Editors' pick: Originally published Feb. 2.

People are "hungrier than ever" for real facts, New York Times (NYT) - Get Report CEO Mark Thompson said on CNBC's "Power Lunch" on Thursday afternoon.

His comment comes after the 165-year-old company posted a top and bottom line beat for the 2016 fourth quarter, while the company's net income and revenue declined year-over-year.

The drop in net income and revenue is because the company is currently investing, Thompson claimed. The company plans to invest $5 million in specifically covering the Trump administration. It also plans to invest in marketing.

"We think we've got an opportunity because of the intense interest and the intense news cycle," Thompson said. "We've got an opportunity to market and get new users to come and become paying customers."

The company notably added 276,000 net digital-only subscriptions in the quarter, with particular growth seen in international markets and with the younger generation, Thompson noted. While some subscribers are undoubtedly a result of Trump's election, there's also "a bigger story about political controversy and division in this country and across the western world," he said.

Even print subscriptions are up this quarter, but the paper still acknowledges that it is in a "transition period," he said. "We are completely committed to growing profitability of the company."

While subscriptions are up, some subscribers left for various reasons from being sick of the news to thinking the paper was too negative about Trump, and even to claiming it was "too hard" on Clinton, Thompson said. "There are Hillary loyalists who were upset the Times broke the story about Hillary's private servers, for example. There was a feeling, amongst some of our readers, that we'd been too hard on Hillary."

In addition, earlier this week President Donald Trump called out the paper in a tweet, claiming that someone should buy the company because it was "fake news" and "failing." Trump has used Twitter (TWTR) - Get Report as a platform to call out the New York Times on numerous occasions since the election.

His tweet proves the dangers behind fake news, Thompson said. "Even the president of the United States can be taken in by it and end up saying things which aren't true," he claimed. "We're not failing. We are growing our audiences. We're growing our subscriptions."