Well this is interesting.

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The New York Times made news the loss leader for a $2 billion digital revenue machine, and this chart is the receipt. News-only subscribers dropped 65% since June 2022. Bundle subscribers grew 227%. That looks like a news collapse. But the NYT deliberately killed its standalone news product. They stopped marketing it. They made it nearly impossible to buy a news-only subscription on their website. They priced the full bundle (News Games Cooking Athletic Wirecutter) at $2/month introductory, cheaper than a standalone Games subscription. News-only ARPU is $13.33. Bundle ARPU is $12.92. Single non-news product ARPU is $3.36. Those 4.3 million single-product subscribers paying $3.36/month? They’re not the business. They’re the funnel. The NYT CEO said it explicitly on the earnings call: single products are “funnels to get people to subscribe” to the bundle. Games now accounts for over 50% of time spent inside the NYT app. Wordle, Connections, and the Mini pull 10 million weekly players who never intended to read a news article. But half of all NYT subscribers now pay for the bundle, and bundle subscribers retain longer, engage more, and accept price increases. The bundle just went from $25 to $30/month. The result: digital revenue crossed $2 billion for the first time in 2025. Free cash flow hit $550 million. Adjusted operating margins reached 24% in Q4. Berkshire Hathaway just took a billion-dollar position. While the Washington Post cut 300 journalists last week, the Times added 1.4 million subscribers. This chart shows a news company that built an attention ecosystem where Wordle gets you in the door, Cooking keeps you at breakfast, The Athletic owns your commute, and by the time you think about canceling, you’d lose four products instead of one. The NYT figured out that the way to fund journalism in 2026 is to make sure you can’t quit the crossword.

SWEDISH POLITICIAN SAYS KEY TO GETTING ECONOMY BACK ON TRACK IS BY BEING LESS ‘SPURSY’ Lucas Bergvall, look away. Swedish member of parliament Mikael Damberg compared his nation’s “misdirected economic policy” to Tottenham; flush with resources, but unaware of how to use them.

We can’t believe we have to say this, but media on scene: please do not order food delivery to a crime scene address. This interferes with an active investigation. Please also respect private property laws. Thank you.

day 1 back in nyc and i had a dream that zohran mamdani invited me over for dinner for some reason and served a dish that was basically just a meatball on a piece of naan he called “the big mamdani”

Something very baffling just happened to me A woman came up to take pictures of my snowman, totally perplexed and asked if it's supposed to be Abraham Lincoln and I was like "haha maybe ya, just a snowman" and she exclaims "a what???" And I go "a snowman?" And she says "Abe Lincoln?" as if she's never heard of or seen a snowman, only Abraham Lincoln

Queens *ALL HANDS* Box 6538 85-37 168th St off Gothic Dr FIRE IN A SHANTY IN THE REAR OF A MOSQUE

Brooklyn *ALL HANDS* Box 2415 1271 Brooklyn Ave off Clarendon Rd RUBBISH IN THE REAR

Nancy Mace really needs to learn how to check which account she’s tweeting from before replying to herself in her own fanfiction. This isn’t the first time she’s been caught doing this.

Any comment @ItsTanbirC ?

folks...

Last year, I was at a Jaguars game here in Jax grabbing some food for the kids at a concession stand. The cashier rung me up, I put in my card, and she reached over the register and hit “no tip”. Throughly confused, I asked why. She said the workers don’t get the tips; it all goes to the concession company contracted by the stadium. Made me wonder how prevalent this is now that we see tipping screens everywhere.

Living in NYC (and making it your entire brand) and being afraid to take the subway at night is remarkably funny

As a theme park enthusiast the plothole that bothers me most in the new Jurassic World is that we're told the last generation of dinosaurs is dying out, and they still aren't a draw in zoos, everyone is tired of them. Bro look at the last week of Muppetvision 3D

bonginonono

I Photoshop Paddington into a movie, TV show, or pop culture until I forget: Day 1581

LABOR LOVES COOL JAMES! inquirer.com/news/ll-cool-j-…

semi-regular reminder that when isaac chotiner calls you -- and he will -- immediately throw your phone in the river and move to mongolia.