New York Times Co (NYT) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to The New York Times Company's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call.

大家早安，歡迎參加紐約時報公司2023年第四季及全年財報電話會議。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Please also note today's event is being recorded. And at this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to Anthony DiClemente, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

另請注意，今天的活動正在記錄。現在，我想把發言權交給投資人關係資深副總裁 Anthony DiClemente。請繼續。

Thank you, and welcome to The New York Times Company's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. On the call today, we have Meredith Kopit Levien, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Will Bardeen, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝，歡迎參加紐約時報公司 2023 年第四季和全年收益電話會議。參加今天電話會議的有總裁兼執行長 Meredith Kopit Levien；以及執行副總裁兼財務長 Will Bardeen。

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that management will make forward-looking statements during the course of this call. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions, which may change over time. Our actual results could differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties that are described in the company's 2022 10-K and subsequent SEC filings.

在我們開始之前，我想提醒您，管理層將在本次電話會議期間做出前瞻性陳述。這些聲明是基於當前的預期和假設，可能會隨著時間而改變。由於公司 2022 年 10-K 報表和隨後的 SEC 文件中描述的許多風險和不確定性，我們的實際結果可能會存在重大差異。

In addition, our presentation will include non-GAAP financial measures, and we have provided reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures in our earnings press release and is available on our website at investors.nytco.com. In addition to our earnings press release, we have also posted a slide presentation relating to our results, also on our website at investors.nytco.com.

此外，我們的演示將包括非 GAAP 財務指標，並且我們在收益新聞稿中提供了與最具可比性的 GAAP 指標的對賬，可在我們的網站 investors.nytco.com 上查閱。除了我們的收益新聞稿之外，我們還在我們的網站 investors.nytco.com 上發布了與我們的業績相關的幻燈片簡報。

And finally, please note that a copy of the prepared remarks from this morning's call will be posted to our investor website shortly after we conclude.

最後，請注意，今天上午電話會議的準備好的演講稿副本將在我們結束後不久發佈到我們的投資者網站上。

With that, I will turn the call over to Meredith.

說完這些，我將把電話轉給梅雷迪斯。

Thanks, Anthony, and good morning, everyone. 2023 was a strong year for The Times that showcased the power of our strategy to be the essential subscription for every curious person seeking to understand and engage with the world. Our news report provided -- proved indispensable to so many people, providing original journalism across the full range of human experience.

謝謝，安東尼，大家早安。 2023 年對《紐約時報》來說是強勁的一年，展現了我們策略的力量，即成為每一位尋求了解和參與世界的好奇人士的必訂閱雜誌。我們的新聞報導對許多人來說都是不可或缺的，它提供了涵蓋人類各個方面經歷的原創新聞報導。

Our lifestyle products serve scaled audiences for games, sports, cooking and shopping recommendations. By putting them all together and giving millions of people multiple reasons to turn to The Times every day, we delivered business growth and demonstrated our ability to penetrate a large market. We drove this performance amidst a tough year for the news industry in which we and others faced persistent headwinds. We continued to see lower levels of casual news audiences due in part to the ongoing shifts from the largest tech platforms, and our ad business grappled with the heightened market volatility impacting publishers.

我們的生活風格產品為遊戲、運動、烹飪和購物推薦提供規模化的受眾。透過將所有這些結合起來，並讓數百萬人有多個理由每天閱讀《紐約時報》，我們實現了業務成長，並展示了我們滲透大市場的能力。在新聞業艱難的一年裡，我們和其他公司一樣面臨持續的逆風，我們也取得了這樣的表現。我們繼續看到休閒新聞受眾的減少，部分原因是最大的科技平台的持續轉變，我們的廣告業務面臨著影響出版商的加劇的市場波動。

Our strategy is designed to both counterbalance these headwinds and position us to be a category-leading global media subscription business.

我們的策略旨在抵消這些不利因素，並使我們成為全球領先的媒體訂閱業務。

Let me share the highlights from the year. We added 880,000 net new digital subscribers, bringing our total to nearly 10.4 million and progressing us on the path to our next milestone of 15 million. The bundle accounted for a majority of our subscriber starts in the year, bundle and multiproduct subscribers made up 41% of our subscriber base at year-end, and those subscribers continue to be more engaged, better-retaining and willing to pay more over time than single-product subscribers.

讓我來分享一下今年的亮點。我們新增了 88 萬名數位用戶，使我們的用戶總數達到近 1,040 萬，並朝著 1,500 萬的下一個里程碑邁進。捆綁產品占我們今年新增用戶的大部分，捆綁產品和多產品用戶在年底占我們用戶群的 41%，而且這些用戶比單一產品用戶參與度更高、保留率更高，並且願意隨著時間的推移支付更多費用。

New York Times subscriber engagement as measured by the share of subscribers on our products each week reached its highest point in nearly 3 years by year-end. And The Times now sees more digital engagement than any other American news source by total monthly time spent. We crossed $1 billion in annual digital subscription revenue for the first time in 2023. And consolidated ARPU has now grown year-on-year for 3 straight quarters.

《紐約時報》的訂閱者參與度（以每週訂閱我們產品的訂閱者份額來衡量）到年底達到了近三年來的最高點。現在，以每月總用戶使用時間計算，《紐約時報》的數位互動量比其他美國新聞媒體都要高。 2023 年，我們的年度數位訂閱收入首次突破 10 億美元。目前，合併後的 ARPU 已連續 3 個季度同比增長。

We see this as a testament to our well-honed pricing and merchandising strategy, which is made possible by the growing value we provide to consumers through our differentiated multiproduct offerings.

我們認為這證明了我們完善的定價和行銷策略，而這項策略的實現得益於我們透過差異化的多產品供應為消費者提供的不斷增長的價值。

It was a challenging year in the ad market for publishers, but the core of our ad business, premium proprietary ad canvases enhanced with first-party data, proved resilient and continued growing, and we saw real momentum as we extended our ad products across the portfolio, particularly to The Athletic and Games, where we see a lot of running room. It was also a record year for affiliate and licensing revenue. Wirecutter outperformed expectations in every quarter and in December we announced a new multiyear licensing agreement with Apple News Plus for The Athletic and Wirecutter.

