Mather Report - David Clinch

Welcome to our curated look at the top?#mediarevenue?stories of the week.

I was off the week before and had a very busy week this week, including a visit to New York to present to an "engagement boost" class for some incredible newsroom leaders thanks to Niketa Patel Marie Gilot and Jeff Jarvis at CUNY.

The emphasis of my presentation at CUNY was how important it is for publishers to start thinking about ways in which they can "know" some parts of their non-subscriber audience better than they currently do. Diluted, programmatic advertising has been very damaging to the news industry and subscription businesses are hard to build, it is therefor essential to find ways to monetize some parts of your non-subscriber audience at higher CPM rates while also growing subscriptions. The key to this approach is to harness the power of real time data to move from impressions-based Ad rates to consumption-based Ad rates.

Let me know if you want to know more about how to calibrate this Reader Revenue + Recurring Revenue strategy.

There have been some remarkable big picture developments in the media and news industry in the last two weeks so I have included only the top stories so the list is not too long.

If you see articles about?#MediaRevenue,?or the impact of local journalism, that you think I should look at, please let me know so I can include them in this roundup.

Here is this week's curated selection of?#MediaRevenue?news:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LA Times owner sells San Diego Union-Tribune to MNG - Alden

"Patrick Soon-Shiong and his family have sold the San Diego Union-Tribune to competing publisher MediaNews Group, slimming down the family’s holdings to just one news organization — the Los Angeles Times. MediaNews Group separately announced its purchase to the San Diego newsroom, and immediately warned that staff reductions were coming."

LA Times reaches nearly 550K digital subs as it launches new brand

"The Los Angeles Times on Monday launched De Los, a new brand focused on identity and culture targeted to English-speaking Gen Z and millennial Latinos in the U.S., executive editor Kevin Merida told Axios. Currently, the paper has 550,000 digital subscriptions, including those that come from third-party apps, like Apple News+, Merida said."

AP strikes news-sharing and tech deal with OpenAI

"As part of the deal, OpenAI will license some of the AP’s text archive dating back to 1985 to help train its artificial intelligence algorithms. The AP will get access to OpenAI’s technology and product expertise."

The Athletic finally shut down a newspaper’s sports desk — just not the one people expected

"The New York Times is shutting down its sports desk — moving its staffers into other departments, where many will be asked to write about the intersections of sports with business, culture, fashion, and so on. The Athletic will instead function as the sports department of the Times, with its stories even crossing over into print. It’s a jarring change, but one that fits right into the company’s bundling strategy, in which the main Times newsroom is just one content generator among many."

He Pushed the New York Times to Buy Wordle. Now He Has to Make Sports Work.

"Facing challenges felt across the digital publishing landscape—the difficulty of signing up and retaining customers, rocky ad markets—as well as high editorial expenses, the Athletic has had adjusted operating losses totaling around $37 million over the past four quarters. Perpich said the goal is to turn a profit by 2025."

DOORDASH USES WORDLE OF THE DAY AS A DISCOUNT CODE IN NEW YORK TIMES PARTNERSHIP

"for the next six Wednesdays, the solution to The New York Times’ daily word game?Wordle?will work as a discount code on DoorDash in a sponsorship deal between the news organization and the delivery app."

Semafor CEO Justin B Smith says start-up heading for profitable month in year one

"Justin B Smith, the chief executive of news start-up?Semafor, has said the publication is on course to experience its first profitable month and “might even” see a profitable quarter in year one. But he told Press Gazette that full-year profitability is “another story” and that the outlet, which launched in October 2022, is planning to spend money “very cautiously” as it seeks sustainability, rather than scale and reach, as its number one commercial priority."

The Washington Post announces Alex MacCallum as Chief Revenue Officer

This executive role drives The Post’s revenue across advertising, partnerships and subscriptions. Alex MacCallum

The Washington Post joins Verizon’s +play as the first major national newspaper

"The Washington Post is the first major national newspaper with a digital subscription service available on +play, which is Verizon’s one-stop-shop to subscribe and save on over 30 subscription services across entertainment, gaming, music, wellness and more."

For better and for worse, Apple’s about to make your readers harder to track again

"Apple will strip out the specific-to-one-person links in Apple Mail, Messages, and Safari Private Browsing."

Google and Meta have made 6,773 grants to news publishers: What are they up to?

"An academic who tracked 6,773 philanthropic grants Google?and Meta made to the global news industry has concluded that the tech giants’ “primary goal has been to reap reputational and political gains”."

MediaNews Group ends online comments for all newspapers

"MediaNews Group, the local newspaper company owned by Alden Global Capital, has shut down all of its comment sections as of July 1st, due to difficulties in moderating them, executives told Axios."

How The Guardian US Fetched Ad Revenue Hike of 42% Despite Broader Downturn

"The U.S. outpost of the general news publisher The Guardian finished the first quarter of its fiscal year, which ended June 30, with advertising revenues up 42% year over year, according to senior vice president of advertising Luis Romero—a hike that runs counter to broader economic trends."

FT reveals how it plans to grow B2B subscriptions yet further

"Currently FT Enterprise sees almost 8,000 businesses, government and education institutions in 120 countries pay for their teams to have a?group subscription?providing full access to FT journalism alongside some exclusive tools.The B2B division, which formally launched in 2007, makes up three-quarters of the FT’s paying readership and its revenue has grown at an average of more than 10% each year since 2018, according to the company."

Tucker Carlson Is Creating a New Media Company

"Former Fox News host?Tucker Carlson?and former White House adviser?Neil Patel?are seeking to raise funds to start a new media company that would potentially use Twitter as its backbone, according to people familiar with the matter."

Layoffs at Dow Jones have Wall Street Journal staffers on edge as the newsroom expects more cuts and changes?

"A steady drip of layoffs?continues?at Dow Jones, which laid off another 10 people in the last week of June. The roles were mostly finance, sales, and marketing people who work across Dow Jones properties, which include The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and MarketWatch."

Ottawa moves to resolve C-18 showdown over journalism support

Toronto Star: "Pablo Rodriguez, the minister of Canadian Heritage, has signaled that the federal government is prepared to implement its Online News Act in a way meant to bring big tech companies onside. Hopefully, this will cool the heated rhetoric and threats that have met the government’s efforts to have tech companies pay news outlets such as the Toronto Star for content they use on their platforms.'

NordStar, Postmedia terminate merger discussions

"Toronto Star owner NordStar Capital and Postmedia have ended negotiations regarding a merger between Postmedia and key Torstar assets without agreeing to a partnership."

Some additional #MediaRevenue stories: