The New York Times has the most paying subscribers of any English-language publisher, boasting some 9.6 million people buying access.
But they’re not all there for the Gray Lady’s reporting: more than a tenth of those subscribers are paying for access to the Times’ games offering – with no news included.
On this week’s podcast The New York Times’ head of games, Jonathan Knight, tells Press Gazette the publisher’s investment in games creates a valuable funnel for bringing in subscribers (and keeping existing ones around). Read the full interview here.
But it’s more complicated than sticking a sudoku on the website – the NYT has editors exclusively assigned to curating its game offering, and the publication puts great effort into keeping its community socially engaged with the puzzles.
Listen to hear more on The New York Times’ gaming strategy, who it sees as its rivals and why there’s a commercial logic to investing in crossword writers from more diverse backgrounds.
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