#MediaRevenue - David Clinch

Welcome to my weekly round-up of all things #MediaRevenue.

I want to first acknowledge the passing of former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. Susan was that rare tech leader who cared deeply about both the growth of the platform she managed and the users and businesses that lived on the platform.

Susan was very supportive of Storyful, and to me personally, and she will be missed.

There have been some interesting stories this week and I am noticing a pattern of media revenue stories emerging on a Friday, so I am generally going to publish this newsletter on a Saturday from now on.

If you need help navigating any of the issues related to the impact of AI, and other technology, on your news organization, let me know: [email protected]

Here are the latest #MediaRevenue stories from this week, including some updates on AI in newsrooms, cuts in some newsrooms, and massive growth in others:

Media cuts persist amid ad market slowdown, AI fears: The Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday said it needs to reduce payroll by 20% as part of a wider set of cost-cutting measures. The newspaper will offer buyouts to its roughly 270 full-time employees, it said, which includes about 100 journalists in the newsroom. Axios said on Tuesday it's laying off 50 employees, around 10% of its staff, according to an internal memo from CEO Jim VandeHei. It's the company's first sizable round of cuts since it was founded in 2016. Future on Tuesday said it plans to shutter the print magazines and newsletters for Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News and NextTV and replace them with one newsletter and a section on nexttv.com. GameStop last week said it would shut down Game Informer, the oldest gaming magazine in the U.S., and laid off staff. - Axios.

New York Times Reports 13.6% Jump in Profit: The publisher added about 300,000 digital subscribers in the latest quarter, and now has more than 10.8 million subscribers. Adjusted operating costs grew 4.4 percent in the quarter, to $520.4 million, from $498.7 million a year earlier, which the company attributed to higher journalism, product development and administrative expenses, as well as the cost of continuing litigation against Microsoft and OpenAI.- New York Times.

The Wall Street Journal Is Doing Great After the Media Apocalypse: The company’s flagship Dow Jones division, which owns The Wall Street Journal, now has 5.8 million subscribers —?up from 5.2 million at the end of 2023. The Journal itself saw an 11 percent rise in digital subscriptions and now has 4.25 million print and online subscribers. That business is making so much money now that Dow Jones is bigger, by revenue, than News Corp’s separate news-media division, which includes the Sun, the New York Post, and other Murdoch-owned papers. - Intelligencer/NY Mag.

Perplexity donates to research on the future of AI and news: AI search chatbot Perplexity is donating $250,000 towards research into the future of AI and news. The money will go to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, supporting research conducted by their Knight Lab. Knight Lab will also receive access to Perplexity’s data, staff and publisher partners so it can learn how news content shows up in the chatbot’s responses and how newsrooms are approaching AI. - Press Gazette.

‘Your job five years from now probably does not yet exist’ – WaPo’s AI Editor Phoebe Connelly: The convergence of AI and journalism in the second digital transformation calls for new newsroom applications, processes, and roles. - WAN-IFRA Phoebe Connelly

, Oliver Darcy is starting a subscription-based news site dedicated to covering the media industry, joining a crowded field. - New York Times. Oliver Darcy

News publishers’ AI ad tools show positive lift, but still have to prove themselves: News publishers have largely been reluctant to implement generative AI technology in the newsroom. But using generative AI to improve their advertising businesses is another story.?- Digiday.

Dotdash Meredith's Digital Ad Revenue Grows 12%, Powered by Cookieless Ads: Digital media firm Dotdash Meredith, an IAC company, notched its second consecutive quarter of double-digit advertising growth, largely due to the continued performance of its cookieless targeting tool called D/Cipher. - AdWeek.

After getting caught fabricating quotes, Cody reporter resigns: Writer’s submissions appeared to have been manufactured by AI. - Powell Tribune.

Red Ventures sells CNET to Ziff Davis: Red Ventures, the digital media and marketing juggernaut based in Fort Mill, South Carolina, is selling tech news and reviews site CNET to Ziff Davis, the publicly-traded digital marketing behemoth, in a deal valued at over $100 million. - Axios.

Separate, unequal, and ‘glorious’: When split newsrooms work, and when they falter. - CJR.

The nonprofits and PACs that spent $14 million on the Metric Media network in 2021–22: A new Tow Center analysis of campaign finance records and nonprofit filings reveals that four political action committees and four nonprofit organizations paid a network of partisan pay-for-play news sites controlled by Metric Media over $14 million in 2021–2022. The investigation demonstrates millions more flowing to partisan “pink slime” news sites than previously reported. - CJR.