對於出版商來說，這是廣告市場充滿挑戰的一年，但我們廣告業務的核心——透過第一方數據增強的優質專有廣告畫布——表現出了韌性並持續增長，隨著我們將廣告產品擴展到整個產品組合中，我們看到了真正的發展勢頭，特別是在運動會和遊戲領域，我們看到了很大的發展空間。這也是聯營公司和授權收入創紀錄的一年。 Wirecutter 每季的表現都超乎預期，12 月我們宣布與 Apple News Plus 就 The Athletic 和 Wirecutter 達成新的多年期授權協議。

Deals like this underscore that our intellectual property has unique value recognized by some of the world's largest tech platforms. We exerted cost discipline throughout the year and substantially slowed overall expense growth while redirecting resources and continuing to invest in our areas of competitive advantage.

此類交易強調了我們的智慧財產權具有獨特的價值，並得到了一些全球最大的科技平台的認可。我們全年嚴格控製成本，大幅減緩整體費用成長，同時重新分配資源並繼續投資於我們的競爭優勢領域。

All of this progress across the business drove strong earnings per share, adjusted operating profit and free cash flow growth. In fact, in 2023 each hit their highest point since our transformation into a digital-first, subscription-first business began more than a decade ago.

整個業務的所有這些進步推動了強勁的每股盈餘、調整後的營業利潤和自由現金流成長。事實上，自十多年前我們開始轉型為數位優先、訂閱優先業務以來，2023 年各項業務都達到了最高點。

Inclusive of The Athletic, we also expanded margin by 100 basis points. We delivered that improved profitability even as our print business continued to experience secular decline. Our results also reflect the cash-generative nature of our model and give us the confidence to announce the sixth consecutive annual increase to our dividend. This financial growth also positions us to continue investing in expert independent journalism, which is central to how we expect to create value over the long term.

包括 The Athletic 在內，我們的利潤率也擴大了 100 個基點。儘管我們的印刷業務持續經歷長期下滑，但我們仍實現了盈利能力的提高。我們的績效也反映了我們模型的現金產生特性，並使我們有信心宣布連續第六年增加股利。這種財務成長也使我們能夠繼續投資於專業的獨立新聞業，這對於我們期望長期創造價值至關重要。

I'll turn now to our fourth quarter results. In Q4, we met or beat quarterly guidance on digital and total subscription revenue, other revenue and adjusted operating costs. Digital advertising came in slightly below the low end of our guidance and total advertising came in below our guidance. We added 300,000 net new digital subscribers in the quarter.

現在我來談談我們第四季的業績。在第四季度，我們在數位和總訂閱收入、其他收入和調整後的營運成本方面達到或超過了季度預期。數位廣告收入略低於我們預期的低端，而廣告總收入低於我們的預期。本季我們新增了 30 萬名數位訂閱用戶。

We attribute this strong performance to multiple distinct drivers. Those drivers include continued healthy demand for games, peak season for cooking, a more ambitious subscription gifting program propelled by our large base of existing subscribers, and a robust deal period for B2B subscriptions.

我們將這種強勁表現歸功於多個不同的驅動因素。這些驅動因素包括對遊戲的持續健康需求、烹飪旺季、由我們龐大的現有訂閱用戶群推動的更雄心勃勃的訂閱贈送計劃以及 B2B 訂閱的強勁交易期。

This is all in addition to high existing subscriber engagement across a range of news topics. We also benefited from further improvements in how we use machine learning to maximize audience, engagement and conversion. Consistent with our strategy, we grew audience for The Athletic, Cooking, Games and Wirecutter in Q4.

除此之外，一系列新聞主題的現有訂閱者參與度也很高。我們也受益於如何使用機器學習來最大限度地增加受眾、參與度和轉換率的進一步改進。與我們的策略一致，我們在第四季度擴大了 The Athletic、Cooking、Games 和 Wirecutter 的受眾群體。

Audience growth on The Athletic, which recently passed its 2-year anniversary with The Times, was particularly strong. This was thanks to our ongoing efforts to enhance coverage, improve our technical infrastructure and make more stories available for sampling. We see a huge opportunity in sports and are making palpable progress on our ambition for The Athletic to become a top destination for sports news globally.

《The Athletic》的讀者成長尤其強勁，該報最近剛慶祝了與《紐約時報》合作兩週年的紀念日。這要歸功於我們不斷努力擴大報告範圍、改善技術基礎設施以及提供更多可供採樣的故事。我們在體育領域看到了巨大的機遇，並且在實現讓 The Athletic 成為全球頂級體育新聞目的地的目標方面取得了顯著進展。

Games benefited from consistency in the number of people who play Wordle every week and also from our hit homegrown puzzle, Connections, which now has over 15 million weekly players. Total ad revenue in the quarter came in below our expectations due primarily to a larger-than-anticipated print revenue decline.

遊戲的成功得益於每週玩 Wordle 的人數穩定，以及我們自主研發的熱門謎題遊戲 Connections，這款遊戲目前每週擁有超過 1500 萬玩家。本季廣告總收入低於我們的預期，主要原因是印刷收入下降幅度超出預期。

Our digital performance, including podcasts, was impacted by marketers avoiding some hard news topics like the Middle East conflict. We are nonetheless confident in the long-term potential of our digital advertising business, and our core display offering was resilient as we extended our proprietary ad canvases and first-party data to more of our portfolio.

由於行銷人員迴避中東衝突等一些硬新聞話題，我們的數位表現（包括播客）受到了影響。儘管如此，我們對我們的數位廣告業務的長期潛力充滿信心，並且隨著我們將專有廣告畫布和第一方數據擴展到更多產品組合，我們的核心展示產品具有彈性。

Revenue beyond subscriptions and advertising grew 10% in the quarter, driven by a record-setting holiday season for Wirecutter and strength in licensing.

