Anonymous donor gives NY Times $1M for student subscriptions

An anonymous donor paid $1 million to buy New York Times subscriptions for public school students.

So far, the newspaper’s “sponsor a subscription program” has garnered more than 15,500 donations and provided access to The Times’s website for about 1.3 million students, the newspaper said in a statement Thursday.

With the influx of donations, The Times is planning an expansion of the program, including a series of educational webinars on topics ranging from news literacy to the Supreme Court, among other subjects.

{mosads}The outreach program comes amid growing tensions between the news media and the Trump administration. The Times has frequently been a target of President Trump’s ire, and is often accused by the White House of reporting “fake news.”

Trump has often referred to the newspaper as “failing” and has claimed it has hemorrhaged subscriptions and revenue as a result of critical coverage of his campaign, presidential transition and administration.

But subscriptions to The Times actually doubled in 2016, during Trump’s unconventional and often bombastic campaign.

The newspaper launched its first brand ad campaign in a decade last month, debuting a high-profile ad during the Academy Awards.