The gulf between The New York Times and other publications in the industry is widening. The Times now has more digital subscribers than The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and the 250 local Gannett papers combined.
When comparing employment stats, the Times employs 1,700 journalists, a dominating number in an industry where total employment nationally has fallen to approximately between 20,000 and 38,000. Along with general employment, the company has also absorbed many top people including editors of Gawker, Recode, and Quartz.
“The New York Times is going to basically be a monopoly,” predicted Jim VandeHei, the founder of Axios, which started in 2016 with plans to sell digital subscriptions but has yet to do so. “The Times will get bigger and the niche will get nichier, and nothing else will survive.”
The paper is now diversifying in the audio industry. The Times is in exclusive talks to acquire Serial Productions, the breakthrough podcast studio that has attracted more than 300 million downloads.
However, with growth, the Times also says that “they are also looking for a way to help out their weaker cousins, given the threat that the collapse of local journalism poses to democracy.”
Now, the question comes “is the Times success and growth a threat to the journalism industry?”
As Josh Tyrangiel, former senior vice president of news at Vice, said, “The moat is so wide now that I can’t see anyone getting into it. There’s no new thing coming. And the editor of BuzzFeed News, who was probably the chief insurgent, is now writing this column for you at The New York Times.”