本季度，除訂閱和廣告之外的收入增長了 10%，這得益於 Wirecutter 創紀錄的假期季節和授權業務的強勁增長。

Let me close with a few thoughts about what's ahead. At its core, our strategy is designed to make The Times an essential daily habit for many millions more people. Our top priority now is to continue making our journalism and lifestyle products so valuable at scale that people seek us out directly and build enduring daily habits.

最後，請容許我談談對未來的一些想法。我們的策略核心是讓《紐約時報》成為數百萬人日常生活中不可或缺的習慣。我們現在的首要任務是繼續使我們的新聞和生活方式產品具有規模價值，以便人們直接找到我們並養成持久的日常習慣。

However, the information ecosystem evolves. While we expect many of last year's industry headwinds to persist, we believe our multiproduct portfolio and multi-revenue stream model, combined with ongoing cost discipline, position us well to be a scaled market leader.

然而，資訊生態系統不斷發展。雖然我們預計去年的行業逆風將持續存在，但我們相信，我們的多產品組合和多收入流模式，加上持續的成本控制，使我們成為規模市場的領導者。

Now let me turn it over to Will for more details on our results, and I'll return after that with a few closing thoughts and to take your questions.

現在，讓我將時間交給威爾，讓他詳細地介紹我們的結果，然後我會再回來講幾句結束語並回答你們的問題。

Thanks, Meredith, and good morning, everyone. In 2023, the successful execution of our essential subscription strategy drove strong financial results despite a challenging and dynamic environment. Our portfolio of market-leading news and lifestyle products was designed to grow our subscriber base, increase subscriber engagement and lifetime value and strengthen our multiple revenue streams. As our subscriber base has scaled, we've moderated our overall expense growth while continuing to prioritize strategic investments that help position us for long-term value creation.

謝謝，梅雷迪斯，大家早安。 2023 年，儘管面臨充滿挑戰和動態的環境，我們成功執行了基本訂閱策略，仍取得了強勁的財務業績。我們市場領先的新聞和生活方式產品組合旨在擴大我們的用戶群，提高用戶參與度和終身價值，並加強我們的多種收入來源。隨著用戶群的擴大，我們控制了整體支出的成長，同時繼續優先考慮有助於我們創造長期價值的策略投資。

Our full year 2023 financial results demonstrate that our strategy is delivering as designed. We saw increases in revenue, AOP, EPS and free cash flow growth -- and free cash flow, and we finished the year in an even stronger market position. Overall revenue for the year increased 5% as growth in digital subscription, affiliate and licensing revenues more than offset ongoing declines in print.

我們的 2023 年全年財務表現表明，我們的策略正在按計劃實施。我們的收入、AOP、EPS 和自由現金流均有所成長，自由現金流在年底擁有了更強勁的市場地位。由於數位訂閱、附屬和授權收入的成長足以抵消印刷收入的持續下滑，全年總收入成長了 5%。

Combined with moderating cost growth, this resulted in AOP growth of 12% year-over-year and expanded our AOP margin by approximately 100 basis points to over 16%. The cash-generative nature of our business model was also evident. For the full year 2023, we generated approximately $338 million of free cash flow, up from approximately $114 million in the prior year.

加上成本成長放緩，這導致 AOP 年比成長 12%，並將我們的 AOP 利潤率提高約 100 個基點，達到 16% 以上。我們的商業模式的現金產生特性也很明顯。 2023 年全年，我們產生了約 3.38 億美元的自由現金流，高於前一年的約 1.14 億美元。

In addition to being driven by AOP growth, free cash flow benefited from lower cash taxes, lower CapEx and lower working capital outflows compared to 2022. We returned approximately $114 million to shareholders in 2023 through a combination of $69 million in dividends and $45 million in stock repurchases. Over the last 2 years, we've returned nearly 61% of our free cash flow to shareholders. As Meredith mentioned, we also announced a dividend increase of $0.02 to $0.13 per share, reflecting our confidence in the durability of our strategy.

除了受到 AOP 成長的推動外，與 2022 年相比，自由現金流還受益於較低的現金稅、較低的資本支出和較低的營運資本流出。我們在 2023 年透過 6,900 萬美元的股息和 4,500 萬美元的股票回購向股東返還了約 1.14 億美元。在過去的兩年裡，我們向股東返還了近 61% 的自由現金流。正如梅雷迪斯所提到的，我們也宣布將每股股息提高 0.02 美元至 0.13 美元，這反映了我們對戰略持久性的信心。

Now I'll discuss the fourth quarter's key results, followed by our financial outlook for the first quarter of 2024. Please note that all comparisons are to the prior year period unless otherwise specified. As a reminder, due to a change in the company's fiscal calendar in 2022, there were 5 fewer days in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.

現在，我將討論第四季度的主要業績，然後介紹我們對 2024 年第一季的財務展望。請注意，除非另有說明，所有比較均與去年同期相比。提醒一下，由於公司2022年財務日曆的變化，2023年第四季與2022年第四季相比減少了5天。

Page 23 of the earnings release published this morning includes a reconciliation of revenues excluding the estimated impact of the 5 fewer days in 2023. My comments on both revenues and costs today will be on a reported basis, which includes the impact of the 5 fewer days.

今天早上發布的收益報告第 23 頁包含收入對賬，不包括 2023 年預計減少 5 天的影響。我今天對收入和成本的評論將以報告為基礎，其中包括減少 5 天的影響。

I'll start with a discussion of our subscription business. We added approximately 300,000 net new digital subscribers in the quarter. As Meredith described, bundle and multiproduct additions led the way and made up 41% of our total base at year-end, well along the path to exceeding 50% in the coming years.

我先來討論一下我們的訂閱業務。本季我們新增了約 30 萬名數位訂閱用戶。正如梅雷迪斯所描述的，捆綁銷售和多產品附加產品佔據了主導地位，在年底占到了我們總基數的 41%，並且預計在未來幾年超過 50%。

Total digital-only ARPU grew year-over-year for the third consecutive quarter to $9.24, an increase of approximately 3%. In Q4, we had the largest number to date of bundled subscribers transitioning to higher prices and benefited from the impact of our digital price increase on tenured single-product subscribers. While it is still relatively early, we continue to be encouraged that bundle subscribers are retaining and monetizing better than news-only subscribers through these step-ups.

