New York Times Company reportedly in exclusive talks to buy Letterboxd for about $330 million

The New York Times Company is in exclusive negotiations to acquire Letterboxd, the social network for film fans, in a deal reported to be worth around $330 million. The scoop came from The New York Times' own reporting on November 5, and was subsequently covered by both The Verge and TechCrunch. Nothing has been signed, but the Times is said to be the sole remaining bidder at this stage.

The reported terms

According to The Verge's account of the report, the discussions have covered a plan for Letterboxd's co-founders to keep running the service day to day, while reporting to a Times Company executive. The platform is expected to continue operating as its own product rather than being absorbed into the Times' news apps, at least in the near term. The Verge also reports that the Times Company's advertising technology would be integrated into Letterboxd.

A Times spokesperson, Charlie Stadtlander, declined to comment, and The Verge says neither Letterboxd nor its parent company, Tiny Ltd., responded to a request for comment. TechCrunch points out the oddity of the Times declining to comment to its own reporters, and suggests the leaks may have originated inside one of the companies involved, which is one reason to treat the report as credible.

How Letterboxd grew into a target

Letterboxd lets users log, rate and review films, follow friends, and build lists, and TechCrunch likens it to a Goodreads for movies. Its growth has been steep: the service counted 3 million users in January 2021, a figure that reached 28 million by April of this year, according to TechCrunch. More than half of those users are under 35.

The core experience is free, with an optional paid subscription that unlocks extra features. TechCrunch cites estimates putting Letterboxd's projected earnings this year at roughly $15 million, which is only about 4.5 percent of the sum the Times is reportedly prepared to pay.

Other suitors

Letterboxd had already been reported to be looking for a new owner. The Verge says the Times Company, Sony Pictures Entertainment and the studio A24 were all rumored to be interested. TechCrunch adds that A24 fell away once the price climbed beyond what it was willing to pay.

Part of a broader acquisition streak

If the deal goes through, it would join a string of Times Company purchases. The Verge notes the precedent: Wordle, bought for a sum in the low seven figures; Wirecutter, acquired for slightly more than $30 million; and The Athletic, which cost $550 million. Each purchase brought the Times an audience rather than a standalone newsroom product, and Letterboxd would extend that pattern.

Why it matters

A reported $330 million price against roughly $15 million in projected annual earnings works out to more than twenty times earnings, so the Times would be buying reach and engagement, not current revenue. That fits its recent playbook: Wordle and The Athletic both widened the company's audience beyond traditional news readers, and Letterboxd adds a young, culture-obsessed user base that spends its time on reviews and discussion rather than headlines.

The plan to plug in the Times' ad tech, as The Verge reports, signals how the company expects to monetize that attention. And the reported arrangement, with Letterboxd's founders staying on and the product kept separate, echoes how the Times handled earlier acquisitions. For now, though, exclusive talks are only talks: the price, the structure, or the outcome itself could still shift before anything is announced.