NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) – The ny Times’ epic 2020 was always getting to be hard to beat. The newspaper’s second-quarter results on Wednesday showed the slowest digital subscription growth in three years, with only 142,000 paying customers added. That’s a far cry from the record numbers who signed up last year because of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to win a second term within the White House and Covid-19 coverage. Yet there was enough excellent news to drive shares up 10%.

Take advertising, normally a dismal affair for newspapers. Digital advertising jumped 80% from a year earlier while print ad revenue rose 40%. In total, the days made $113 million from ad sales. True, 2020 was a coffee point when brands halted spending. But digital ad revenue was up quite a fifth compared with the second quarter of 2019. Courting Madison Avenue helps the days deal with the Trump slump. (By Jennifer Saba)

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