I also think that 'rising numbers of readers' is at best wishful thinking...
The article did say digital paid subscriptions are up... but then farther along in the article it says "Digital subscriptions still represent a smallish part of the company’s overall revenue picture — just 15% of circulation revenue and 7.8% of total revenues, which fell 1% in the quarter, to $485 million."
That’s what people had speculated their toughened firewall would do: bring in a few more digital subscriptions, but by letting fewer people read it online lead to a drop in advertising revenue.
For a few months after they tightened their firewall I had to search an external link to access a NYTimes story without paying after my 10 free articles a month. But a few weeks ago they loosened the firewall such that I can read all I want by occasionally closing my browser or otherwise deleting my cookies. They must have realized their tougher policy had backfired.