Business Models Explained with Fexingo · 2026-08-24 · 9 min
When the New York Times hit one million digital subscribers in 2014, the skeptics said it was a ceiling. By 2025, that number was past ten million. In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down how a 170-year-old newspaper become one of the most successful subscription businesses on the internet. We dig into the metered paywall - the decision to let readers hit a wall after five free articles - and how it created a sense of scarcity without killing the viral loop. We look at the bundle: why adding Cooking, Games, and The Athletic didn't just add revenue but lowered churn. We crunch the numbers on subscriber lifetime value and show how the Times now makes more from readers than from advertisers. And we talk about the trade-offs: the pressure on journalism, the tension between reach and revenue, and what other media companies can learn. If you've ever wondered how a legacy brand turned itself into a digital subscription machine, this episode gives you the mechanics.
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