#MediaRevenue - David Clinch

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

There have been some interesting developments this week as news publishers think about what they need to do to prepare for a world dominated by new technology and new consumer habits.

I expect to see more mergers, acquisitions and new product development in the news industry in the coming months and years. Do consumers want their news via websites, Apps, AI-powered products? Decisions made now will impact the business models of news organizations for decades.

If you need help navigating any of these issues, let me know: [email protected]

Here are the latest #MediaRevenue stories from this week, including some updates on mergers:

McClatchy announces planned merger with magazine giant behind Us Weekly, Woman’s World: McClatchy, one of the oldest and largest local media companies in the United States, plans to merge with accelerate360, a major magazine publisher and distribution business, the two companies announced Friday. The merged company would reach roughly 100 million unique readers a year – an entirely new audience level for advertisers. - Miami Herald (McClatchy)

AI's search quake shakes media landscape: New AI search products from OpenAI and other industry leaders are forcing news companies to rethink possible deals with AI firms that need news content to answer real-time queries about current events. Negotiations between the tech and news industries over AI have mostly focused on providing data for the broad training of large language models (LLMs) — but now, deal talks are shifting to address narrower use cases, where news publishers may have more leverage. - Axios.

Perplexity to share ad revenue with signed-up publishers after flurry of criticism: Time, Der Spiegel, Fortune, Entrepreneur, The Texas Tribune and WordPress owner Automattic are the initial partners of the scheme but Perplexity is urging other publishers to get in touch – even Forbes and Conde Nast, who have sent legal letters opposing the use of their copyrighted content in its system. - Press Gazette.

Websites are Blocking the Wrong AI Scrapers (Because AI Companies Keep Making New Ones): After this story was originally published, an Anthropic spokesperson told 404 Media that CLAUDEBOT will respect block requests for its older two crawlers. “The 'ANTHROPIC-AI' and 'CLAUDE-WEB' user agents are no longer in use,” - 404 Media.

Media rebounds on seismic news cycle: Engagement with news content has spiked over the past few weeks, giving news publishers a much-needed reprieve from bad traffic and ratings. - Axios.

Washington Post C.E.O.’s Last Company Lost Millions Betting on Gen Z: The Post is creating a division under Will Lewis, its C.E.O., to find valuable audiences in new places. His last company shows that’s a tough road. - New York Times.

Would you pay a premium for ad-free digital news? You may soon have the chance: It’s not a new idea, but more publishers are offering it. Audiences, wary of privacy issues and primed by streaming, may be coming around. - Poynter.

Disney Entertainment Is Laying Off Roughly 2% of Staff: Disney laid off 140 members of its Disney Entertainment Television workforce. That represents roughly 2% of the division’s headcount, according to a person familiar with the matter. National Geographic was particularly hard hit as that team will be reduced by approximately 13%. - AdWeek.

BuzzFeed keeps attracting investors who are upset with BuzzFeed: Back in 2021, BuzzFeed was worth around $1 billion. Now it's worth $100 million. Varun Gupta thinks it should be worth more. Gupta, who runs a small hedge fund, says he's acquired a stake in the digital publisher and has ideas for how to increase its value. - Business Insider.

Pinterest, LinkedIn tie up with Publishers to sell Ads: Smaller social platforms like Pinterest and LinkedIn offer news publishers revenue share. - The Information

The Stranger in Seattle Gets a New Owner, With Plans for Expansion: Noisy Creek, a new media company, has bought The Stranger and The Portland Mercury, two of the country’s best known alternative weeklies. - New York Times.

Mapping?independent digital media around the world: Project Oasis is a research effort to map independent digital media organizations, news creators and publishers-in-exile across 68 countries. - Sembra Media.