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New York Times reported a rise in digital subscriptions but they are not making up for lower advertising revenues and increased costs. Operating profit at the New York Times Company decreased to $25.1 million in Q3 2019 from $41.4 million in the same period of 2018. The Times added 273,00 online subscribers in the third quarter, and NYT president and chief executive officer Mark Thompson said that “Q3 2019 was our best ever third quarter for new digital news subscriptions,” noting that the paper now has more than four million digital subscriptions and is “on track to hit 10 million subscriptions by 2025.” The advertising picture is not nearly so rosy, however. Overall ad revenues slid 6.7 percent, with a 5.4 percent dip in digital ad revenue. Thompson said he also expects Q4 to be “challenging” as far ad digital ad revenues are concerned.
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Fox Corporation has picked up three television stations from Nexstar Media Group, the first local stations the company has acquired since it closed the sale of its entertainment assets to Disney in March. The major drawing card for the stations—KCPQ and KZGO in Seattle and WITI in Milwaukee—is football (Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers). “Acquiring stations in these high-performing NFC markets enhances our already strong nationwide footprint,” said Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy. As part of the deal, Fox is selling Nexstar two Charlotte, NC stations, Fox affiliate WJZY and My NetworkTV affiliate WMYT.
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| Kevin MacLellan |
NBCUniversal chairman of global distribution and international Kevin MacLellan is leaving the company. MacLellan has been with Comcast, which controls a majority share of NBCUniversal, since 2001. “In light of Kevin’s departure, we have reassessed our international organizational structure,” said NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment chairman Jeff Shell. “With the rapidly evolving global media landscape, we have decided to more closely align our U.S. and international operations.” Last month, the studio brought Universal Television and Universal Content Productions together under a single business, NBCUniversal Content Studios, run by chair Bonnie Hammer and vice chair George Cheeks. The division will also encompass NBCUniversal International Studios, which includes Working Title TV and Carnival, the producer of Downton Abbey.
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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