What’s your Wordle? 

Journalism social media lit up last week in a way that only journalism social media can when Fiscal.ai, a financial data platform, posted a chart on X showing how “bundles” at The New York Times are outpacing news-only subscriptions.

Maybe it was the provocative wording that The Times is “no longer a news company,” but the post set off a whole discussion about what pays for news. Many media people pointed out that this isn’t new, considering that news in the past always got support from other content like puzzles, weather and even the comics.

“Overrated story,” tweeted journalist Ross Barkan. “The newspaper business was always a bundle! In 1960 and 1980 and even 2000, most Americans bought a newspaper for the sports page, the movie times, crosswords, maybe a weather report. That stuff underwrote news reporting.”

The question is which news organizations have been successful in replacing those revenue drivers in the digital age — and how they’re doing it.

One example might be the Minnesota Star Tribune’s new high school sports effort, Strib Varsity. In a profile of the project this week, Eric Rynston-Lobel wrote for the Medill Local News Initiative that 10% of new subscriptions to the Star Tribune have come through Strib Varsity. Bron Maher also wrote about the project in A Media Operator last month, saying it has supercharged subscription and ad revenue.

The data about The Times’ revenue sources also drew inevitable comparisons to The Washington Post, as it came not long after The Post eliminated about 30% of its newsroom due to financial conditions.

Those bundles make a difference, tweeted media writer and former Postie Paul Farhi. “The @nytimes really did no better at selling ‘the news’ than the Post did,” he noted.

Indeed, when Post executive editor Matt Murray was asked about the paper’s competitiveness at a media trust event sponsored by Semafor this week, he said he thought that while his newsroom is competitive journalistically, “the journalism alone isn’t enough.”

“We’re fighting for the attention of the audiences,” he said. “We need corporate models that support the journalism.”

News In Focus
Headlines, resources and events aligned with API’s four areas of focus.

Civic Discourse & Democracy

>>  ‘My children are here’: How journalist Georgia Fort’s arrest impacted her daughters (The 19th) 

Amanda Becker tells the story of what was happening with journalist Georgia Fort’s daughters — and how they were affected — when federal agents showed up before dawn last month to arrest her for covering an immigration protest at a Minnesota church. “A hard thing for children to digest is, if you didn’t do anything wrong, why would you be arrested for simply doing your job?” Fort said.

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Culture & Inclusion

>>  Colorado journalists talk DEI in their newsroom (Inside the News in Colorado) 

There have been reports of retrenchment in DEI efforts nationally, but at Colorado Public Radio, the journalists have “leaned in” on inclusion, writes Corey Hutchins. A recent panel discussion at the Denver Press Club gave a sense of how and why that’s happening. “I have changed nothing in what I personally do,” said Chandra Thomas Whitfield, a host and producer for the show Colorado Matters. “In fact, I’ve probably leaned in a little bit.”

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Community Engagement & Trust

>> The Tampa Bay Times starts a monthly “book club” for news stories (Nieman Lab)

The Tampa Bay Times has partnered with a local book (and wine) store in St. Petersburg to hold monthly “article clubs” on Sunday nights, writes Sophie Culpepper. The project was driven by reporter Lauren Peace, who moderates the conversations with articles’ authors and members of the community. “The idea is not just to discuss the story’s substance, but to give readers a behind-the-scenes look at the reporting process and decision-making that shape the published article,” Culpepper writes.

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Revenue & Resilience

>> Storied, faceless, and stubbornly profitable: The Economist braces for change (Semafor)

Max Tani writes about “lingering questions” surrounding The Economist’s long-term future. Lynn Forester de Rothschild has announced that she wants to sell her stake. Further, the uncertainty has upended the search for a new editor to replace Zanny Minton Bedoes, who, Tani writes, remains popular internally and has been “a strong public face for an otherwise faceless organization.”

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What else you need to know

🥸 A White House staffer appears to run massive Pro-Trump X account (Wired)

✂️ CNBC to unify digital, TV news operations and lay off nearly a dozen employees, sources say (Reuters)

📉 Washington Post losses topped $100 million in 2025  (The Wall Street Journal)

💔 Record 129 press members killed in 2025; Israel responsible for 2/3 of deaths (Committee to Protect Journalists)

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Weekend reads

+ Podcasts? TV talk shows? Netflix just hopes they’re hits (The New York Times)

+ Listen: As print journalism declined, these Vermont journos adapted (WCAX)

+ These women journalists changed their field. Their lives make great copy. (The New York Times)

+ Thinking about the fragility of a free press (Second Rough Draft)