The New York Times in 2013

Year 2013 was not bad for the NY Times whose long term strategy of moving from print to digital proves profitable.

Last year digital revenue of 149 millions euros grew by 36%. The newspaper has now 760000 subscribers to the digital service.

Still, advertising is lagging behind. During the last quarter, print advertising went down by 1.6%, digital advertising was even by minus 0.2%. The print circulation kept decreasing.

What does it mean? First, advertising is less and less the solution for the newspaper industry. During the last quarter, the powerful Gannett group registered a decline of 5.6% of its print advertising. And digital ads don't make it as there are more and more competitors, news and not news, on the market. Look at the figures of Google or Facebook and their fight to conquer the mobile market.

There is only one solution, paid subscriptions. The NYT has been a pioneer in that field and it pays handsomely. However, be careful, the product must be of top quality, the subscription rates must be attractive, the marketing must be efficient.