純數位業務 ARPU 連續第三個季度年增至 9.24 美元，增幅約 3%。在第四季度，我們有迄今為止數量最多的捆綁用戶轉向更高的價格，並受益於我們數位價格上漲對長期單一產品用戶的影響。雖然現在還為時過早，但我們仍然感到鼓舞的是，透過這些升級，捆綁訂閱者的保留率和盈利能力比純新聞訂閱者更高。

As a result of both higher digital subscribers and digital-only ARPU in the fourth quarter, digital-only subscription revenues grew approximately 7% to $289 million and total subscription revenues grew approximately 4% to $430 million. Both were in line with the guidance we provided last quarter.

由於第四季數位用戶數量和純數位 ARPU 的增加，純數位訂閱收入成長約 7% 至 2.89 億美元，總訂閱收入成長約 4% 至 4.3 億美元。兩者都符合我們上個季度提供的指導。

Now turning to advertising. Total advertising revenues for the quarter were $164 million, a decline of approximately 8%, which was below our guidance.

現在轉向廣告。本季廣告總收入為 1.64 億美元，下降約 8%，低於我們的預期。

Digital advertising came in slightly below the low end of our guidance in the quarter, declining approximately 4% to $108 million as advertising demand for some of our products was adversely impacted in the quarter by marketer sensitivity to certain news content adjacencies.

本季度，數位廣告收入略低於我們預期的低端，下降約 4% 至 1.08 億美元，因為本季度我們部分產品的廣告需求受到行銷人員對某些新聞內容鄰接性的敏感度的不利影響。

Other revenue exceeded our guidance, increasing approximately 10% to $82 million. Licensing was a strong contributor and Wirecutter affiliate revenues benefited from a record-setting holiday season.

其他收入超出我們的預期，成長約 10%，達到 8,200 萬美元。許可是一個強大的貢獻者，並且 Wirecutter 聯盟收入受益於創紀錄的假期季節。

Moving now to costs and the progress we are making in driving AOP growth and free cash flow growth. We continue to demonstrate cost discipline in Q4. Adjusted operating costs came in better than our guidance, decreasing by approximately 1%. Even as overall adjusted operating costs declined, we continue to allocate resources to our most strategic investments, including world-class journalism and the technology and product development that unlocks its digital distribution.

現在轉向成本以及我們在推動 AOP 成長和自由現金流成長方面所取得的進展。我們在第四季度繼續表現出成本紀律。調整後的營運成本好於我們的預期，下降了約 1%。即使整體調整後的營運成本下降，我們仍繼續將資源分配給最具戰略意義的投資，包括世界一流的新聞業以及解鎖其數位發行的技術和產品開發。

Investments in these areas have enabled us to increase penetration of our addressable market, fuel organic subscriber growth and improve our operating leverage. Cost of revenue declined approximately 3%. Our continued investments in journalism were more than offset by having 5 fewer days in the quarter as well as lower Print production and distribution and advertising servicing costs.

在這些領域的投資使我們能夠增加我們目標市場的滲透率，推動有機用戶成長並提高我們的營運槓桿。收入成本下降約3%。本季的新聞發布天數減少了 5 天，印刷製作和發行以及廣告服務成本也降低了，足以抵消我們對新聞業的持續投資。

Sales and marketing costs were up approximately 9%. We saw high return paid marketing opportunities in the quarter as the bundle continued to enable better marketing efficiency. Product development costs increased 5% as we continue to strategically invest into the product and technology teams enabling our digital subscriber growth.

銷售和行銷成本上漲約9%。由於捆綁銷售持續提高行銷效率，我們在本季度看到了高回報的付費行銷機會。由於我們繼續對產品和技術團隊進行策略性投資，從而促進數位用戶的成長，產品開發成本增加了 5%。

General and administrative costs were down approximately 1% as we continue to drive efficiencies in nonstrategic areas. As a result of revenue growth and disciplined cost management, AOP increased approximately 9% to $154 million. AOP margin was approximately 23% in the quarter, an increase of approximately 160 basis points compared to the prior year.

由於我們持續提高非策略領域的效率，一般和行政成本下降了約 1%。由於收入成長和嚴格的成本管理，AOP 成長約 9%，達到 1.54 億美元。本季 AOP 利潤率約 23%，較上年同期增加約 160 個基點。

This also translated into strong earnings growth, as adjusted diluted EPS increased $0.11 to $0.70. EPS growth in Q4 was also aided by higher interest income and a lower tax rate. I'll now look ahead to Q1 for the consolidated New York Times Company.

這也轉化為強勁的獲利成長，調整後的稀釋每股收益增加 0.11 美元至 0.70 美元。第四季每股收益的成長也得益於更高的利息收入和更低的稅率。我現在來展望合併後的紐約時報公司第一季的業績。

Total subscription revenues are expected to increase 7% to 9% compared with the first quarter of 2023 and digital-only subscription revenues are expected to increase 11% to 14%. Overall advertising revenues are expected to decrease mid-single digits, while digital advertising revenues are expected to increase low-to-high single digits.

與 2023 年第一季相比，總訂閱收入預計將成長 7% 至 9%，純數位訂閱收入預計將成長 11% 至 14%。預計整體廣告收入將下降中個位數，而數位廣告收入預計將成長低至高個位數。

We continue to experience limited visibility in the advertising market, particularly around ongoing print declines. Other revenues are expected to increase mid-single digits. Adjusted operating costs are expected to increase 5% to 7%, which reflects an overall commitment to cost discipline as we pursue our growth strategy.

我們在廣告市場的能見度仍然有限​​，尤其是在印刷品持續下滑的情況下。預計其他收入將實現中等個位數成長。調整後的營運成本預計將增加 5% 至 7%，這反映了我們在追求成長策略時對成本控制的整體承諾。

Our approach on costs has been to relentlessly reallocate resources from nonstrategic work to areas of highest impact. At the same time, we intend to continue targeted strategic investments into the independent journalism, news and lifestyle products and technology that position us for growth and market leadership over the long term.

