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Job losses at news organizations rose 281 percent in 2018, according to a report in the New York Post. The Post cites the latest Job Cut Report from global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which says that media companies announced plans to chop 15,474 positions over the course of last year, with 11,878 of those cuts affecting news organizations. In 2017, there were 4,062 announced job cuts in the industry. That made 2018 the toughest year for journalists since 2009, when media companies shed 22,346 jobs. “Many jobs were already in jeopardy due to a business model that tried to meet consumer demand for free news with ad revenue,” said Challenger, Gray & Christmas vice president Andrew Challenger. “As media outlets attempted to put news behind pay walls, in many markets, consumers opted not to pay.” And things don’t seem to be looking up for 2019. The Job Cut Report notes that 1,279 media sector job cuts were announced in January, up 49.6 percent from the 855 announced in the same month last year.
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Digital advertising revenues increased to $26.2 billion in Q3 2018, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau’s Internet Advertising Revenue Report, which was prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers US. The report says that figure represents a 20.6 percent jump from the third quarter of 2017. Through the first three quarters of 2018, marketers spent $75.8 billion on digital ads, a 22 percent jump from 2017’s numbers. “Last year saw significant growth in the OTT marketplace and in the direct-to-consumer brand ecosystem—contributing factors in digital’s successful Q3,” said IAB senior vice president, research and measurement Sue Hogan. IAB’s survey includes data on online ad revenues from websites, commercial online services, free e-mail providers, and all other companies selling online advertising.
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While CBS posted a three percent jump in year-over-year revenues for Q4 2018, the increase was not enough to meet Wall Street’s expectations. The $4 billion that the company brought in fell short of the $4.2 billion that had been projected, leading to a three percent drop in its share price following the close of the market on Feb. 14. On the positive side, ad revenue was up by seven percent, largely due to the $100 million in political advertising that CBS says it brought in during the quarter. Affiliate and subscription fee revenues were also up by 11 percent. However, content licensing and distribution revenues were down 14 percent.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
Boston Globe Media acquires InstaTrac, a company that provides subscription-based services aimed at making government information easier to find, track, and understand... AARP names former New Republic CEO and publisher Michael Caruso as its SVP and chief content officer, unifying the organization's portfolio of media, live events and digital platforms... The Fund for American Studies, an educational nonprofit, awards its inaugural Journalism Excellence Fellowships.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
