#MediaRevenue - David Clinch

Welcome to my weekly round-up of all things #MediaRevenue. It has been a fascinating week in the world of subscriptions and media revenue.

Let me know if I have missed any important stories, especially in rural or underserved news markets.

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Here are the top #MediaRevenue stories from this week ->

More than 250,000 subscribers have left 'Washington Post' over withheld endorsement: "Subscribers keep deserting The Washington Post after it announced it would not endorse any candidate in the race for the White House." - NPR Dave Folkenflik

The Washington Post’s non-endorsement led to record-breaking weeks at other news orgs: "The Philadelphia Inquirer had its best week for new subscriptions ever and The Guardian U.S. broke its single-day fundraising record —?twice." - Nieman Lab. Sarah Scire

Guardian endorsement of Harris reaps it near $2m boost after editor’s email: "Email from Guardian US editor capitalised on Washington Post spiking election endorsement" - Press Gazette. Dominic Ponsford

Marc Benioff is in talks to sell media company Time to Antenna Group: "No deal is assured and the talks are still early, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private." - CNBC - Alex Sherman

The Daily Beast Tries to Claw Its Way Back to Relevance: "Can Joanna Coles and Ben Sherwood revive the once-buzzy news site and reclaim their perches atop the New York media world? Their own staff isn’t sure." - New York Times. Katie Robertson

Star-Ledger ending print edition and closing production facility in 2025: "The Star-Ledger will cease publishing a print newspaper and will close its Montville production facility in February 2025. The decision was made by the Star-Ledger’s owner, Newark Morning Ledger Co., due to rising costs, decreasing circulation and reduced demand for print." - NJ .com

The State of Local News 2024: "News “deserts” growing across the country; —On average, more than two newspapers a week folded in the past year" - Medill Local News Inititiatie. Tim Franklin

Wall Street Journal, New York Post Sue AI Startup Perplexity, Alleging ‘Massive Freeriding’: "In copyright suit, News Corp titles say AI firm is stealing content and revenue, and asks court to block its use of their material" - WSJ.

AI startup TollBit raises $24M series A: "TollBit hopes its marketplace can reduce the legal and business friction that's made data-sharing between the media industry and AI firms tense and complicated. - Axios." Sara Fischer

Meta strikes multi-year AI deal with Reuters: "Meta has struck a multi-year deal with Reuters to use its news content to provide real-time answers to user queries about news and current events in its Meta AI chatbot, sources familiar with the agreement told Axios." - Axios.

Lenfest Institute, OpenAI, and Microsoft announce $10 million AI Collaborative and Fellowship Program for US metro news organizations: "Five news publishers will receive grant funding and enterprise credits for experimentation with generative AI" - - LenFest.

How Two Irreverent Historians Made Their Podcast a Global Sensation: "The Rest Is History podcast gets 11m monthly downloads, 1.2m YouTube views, and over 45,000 paying subscribers." - WSJ.

The Minnesota Star Tribune launches statewide news partnership: "Powered by a Google News Initiative grant, the partnership supports quality, statewide local journalism" - Editor & Publisher.

The Print Magazine Revival of 2024: "Print magazines are making a comeback." - Bloomberg.