我們在成本方面的方法是堅持不懈地將資源從非策略性工作重新分配到影響最大的領域。同時，我們打算繼續對獨立新聞、新聞和生活方式產品和技術進行有針對性的策略性投資，以幫助我們實現長期成長並保持市場領先地位。

We expect that these investments will be reflected in the growth of our cost of revenue and product development expense lines. We expect AOP and earnings growth to be weighted to the back half of the year due to the seasonality of advertising and affiliate revenue.

我們預計這些投資將反映在我們的收入成本和產品開發費用的成長上。由於廣告和聯盟收入的季節性，我們預計 AOP 和獲利成長將集中在下半年。

I'll close by noting that we remain on track to achieve our previously stated midterm targets for subscribers, AOP growth and capital returns.

最後，我要指出的是，我們仍在按計劃實現我們先前提出的用戶、AOP 成長和資本回報的中期目標。

With that, I'll send it back to Meredith to wrap up.

寫完這些之後，我會把它發回給梅雷迪斯讓他完成。

Thanks, Will. Our portfolio of differentiated news and lifestyle products is delivering growth and steadily improving unit economics, and we believe our multi-revenue stream model makes our business more resilient in a complicated environment. With this foundation, we believe strongly in our ability to create value through a premium product portfolio and world-class independent journalism at a time when it is rarer and more needed than ever.

謝謝，威爾。我們差異化的新聞和生活方式產品組合正在實現成長並穩步提高單位經濟效益，我們相信，我們的多收入流模式使我們的業務在複雜的環境中更具彈性。有了這個基礎，我們堅信我們有能力透過優質的產品組合和世界一流的獨立新聞創造價值，而現在這種價值比以往任何時候都更加稀缺和需要。

And now we're happy to take your questions.

現在我們很高興回答您的問題。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

And our first question today comes from Thomas Yeh from Morgan Stanley.

今天我們的第一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Thomas Yeh。

I wanted to ask about the evolving relationship with big tech. I think you've historically approached commercial agreements with the philosophy of being able to drive engagement back to your own properties in light of some of the details around the OpenAI litigation and the deal with Apple News. Can you maybe just help us dimensionalize the structure of a licensing deal that you would see as proving not cannibalistic? And how do you kind of weigh the benefits and the offsets associated with an opportunity like that?

我想問一下與大型科技公司之間不斷發展的關係。我認為，你們歷來在處理商業協議時都秉持這樣的理念：考慮到 OpenAI 訴訟和與 Apple News 的交易的一些細節，能夠推動用戶重新關注你們自己的資產。您能否幫助我們具體化授權協議的架構，以證明其不會造成相互蠶食？您如何衡量這樣的機會所帶來的好處和不利影響？

Yes. I'll start, Thomas. Will can come in behind me as he sees fit. We are -- you've seen the deals we've done over the last couple of years, and you're referring to the one I referenced in my prepared remarks that we've just done with Apple -- Apple News Plus, for The Athletic and Wirecutter. We're generally looking for 3 things. Does this make sense in the context of our essential subscription strategy, by which I mean is it helping us in some way to build direct relationships. And that can be through very direct ways or through helping us grow audience and awareness for our brands in the case of this partnership we've just built with Apple News Plus and The Athletic.

是的。我先開始，湯瑪斯。威爾可以根據自己的需要跟在我後面。您已經看到了我們過去幾年達成的交易，您指的是我在準備好的演講中提到的我們剛剛與蘋果達成的交易——Apple News Plus，用於 The Athletic 和 Wirecutter。我們一般尋找三件事。這在我們的基本訂閱策略中是否有意義，我的意思是它是否在某種程度上幫助我們建立直接關係。這可以透過非常直接的方式實現，也可以透過幫助我們擴大受眾和提高品牌知名度來實現，就像我們剛剛與 Apple News Plus 和 The Athletic 建立的合作關係一樣。

We certainly see it as doing that. And then we look at the dimension of are our IP rights being sort of appropriately respected and used in a responsible way and is there fair value exchange. And I would say any time we look to engage with a big tech partner, or any partner for that matter, those are the considerations we're making. And I think we've got a good track record of doing deals that live up to those standards.

我們確實認為它確實在這麼做。然後，我們會檢視我們的智慧財產權是否得到適當的尊重和以負責任的方式使用，以及是否有公平的價值交換。我想說的是，每當我們希望與大型科技合作夥伴或任何合作夥伴合作時，這些都是我們正在考慮的因素。我認為我們在達成符合這些​​標準的交易方面有著良好的記錄。

Is attribution still critical to building and reinforcing the overall IP? Like is that something that you would ever potentially forgo in an AI situation that would be economic and still beneficial to you?

歸因對於建構和強化整體智慧財產權是否仍然至關重要？例如，在人工智慧環境下，您是否會放棄一些既經濟又對您有利的東西？

I want to make sure I understand your question. Maybe try that one more time.

我想確認我理解了你的問題。也許再試一次。

Yes. Just in terms of branding and the idea that I think historically with Apple News, the ability for them to kind of ingest your content into their own platform has, I think, been a little bit of a barrier to your reasoning around licensing to them. I was just asking, I think, in the vein of kind of the AI and the proliferation of some of that and the potential loss of attribution, if there ever is an economic model that makes sense for you to kind of forgo some of that.

是的。就品牌和我認為 Apple News 歷史上的想法而言，他們能夠將您的內容吸收到他們自己的平台中，我認為這對您向他們授予許可的推理造成了一點障礙。我只是在問，我認為，在人工智慧和其中一些技術的擴散以及潛在的歸因損失方面，是否存在一種經濟模式可以讓你放棄其中的一些技術。

Yes, I understand what you're saying. I'll say 2 things, both kind of related to what I've already said. One is, I think the most important thing we can do as a business, and I talked about this a bit in my prepared remarks, is to have products that are so valuable at scale and kind of widely understood for their brand marks and the credibility and the trustworthiness they provide that people are inclined to build a direct relationship with us, and will come to us on a very regular basis.

