-employer and multiemployer pension plan obligations may adversely affect operations, financial condition, and liquidity due to factors like legislative changes, demographic shifts, and economic conditions impacting discount rates and asset returns.
Financial & Regulatory Risks
Market & Financial Risks:
- Demand Volatility: Advertising revenues are sensitive to advertiser budgets and economic conditions. Subscriber growth is dependent on audience engagement and willingness to pay, which can be affected by discretionary spending habits.
- Foreign Exchange: The international scope of business exposes the Company to currency exchange rate fluctuations.
- Credit & Liquidity: Access to capital markets on acceptable terms may be limited by financial performance, credit ratings, and overall market liquidity, impacting financing options for operations or strategic initiatives.
- Payment Processing Risk: Reliance on third parties for payment processing, subject to evolving certifications, rules, regulations, industry standards, and laws, which could lead to increased costs, fines, or hinder subscriber acquisition/retention. Fraudulent use of payment methods is also a risk.
Regulatory & Compliance Risks:
- Industry Regulation: Subject to evolving U.S. and international laws and regulations concerning privacy, data protection, consumer marketing, and subscriptions practices. Non-compliance or changes in interpretation could result in penalties, litigation, and reputational harm.
- Intellectual Property Protection: Challenges in protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights against widespread unauthorized copying and exploitation, particularly by AI companies. The application of existing laws to new technologies like generative AI remains unsettled.
- Generative AI Use: Internal use of generative AI tools may give rise to risks under intellectual property, data protection, and employment laws, as well as cybersecurity, confidentiality, and technical risks, potentially causing brand or reputational harm.
- Legal Proceedings: Involvement in various legal actions, including alleged defamation, consumer class actions, labor disputes, and significant intellectual property infringement lawsuits against Microsoft Corporation, OpenAI Inc., and Perplexity AI, Inc. Adverse outcomes could result in substantial monetary damages or injunctive relief.
Geopolitical & External Risks
Geopolitical Exposure:
- International operations are exposed to governmental actions, laws, and regulations that could restrict content access, impact employees (e.g., detention of journalists), or lead to retaliatory actions.
- Potential for legal, political, or social uncertainty, volatility, or catastrophic events (e.g., wars, public health crises) to disrupt operations or those of third-party partners.
- Compliance with U.S. and foreign anticorruption laws and economic sanctions is required.
Innovation & Technology Leadership
Research & Development Focus: Core Technology Areas: The Company is focused on strengthening its data management infrastructure, enhancing the platforms that power its multiproduct digital bundle, and advancing machine-learning and artificial intelligence (AI) applications across its business. It has invested substantially in back-end technology and underlying capabilities to enrich the digital experience for users and empower journalists and business operators. Innovation Pipeline: The Company plans to continue investing in engaging content and product features, including video, audio, and other multimedia programming, to increase the value of its digital bundle. It also aims to innovate advertising offerings that integrate well with the user experience, utilizing proprietary first-party data for predictive insights and client advertising strategies.
Intellectual Property Portfolio: The Company's business relies on its valuable trademarks, copyrighted content, and internally developed technology. It considers the protection and monetization of these proprietary assets critical to its continued success and competitive position. The Company is actively engaged in lawsuits to enforce its intellectual property rights against Microsoft Corporation, OpenAI Inc., and Perplexity AI, Inc. for alleged unlawful and unauthorized copying and use of its journalism and content in connection with generative AI products.
Technology Partnerships: The Company relies on third-party platforms for content discovery, display, and monetization, including search engines, social platforms, video and audio platforms, and mobile app stores. It has commercial agreements with certain large platforms for content licensing and utilizes third-party app stores (Apple, Alphabet) for digital subscriptions. Additionally, it uses third-party ad exchanges for programmatic advertising and public cloud infrastructure services for computing, storage, and bandwidth needs.
Leadership & Governance
Executive Leadership Team
| Position | Executive | Tenure | Prior Experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chairman | A.G. Sulzberger | 17 years | Publisher of The New York Times (since 2018) |
| Chief Executive Officer | Meredith Kopit Levien | 13 years | President (since 2020) |
| Chief Financial Officer | William Bardeen | 22 years | Executive Vice President (since 2016) |
| Senior Vice President, Treasurer and Chief Accounting Officer | R. Anthony Benten | 37 years | Treasurer (since 2016) |
| Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer | Diane Brayton | 22 years | Chief Legal Officer (since 2016) |
| Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer | Jacqueline Welch | 5 years | Chief Human Resources Officer (since 2021) |
Leadership Continuity: The Board of Directors works with senior management to ensure plans are in place for both short- and long-term executive succession. An annual detailed review of the Company’s leadership pipeline and succession plans for key senior leadership roles is conducted.
Board Composition: The Board of Directors oversees a wide range of human capital management matters, including succession planning, talent development, and workplace culture. The Audit Committee of the Board specifically oversees risks related to information security, including cybersecurity. The Ochs-Sulzberger Family Trust, holding approximately 95% of the Class B Common Stock, has the ability to elect 70% of the Board of Directors and direct the outcome of most matters.
Human Capital Strategy
Workforce Composition: As of December 31, 2025, The New York Times Company had approximately 6,000 full-time equivalent employees, with more than 3,000 involved in journalism operations. Employees are primarily located in the United States, with staff also situated throughout the world.
