 |
NBCUniversal has sold off 5.2 million shares of stock in-home exercise equipment and media company Peloton for $177.9 million, about half of its stake in the business. The sale comes as NBCUniversal seeks cash and liquidity during the COVID-19 crisis. The company also has significant debt obligations following its parent company Comcast’s $39 billion deal for European pay-TV service Sky in 2018, and the expenses incurred in the launch of its Peacock streaming service. At the time of the sale, Peloton’s stock had seen a 10.5 percent year-to-date increase in its share price to $34.21, compared with a 15.3 percent dip for the S&P 500, according to Barron’s. Last year, NBCUniversal shed its $500 million stake in camera and social media company Snap.
 |
Tribune Publishing has instituted mandatory three-week furloughs for non-union employees earning between $40,000 and $67,000 a year. On April 9, the company announced pay cuts of up to 10 percent for non-union employees with annual salaries above $67,000. In a memo, Tribune CEO Terry Jimenez said the company may later implement additional furloughs or extend the length of time for positions “disproportionately affected by the slowdown.” He did offer those affected a choice, however. “Employees will, alternatively, have the option to apply to leave the company and receive severance in lieu of the furlough,” he said. Tribune’s move follows the April 20 announcement that Meredith would be temporarily cutting pay by 15 to 40 percent for more than half of its employees from May 4 to Sept. 4. The company is also pausing its stock dividends until the advertising situation rebounds. In addition, Vox Media, the owner of New York magazine as well as digital assets that include Recode, SB Nation and The Verge, is furloughing nine percent of its employees from May 1 to July 31. It is also freezing wages through the end of the year and trimming executive salaries from 15 to 50 percent.
 |
Executive Media Global, an extension of Australian publishing house Executive Media, has come up with an initiative to help niche print magazines find a way around declines in newsstand and bookstore sales. MagBox will send out a bundle of five publications (including their own magazines as well as those from other publishers) every two months for prices ranging from $44.99 for one box to $39.99 per box for a one-year subscription. The publications in the first box, which is to be delivered in June, include Fifty Grande (which “explores the U.S through travel, music and food”), EMG’s ROVA (which centers on road vacations) and Sandwich (“a celebration of the often overlooked, but universally beloved, culinary creation”). “If we can help other publishers get their magazines into people’s hands while doing the same for our own, we’re helping to support and strengthen magazine media,” EMG publisher and editor-in-chief Gemma Peckham told Folio.
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.
Have a comment? Send it to 
No comments have been submitted for this story yet.