是的，我明白你的意思。我要說兩件事，都跟我已經說過的內容有關。一是，我認為作為一家企業，我們能做的最重要的事情，我在準備好的發言中也談到了這一點，就是擁有在規模上非常有價值的產品，並且這些產品的品牌標誌、可信度和可靠性得到廣泛認可，這樣人們就傾向於與我們建立直接關係，並會定期光顧我們。

So that's the main game we are playing. To the extent that there are other ways to tap into the vast arsenal of IP that we create every day that we've created for close to 2 centuries, we are open to that as long as there is fair value exchange and it's supportive of the broader business model.

這就是我們正在玩的主要遊戲。如果還有其他方式可以利用我們近兩個世紀以來每天創造的大量智慧財產權，那麼只要存在公平的價值交換並且支持更廣泛的商業模式，我們對此持開放態度。

Okay. That's helpful. And then maybe just to squeeze one last one for Will. I wanted to revisit the capital allocation philosophy.

好的。這很有幫助。然後也許只是為了給威爾擠出最後一個。我想重新檢視資本配置理念。

You reiterated the 50% return of free cash flow over the medium term. But I think you've been pacing a little bit below that in 2023. Was there any specific reason that led to a pause in repurchase activity and potential uses of cash that you see as an attractive opportunity to maybe drive organic growth instead?

您重申了中期自由現金流回報率為 50%。但我認為 2023 年您的計劃略低於這個水平。是否有任何具體原因導致回購活動和潛在現金用途暫停，而您認為這是一個可能推動有機成長的有吸引力的機會？

Thanks, Thomas. I think you should just take our capital allocation strategy as unchanged, that target, 50% over the medium term. And we have said, don't expect that sort of to be linear to any quarter or even any year. Over the last 2 years, we've returned 61% in a combination of dividends and share repurchases. And I think you can expect us to continue to track against our target over the midterm.

謝謝，托馬斯。我認為你應該將我們的資本配置策略視為不變，也就是中期 50% 的目標。我們已經說過，不要期望這種成長在任何季度甚至任何一年都是線性的。在過去的兩年裡，我們透過股息和股票回購獲得了 61% 的回報。我認為你可以期待我們在中期繼續實現我們的目標。

Our next question comes from David Karnovsky from JPMorgan.

我們的下一個問題來自摩根大通的 David Karnovsky。

Meredith, I don't know what you're willing to say on the lawsuit with OpenAI, though any thoughts would be welcome, but maybe separate to that, are you still in discussions with other AI platforms for potential licensing deals? And can you speak to how discussions might be going and the prospects for any agreements near term?

梅雷迪斯，我不知道你願意就與 OpenAI 的訴訟發表什麼看法，儘管任何想法都值得歡迎，但除此之外，你是否仍在與其他 AI 平台討論潛在的許可協議？您能否談談討論的進度以及近期達成協議的前景？

And then Will, just a question on the outlook. The Q1 cost growth looks to be a touch above the pace of the past few quarters. I know sometimes there's timing issues. I wanted to see if there's any callout here and if you could provide any view on the cost trend for the remainder of the year.

然後威爾，我問一個關於前景的問題。第一季的成本成長似乎略高於過去幾季的速度。我知道有時會有時間問題。我想看看這裡是否有任何標註，以及您是否可以對今年剩餘時間的成本趨勢提供任何看法。

I'll start. Thanks for the question, and as you suggest, we're in active litigation, so there's not much I'll say about the case specifically. But more broadly on making deals, and this goes a little bit to the way I answered Thomas' question, you've seen the deals we've done over the last couple of years, you can imagine we are talking to potential partners all the time. And you've seen directly in the complaint that we're talking to potential Generative AI partners. I'd say we are being really selective and thoughtful about what partnership makes sense for us in the context of our strategy and our rights being respected to our IP and fair value exchange for that IP.

我先開始。感謝您的提問，正如您所說，我們正在進行訴訟，因此關於此案的具體情況我不太想多說。但更廣泛地談論達成交易，這與我回答托馬斯的問題的方式有點相似，你已經看到了我們過去幾年達成的交易，你可以想像我們一直在與潛在的合作夥伴交談。您可以在投訴中直接看到我們正在與潛在的生成人工智慧合作夥伴進行交談。我想說的是，在我們的策略背景下，我們在選擇和考慮什麼樣的合作關係對我們有意義，以及我們對智慧財產權的權利受到尊重以及對​​該智慧財產權的公平價值交換。

I'll take that cost growth guide question. I'm not -- I don't think there's anything that I'll specifically call out for Q1, simply to say that there can be some variation quarter-to-quarter in cost growth, that you've seen in the past and certainly can expect to see that occasionally.

我將回答這個成本增長指南問題。我不是——我不認為我會特別指出第一季的情況，只是想說成本增長可能存在一些季度間差異，這種差異在過去已經出現過，而且肯定會偶爾出現。

But overall, I think the 2 themes I hit in my remarks are the things to focus on, which is, number one, cost discipline. We're very, very focused on it, relentlessly reallocating resources to areas of highest impact and really focusing on leverage in G&A and the sales and marketing lines and getting efficiencies out of places like our print supply chain legacy areas. So that's theme number one.

但總的來說，我認為我在發言中提到的兩個主題是需要關注的，第一，成本紀律。我們非常非常關注這一點，堅持不懈地將資源重新分配到影響最大的領域，真正關注 G&A 以及銷售和行銷線的槓桿作用，並提高印刷供應鏈遺留領域等地方的效率。這就是第一個主題。

And then theme number 2 is that we will continue to make targeted strategic investments that we believe are creating value in our journalism and in our product development, to really make sure we're investing for the long term and solidifying our competitive position. So I think those are the 2 themes to hit there.

第二個主題是，我們將繼續進行有針對性的策略投資，我們相信這些投資將為我們的新聞業和產品開發創造價值，以真正確保我們進行長期投資並鞏固我們的競爭地位。所以我認為這是需要討論的兩個主題。

Our next question comes from Ashton Welles from Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Ashton Welles。

I think digital-only subscriber ARPU in Q4 was down modestly from Q3. What drove the sequential decline and how should we be thinking about ARPU growth in the first half of 2024 as more bundled subscribers are stepped up? And related to this, how are the bundle step-ups performing versus your expectations?