Talent Management: Acquisition & Retention: The Company aims to attract, retain, and maximize the contributions of a highly talented and diverse workforce by fostering a culture that supports its mission and values. This includes continuously improving talent programs, building diverse candidate pools, using inclusive job descriptions, and focusing on fair processes. Opportunities for connection, mentoring, and career development are offered through various communities. Diversity & Development: The Company is committed to supporting a diverse staff, equitable systems, and an inclusive workplace. It publishes annual data on the composition of its U.S.-based staff. Talent development is emphasized through ongoing learning opportunities, including training, professional development resources, and an employee mentorship program. Periodic engagement surveys are conducted to gauge employee experiences and sentiments. Compensation & Benefits: The Company offers comprehensive total rewards designed to be competitive and equitable, linking compensation to performance. Pay-equity studies are performed every two years (most recently in 2025). Benefits include 401(k) plans with a company match and an employee stock purchase program. Well-being: Programs are in place to support employees' physical, mental, and financial health, including health benefits, family building support, access to professional counselors, health coaching, fitness resources, and financial wellness programs.
Collective Bargaining Agreements: Approximately 43% of the Company's full-time equivalent employees were represented by unions as of December 31, 2025. Several collective bargaining agreements are set to expire in early 2026, including those with The New York Times Guild (February 28, 2026) and the Drivers’ Union, PaperHandlers’ Union, Stereotypers’ Union, and Machinists’ Union (March 30, 2026). Negotiations for new contracts are ongoing. Additionally, approximately 24 employees at The Athletic formed a union in Canada in 2025, with initial collective bargaining agreement negotiations underway.
Environmental & Social Impact
Environmental Commitments: The Company's filing does not explicitly detail specific climate strategy commitments such as emissions targets, carbon neutrality goals, or renewable energy adoption strategies. Similarly, specific supply chain sustainability initiatives, such as ESG requirements for suppliers or responsible sourcing programs, are not detailed.
Social Impact Initiatives: The Company emphasizes its mission and values—independence, integrity, curiosity, respect, collaboration, and excellence—as foundational to serving its readers and society, and fostering a healthy and vibrant culture. It actively works to support a diverse staff, equitable systems, and an inclusive workplace, including publishing U.S.-based staff demographics annually and offering opportunities for colleagues to connect and develop.
Business Cyclicality & Seasonality
Demand Patterns:
- Seasonal Trends: The Company's advertising business typically experiences higher volume in the fourth quarter due to holiday advertising. Similarly, Wirecutter affiliate referral revenue is generally higher in the fourth quarter due to increased consumer spending.
- Economic Sensitivity: Advertising revenues are sensitive to fluctuations in advertiser budgets, which respond to changing economic conditions. The ability to acquire and retain paying subscribers can be hindered if consumers reduce discretionary spending, potentially leading to a shift towards free or lower-priced content options.
- Industry Cycles: The newspaper industry is undergoing a secular transition from print-focused to digital, resulting in ongoing declines in both print subscription and print advertising revenues, a trend not expected to reverse.
Planning & Forecasting: The Company's annual long-range financial forecast incorporates various factors, including historical growth rates, operating performance, industry trends, macroeconomic conditions, and marketplace data, to inform its planning and forecasting.
Regulatory Environment & Compliance
Regulatory Framework: Industry-Specific Regulations: The Company's business operations are subject to various U.S. and international laws and regulations concerning intellectual property, defamation, publishing certain types of information, labor, employment, immigration, tax, payment processing, privacy, data protection, and consumer marketing and subscriptions practices. Compliance with these evolving and differing jurisdictional requirements necessitates ongoing adjustments and can incur increased costs. Trade & Export Controls: The Company is subject to U.S. and foreign anticorruption laws and economic sanctions. Newsprint is currently exempt from proposed expansions of U.S. tariffs on goods from Canada. Legal Proceedings: The Company is involved in various legal actions incidental to its business, including claims related to alleged defamation, consumer class actions, and labor and employment matters. Notably, the Company has filed lawsuits against Microsoft Corporation, OpenAI Inc., and Perplexity AI, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging copyright infringement, unfair competition, trademark dilution, and Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) violations related to the unlawful and unauthorized copying and use of its journalism and content by generative AI products. While some claims were dismissed with leave to replead, other disputed claims are proceeding. The Company records a liability for legal claims when a loss is probable and estimable, and as of December 31, 2025, no amount of loss in excess of recorded amounts is believed to be reasonably possible.
Tax Strategy & Considerations
Tax Profile: The Company's effective tax rate was 23.8% in 2025, compared to 23.4% in 2024 and 23.1% in 2023. Geographic Tax Planning: In 2025, U.S. income before taxes was $442,512 thousand, while foreign income before taxes was $8,744 thousand. The majority of state and local tax effects in 2025 were attributable to California, New York, and New York City. Tax Reform Impact: The enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) on July 4, 2025, retroactively to January 1, 2025, eliminated the requirement to capitalize and amortize domestic research and experimentation expenditures over five years. This change allows taxpayers to deduct such expenditures in the year incurred, resulting in lower cash tax payments for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025.
Insurance & Risk Transfer
Risk Management Framework: The Company maintains an information security program with technical, administrative, and physical measures to safeguard its information systems and data, overseen by the Board of Directors and its Audit Committee. Cybersecurity risk management is integrated into its broader enterprise risk management program. Insurance Coverage: The Company maintains cyber risk insurance. However, it acknowledges that costs related to certain security incidents could be substantial, and its insurance may not be sufficient to cover all potential losses. Risk Transfer Mechanisms: The Company self-insures for workers’ compensation costs, automobile and general liability claims (up to certain deductible limits), and for certain employee medical and disability benefits. The recorded liabilities for self-insured risks were approximately $26,800 thousand as of December 31, 2025.