NYT vs WLYB: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. NYT and WLYB share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined NYT and WLYB exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

The New York Times Company publishes The New York Times and operates a family of subscription products around it: the core news report, Games (Wordle, Connections, the Crossword), NYT Cooking, the sports site The Athletic, the product-recommendation site Wirecutter, and a growing audio and video slate. Almost all of the money comes from consumers rather than distributors: subscription revenue was about $481 million of the roughly $763 million the company took in during the quarter ended June 30, 2026, with digital-only subscriptions alone at about $408 million. Advertising (about $134 million in the quarter, now majority digital) and affiliate, licensing and other revenue (about $76 million, including Wirecutter referral fees and AI content licensing) fill in the rest. Print still exists and still declines, but it is a shrinking tail on a digital business.

Full NYT guide

John Wiley & Sons has carried two classes of common stock on the New York Stock Exchange for decades. WLY is Class A, with ~42.0 million shares outstanding as of the May 31, 2026 record date. WLYB is Class B, with ~8.76 million. The rights differ in exactly one dimension, which is voting. On ordinary business put to shareholders, a Class A share carries one-tenth of a vote and a Class B share carries a full one. Director elections work on a separate mechanism: the two classes vote as distinct constituencies, and at the September 24, 2026 annual meeting Class A holders elect three of the nine nominees while Class B holders elect the other six. Everything economic is the same. One dividend rate is declared on both lines, both share in earnings and in liquidation on the same per-share basis, and Class B converts one-for-one into Class A whenever a holder asks, a right that does not run in reverse.

Full WLYB guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• NYT drivers: The bundle and subscriber compounding; Digital advertising built on first-party data.
• WLYB drivers: A float near 630,000 shares sets the price behaviour; One-way conversion is what tethers the two lines.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The most immediate risk is cost discipline: adjusted operating costs rose about 10% year over year in the June 2026 quarter against guidance of 8% to 9%, and free cash flow margin dropped to roughly 1.3% from 15.1%, which is what actually triggered the roughly 15% single-day fall in early August 2026. For WLYB, illiquidity is the risk most likely to actually be felt: an exit from WLYB can take days at prices the tape does not advertise, and in a fast market the Class B line can lag Class A simply because nobody is quoting it.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick NYT if you believe its drivers more; WLYB if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the NYT and WLYB guides.

NYT. Figures are approximate and tied to August 2026; check live data before acting on any of them. At roughly $63.80 the stock carries a trailing price-to-earnings ratio in the high twenties on ~$382 million of trailing net income, which is a growth multiple applied to a business the market now expects to grow revenue closer to 7% than 11%. The clearest way to read the valuation is as a bet on whether the reinvestment cycle in video, audio and AI distribution converts back into free cash flow, because the June 2026 quarter showed margin expansion at the adjusted-operating line and a collapse at the cash-flow line at the same time.

WLYB. Because the economics are identical, the valuation argument on WLYB is the valuation argument on Wiley, plus or minus whatever the market charges for the smaller line on the day. The 52-week range of roughly ~$29 to ~$56 is a wide band for a company whose revenue barely moved, and the Class B prints inside it rest on far fewer trades than the Class A prints, so the B chart is noisier than the underlying business. One practical consequence is that the resting bid-ask on WLYB is often wider than the entire price spread between the two share classes.

Headline figures (approximate, August 2026): NYT shows revenue (ttm) ~$2.90 billion, with the June 2026 quarter at ~$762.5 million, up ~11.2% year over year, net income (ttm) ~$382 million; June 2026 quarter adjusted EPS ~$0.69 versus ~$0.58 a year earlier, subscribers ~12.8 million digital-only (~13.35 million total) after ~280,000 net digital adds; digital ARPU ~$9.94, profitability Adjusted operating profit margin ~20.4% in the June 2026 quarter, up ~90 basis points; full-year 2025 adjusted operating profit ~$550 million; WLYB shows class b shares outstanding ~8.76 million, against ~42.0 million Class A (May 31, 2026 record date), held by the wiley family llc 8,125,536 shares, ~92.8% of the class, leaving a public float near ~630,000, voting power the family controls ~62.7% of total votes, and six of the nine director seats, class b price and 20-day volume ~$52 to ~$53 on ~3,500 shares a day, versus ~$54 on ~399,000 for Class A.

NYT and WLYB are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined NYT and WLYB exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.