我認為第四季純數位用戶的 ARPU 較第三季略有下降。是什麼導致了連續的下滑？隨著捆綁用戶數量的增加，我們該如何看待 2024 年上半年 ARPU 的成長？與此相關，捆綁升級的表現與您的預期相比如何？

Sure. Let me take that. I mean I think the way to think about the sequential decline in ARPU, it's very much a reflection of things we've seen before, which is a good quarter of net adds. And given the nature of our promotional pricing strategy, we expect to see that when that happens.

當然。讓我來接手吧。我的意思是，我認為 ARPU 的連續下降很大程度上反映了我們之前看到的情況，即淨增用戶數在本季度表現良好。鑑於我們的促銷定價策略的性質，我們預計這種情況會發生。

I think the important thing for us to focus on, obviously, the year-over-year ARPU growth in the quarter. And then looking forward, as we've said, we expect modest year-over-year ARPU expansion for digital-only subscribers. So that's the expectation going forward.

我認為，我們顯然應該關注本季 ARPU 的年成長。展望未來，正如我們所說，我們預計純數位訂閱用戶的 ARPU 將比去年同期適度成長。這就是我們對未來的期望。

I think we have talked -- I about in my remarks, the drivers of that expansion in Q4. And I think probably we're seeing that first driver, which was the step-up, the bigger bundle cohorts as we've been bringing on more and more bundled subs, is going to be one of the main drivers in 2024 as well. And I said in my remarks, it's still early, so we'll have increasing numbers coming in throughout the year, but we remain encouraged by what we see, that bundle subscribers at those step-up moments are retaining better and monetizing better than news-only subscribers.

我想我們已經討論過了——我在我的發言中談到了第四季度擴張的驅動因素。我認為，我們可能會看到第一個驅動因素，即升級，隨著我們推出越來越多的捆綁訂閱，更大的捆綁群體也將成為 2024 年的主要驅動因素之一。我在發言中說過，現在還為時過早，因此全年訂閱用戶數量將會不斷增加，但我們對所看到的情況感到鼓舞，捆綁訂閱用戶在升級時刻的留存率和盈利能力都比純新聞訂閱用戶更高。

Our next question comes from Doug Arthur from Huber Research Partners.

我們的下一個問題來自 Huber Research Partners 的 Doug Arthur。

Yes, two questions. Meredith, the deal with Apple News Plus that started late in the fourth quarter, did you get any read-through at all, or is it -- on the impact, or is it just too early? And what kind of are your expectations there?

是的，兩個問題。梅雷迪斯，與 Apple News Plus 的交易在第四季度末開始，您是否了解過它的影響，還是現在還為時過早？您對此有何期望？

Great question. Tiny impact, I think, I'm looking at Will and Anthony, if they want to characterize that anymore, but tiny impact, just based on the timing and then, obviously, bigger impact to come.

好問題。我認為影響很小，我正在觀察威爾和安東尼，如果他們願意進一步描述這一點的話，但影響很小，只是基於時間，然後，顯然，更大的影響即將到來。

And the -- there are a handful of things we're particularly excited about in this deal. One is, as we've talked about with you and others, we are very, very focused on building audience and brand awareness and use of The Athletic, and we see Apple News Plus as a great way to do that.

而且──在這筆交易中，有幾件事讓我們特別興奮。一是，正如我們與您和其他人討論過的，我們非常非常注重建立受眾和品牌知名度以及 The Athletic 的使用，我們認為 Apple News Plus 是實現這一目標的絕佳方式。

Apple is doing a lot of interesting things in sports, really good partner for us there. And The Times has very, very big ambitions for The Athletic in sports, and we see this as helping us achieve that. So it's good in any number of ways, and you'll -- you can expect to see the impact on a go-forward basis.

蘋果在體育領域做了很多有趣的事情，對我們來說確實是一個很好的合作夥伴。 《紐約時報》對 The Athletic 在體育領域抱有非常大的期望，我們認為這將有助於我們實現這一目標。所以它在很多方面都是好的，而且你可以期待看到它在未來的影響。

Doug, did you have another question or are you all set?

道格，你還有其他問題嗎？或是你準備好了嗎？

Well, I just -- I didn't want to beat a dead horse, but it seems like your digital advertising outlook for Q1 is -- I wouldn't call it optimistic, but it's more constructive, I think, than what we just witnessed in the fourth quarter's. I guess, just trying to measure your conviction level on that.

好吧，我只是——我不想重複老生常談，但看起來您對第一季的數位廣告前景——我不會稱之為樂觀，但我認為它比我們在第四季度所看到的更具建設性。我猜，只是想衡量一下你對此的信念程度。

Yes. Well, let me preface it by saying it's hard -- advertising is hard to call. We don't have a ton of visibility, but I'll say a few things. We did see in digital in the fourth quarter a fair amount of what I would describe as marketer news avoidance. You have the war between Israel and Hamas break out in early October. And that had an effect in both display and audio. And at the same time, what you see us doing to lap up some of the demand to work with The Times, and we're doing this anyway, we are extending our ad products very aggressively to other parts of the portfolio beyond news.

是的。好吧，首先我要說的是，這很難——廣告很難稱呼。我們的知名度不高，但我還是想說幾件事。我們確實在第四季度的數位媒體中看到了相當多的我所描述的行銷人員新聞迴避現象。十月初，以色列和哈馬斯之間的戰爭爆發。這對顯示和音訊都有影響。同時，為了滿足與《紐約時報》合作的需求，我們正在積極地將廣告產品擴展到新聞業務以外的其他領域，而我們也在這樣做。

The Athletic and Games have been real bright spots so far, and we see a lot of running room in both of those places and potentially in Cooking and Wirecutter as well. So I would say we are -- we're long on news over a medium and long-term time horizon.

到目前為止，運動會和遊戲會一直是真正的亮點，我們看到這兩個領域都有很大的發展空間，而且在烹飪和 Wirecutter 方面也有很大的發展空間。所以我想說，我們——在中長期時間範圍內，我們看好新聞。

We also have a lot of other places to kind of lap up interest in working with The Times for marketers. And the core of the business, Doug, which is those premium ad canvases and first-party data, continues to be resilient.

