John Delach

On a recent Saturday morning, I opened our garage door at about seven and walked out onto  the driveway to pick up The Times and Newsday only to find they had yet to be delivered. In this age of fewer and fewer print subscribers, the morning papers are no longer delivered by different drivers. The Times, Newsday, the Daily News, the Post and the Wall Street Journal are all delivered by a single person in our community.

Normally, I would have returned inside, but it was a nice day so I stayed outside. My instinct was bang on, an old white car slowly came around the curve leading to my house. I could see plastic bags being thrown to the left and right as it proceeded toward me.

I stood at the curb as I watched, George, the driver approach me. With a smile on my face, I greeted him. His front seat was a sea of newspapers. As he handed me my two papers, he told me, that he was a retired delivery man and only did this when they needed him. We talked about how few customers still seek printed papers. “George, I’m 82 and I wonder will I go first, or my printed newspapers before me?”

George replied, “I figure The Times is the key. If they eliminate their printed editions, all of our other dailies will soon follow suit.”

I think George is correct, so let’s take a look at what is happening at The Grey Lady.

On this November 5^th, the NYT reported that in the last quarter, they had added 420,000 additional digital subscribers bringing their total up to 13,800,000. This addition keeps the company on pace to meet its goal of achieving 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027.

Meanwhile, the number of their print subscribers dropped from 570,000 to 540,000.

The NYT first began offering digital subscriptions in 2011. At that time, the number of print subscribers varied between 1.1 million and 1.2 million readers.

At the end of 2011, digital readers reached 390,000. Here is how it continued:

2014 = 910,000

2017 = 2.5 million

2020 = 7.5 million

2022 = 9.6 million

2025 = 12.78 million

I love my printed newspapers and they remain the sources of many of the pieces that I write for my blogs. Most times these sources appear off the beaten track. My favorite of all times appeared in a Saturday edition of the NYT in a column titled: “On Religion.”

It was the story about the North Dakota Police who obtained a surplus security dog from Isreal. Unfortunately, they could not communicate with the dog as he only understood Hebrew. The handler had to utilize one of the two Rabbis in the state to learn how to communicate with his new mate.

Today, I believe that the sand beneath the NYT is running out. The regular monthly cost for a digital subscription to the paper is between $25 and $30 a month while the cost for a written subscription is slightly less than $200 a month.

Of course, the pride at the Gray Lady to continue the written edition is a serious factor, but as the number of subscribers continues to slip-slide away, how long can this go on?

Tick, tick, tick…