Britain's Pearson wants to sell its 50 percent stake in The Economist, the 172-year-old international business weekly with a 1.6M circulation.
"Pearson confirms it is in discussions with the Economist Group board and trustees regarding the potential sale of our 50 percent share in the group,” the company said in a statement. “There is no certainty that this process will lead to a transaction.”
The move follows last week's announcement from Pearson that is was unloading the Financial Times to Japan's Nikkei Inc. for $1.3B to focus on its global education business.
The Economist Group, which includes Washington's Roll Call, kicked in $90M profit in 2014. It's worth an estimated $600M.
Italy's Exor, the investment arm of Italy's wealthy Agnelli family, which owns a big chunk of Fiat Chrysler, is expected to explore the Economist purchase. It owns a 4.7 percent stake in the operation.
Bloomberg and Germany's Axel Springer reportedly considered buying the Economist, but backed off due to its mandate calling for "continued independence of the ownership of the company and editorial independence," according to an agreement that it has with a investment trust.
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
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