對於行銷人員來說，我們還有很多其他地方可以吸引他們與《紐約時報》合作的興趣。道格，業務的核心，即那些優質廣告畫布和第一方數據，繼續保持彈性。

Our next question comes from Vasily Karasyov from Cannonball Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Cannonball Research 的 Vasily Karasyov。

Meredith, so do I understand correctly that when you say in your prepared remarks that the headwinds in the advertising market that carry into this year 2024, you mentioned the current events, the Middle Eastern situation and so on, the -- just advertisers not wanting to advertise next to the content that's driven by current events? Or is there something more structural, because you also mentioned publisher volatility? And I was wondering if you could explain a little more what that term means.

梅雷迪斯，我是否理解正確？您在準備好的發言中提到，廣告市場的逆風將持續到 2024 年，您提到了時事、中東局勢等等，廣告商只是不想在受時事驅動的內容旁邊投放廣告？或者是否存在更結構性的問題，因為您也提到了出版商的波動性？我想知道您是否可以進一步解釋一下該術語的含義。

Yes. Listen, I think it was a volatile ad market. That tends to hit publishers hard when it happens. We have a lot of what I'm going to call structural confidence in the core of our ad business. Premium canvases and first-party data and core New York Times, and now extending out to our other products with a lot of running room, is really working.

是的。聽著，我認為這是一個動盪的廣告市場。一旦發生這種情況，出版商往往會遭受沉重打擊。我們對廣告業務的核心抱持著很大的信心，我稱之為結構性信心。優質畫布、第一方資料和核心《紐約時報》，現在擴展到我們其他具有大量運行空間的產品，確實很有效。

So that's the message I want to convey, and I think I answered the other part of your question before. To the extent you're asking how do we think about publishers relative to platforms or any other places that are in the ad business in a big way, I would say marketers use publishers, they tend to, differently than they use the big platforms. One of the things we -- that gives us a lot of confidence is, while we tend to get more middle and upper-funnel advertising -- meaning sort of not direct response, more brand -- in most parts of our portfolio, our ads -- because of the way we sequence ads and the first-party data, our ads are really performant. And what you're watching us do is extend those ads across more parts of the platform.

這就是我想要傳達的訊息，我想我之前已經回答過你問題的另一部分了。如果你問我們如何看待出版商相對於平台或任何其他大規模從事廣告業務的地方，我想說行銷人員使用出版商​​的方式與使用大型平台的方式不同。讓我們非常有信心的一件事是，雖然我們傾向於獲得更多的中上層漏斗廣告 - 這意味著不是直接反應，更多的品牌 - 在我們的大部分產品組合中，我們的廣告 - 因為我們對廣告進行排序的方式和第一方數據，我們的廣告確實表現良好。而您正在看到的是我們所做的就是將這些廣告擴展到平台的更多部分。

And I would say there, we just have -- it's early days on Athletic and Games and potentially Cooking and Wirecutter, and we think we've got a lot of running room. I'm actually going to use that as a segue to mention an experiment we're also -- I'll go back to the question Thomas asked about at the top of the call, and I'll talk about ads here, too, related to your question, and it's about AI.

我想說的是，我們在運動和遊戲方面還處於早期階段，可能在烹飪和 Wirecutter 方面也還有很大的發展空間。我實際上將以此為過渡來提及我們正在進行的一項實驗——我將回到托馬斯在電話會議開始時提出的問題，在這裡我也將談論與您的問題相關的廣告，它是關於人工智慧的。

We have been using AI in our ad business sort of the whole way through with first-party data, and I think generative AI presents the opportunity for us to get even better at that. So you can assume we're beginning to experiment with generative AI in our ad products, at least as far as improving our ability to do contextual targeting at scale. And I think that just goes to our sort of structural -- our confidence in the underlying structure of our ad business. And I'll just mention, again, going back to Thomas' question and the other question I got about generative AI, we are actively experimenting now, and you're going to see us do more and more of that with generative AI kind of across the product set.

我們一直在廣告業務中使用人工智慧和第一方數據，我認為生成人工智慧為我們提供了在這方面做得更好的機會。因此，你可以假設我們開始在我們的廣告產品中嘗試產生人工智慧，至少在提高我們大規模進行情境定位的能力方面。我認為這與我們的結構有關—我們對廣告業務底層結構的信心。我再提一下，回到托馬斯的問題和我收到的關於生成式人工智慧的另一個問題，我們現在正在積極地進行實驗，你會看到我們在整個產品系列中越來越多地使用生成式人工智慧。

So I'll mention, in the fourth quarter we put out an experiment -- relatively small, early days, but exciting -- in augmenting Spanish language translation for our content, which we're excited about, and you can imagine the implications of being able to do that at scale. Again, it's very early days.

所以我要提一下，在第四季度，我們進行了一項實驗——規模相對較小、處於早期階段，但令人興奮——增強我們內容的西班牙語翻譯，我們對此感到興奮，你可以想像大規模進行這項實驗的意義。再說一遍，現在還為時過早。

And we expect to get another experiment out into the market, probably this quarter, around synthetic voice, which would help us give people the ability to listen to a lot of the written New York Times. So that's in addition to using AI and beginning to use generative AI in how we target advertising.

我們預計本季在市場上進行另一項關於合成語音的實驗，這將有助於我們讓人們能夠收聽大量《紐約時報》的文字內容。因此，除了使用人工智慧之外，我們也開始在廣告定位中使用生成人工智慧。

And ladies and gentlemen, with that, we'll be concluding today's question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Anthony DiClemente for any closing remarks.

女士們、先生們，今天的問答環節就到此結束。我想將發言權交還給 Anthony DiClemente，請他做最後發言。

That's it. Thank you all for joining us this morning, and we very much look forward to talking to you again next quarter. Take care.

就是這樣。感謝大家今天上午加入我們，我們非常期待下個季度再次與您交談。小心。

And ladies and gentlemen, with that, the conference has concluded. We thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.

女士們、先生們，會議到此結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。現在您可以斷開線路了。