New subscription plan for shared accounts aims to boost subscriber numbers
Will people feel too awkward to cancel a subscription if someone else depends on it too? The New York Times is counting on it as they introduce new family-and-friend subscription plans.
The legacy news organization has ambitious targets for subscriber numbers, with the new plans aiming to broaden its user base and create long-term usage among people who would not otherwise have signed up. It also tackles the unauthorized log-in sharing that plagues subscription-model industries.
Launched in early September, the All Access Family plan allows up to three users to be added to an account and engage with all the content, from news to recipes to games. The main user pays $30 per month, and each user will have an individual log-in and personalized content.
The Times also launched a similar Games Family Plan that taps into the newspaper’s major hit products like Wordle and the Crossword. Up to four users can share a games-only access account for $10 per month.
A single-user all access New York Times subscription plan, by comparison, costs $25 a month without promotional pricing. Each family subscription will be counted as two subscribers for the business.
About a third of New York Times subscribers are already on a plan that excludes news content. The marketing material for the new plans are keen to point out previous gaming history like winning streaks will be carried over to new accounts. “You do you. They do them,” the advertisements say.
The new subscriber model is part of the company’s efforts to reach an ambitious target of 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027. It currently has 11.9 million. Around 70% of the company’s revenues in the first half of 2025 came from subscription fees, while its second biggest revenue source, digital advertising, also relies on large, dependable subscriber numbers.
The plan also tackles a major problem across subscription-based businesses. Users sharing their log-ins for free is a loss of potential revenue. Netflix estimated around 100 million unpaid users accessed their services with shared passwords when they introduced their strict paid-sharing plan in 2023.
News of the New York Times’ family plan did not move stock prices, but analysts see long-term positives.
Deutsche Bank analysts estimate the new family plan could add 424,000 subscribers by 2027. “Historically, the introduction of paid sharing has created a tailwind to subscriber growth,” their analyst note pointed out.
Doug Arthur, analyst at Huber Research Partners also thinks the plan is a good idea because people on shared plans tend to stick with it.
“It’s got a better long-term life value, contract value,” he said. “So you’re more likely to lock households in for a longer period of time.”