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Meredith’s acquisition of Time Inc. is not paying the big dividends hoped for, according to a report on Bloomberg. While the merger made Meredith the biggest magazine publisher in the country, the combined company is not as profitable as had been expected. Meredith stock closed at 33.63 on Sep. 5, down 46 percent from its 52-week high of 62.40. Meredith CEO Tom Harty said on a conference call that ad sales for the former Time Inc. titles that remain under Meredith’s control (People, InStyle and Real Simple) have been sluggish. For the coming year, Harty predicts an increase in the mid single digits for digital ad sales, with print ad sales expected to decline slightly. Following the merger, Meredith unloaded Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated. The company is still trying to sell FanSided, the Sports Illustrated blog that remained behind after Meredith’s deal with Authentic Brands for the magazine.
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Editor & Publisher, which narrowly averted closure almost a decade ago when Nielsen was shedding titles, has been purchased by multimedia consulting firm Blinder Group. The magazine’s October issue will be the first under its new management. Nu Yang, who has served as managing editor, will take over the editor-in-chief spot from Jeff Fleming. Fleming is remaining with Duncan Macintosh Co., which acquired E&P in 2010. While Blinder Group founder and president Mike Blinder says he will continue to publish the monthly print magazine, he adds that he will pursue more opportunities that focus on online platforms, podcasting and events. He also told Folio that the editorial scope of the magazine will shift to include “anyone who needs to create news, create an audience around that news, and then monetize that audience.” E&P’s offices will remain in Los Angeles.
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| David Cuillier |
The Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida has launched the Journal of Civic Information, an open-access, interdisciplinary journal that publishes peer-reviewed research related to the field of public information accessibility. The online quarterly will publish articles from both scholars and practitioners, addressing such topics as access to public records and meetings, court transparency, access to public employees and elected officials, open data and technology, and other related matters, with an emphasis on issues relevant to the state and local levels of government. The journal’s inaugural editor is David Cuillier, associate professor at the University of Arizona School of Journalism and former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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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