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| Robert Thomson |
News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson reports a 22 percent decline in Q4 revenues (ended June) to $1.9B and a $401M net loss, compared to a $42M deficit a year ago.
The owner of the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Sun, Times of London and Australian newspapers estimates the COVID-19 pandemic cut revenues by $330M during the period.
News Corp reported full-year revenues of $9B, off 11 percent from last year. The $1.6B in red ink compares to $228M profit in 2019.
WSJ subscriptions jumped 15 percent to nearly 3M during the quarter. Digital-only subs advanced 23 percent to 2.2M, representing 75 percent of total subscriptions.
Ad revenues dipped 28 percent to 28M, largely due to a 43 percent drop in print ad revenues, while digital took a 7 percent hit.
Thomson said News Corp took stringent action to cut costs during the quarter and launched a shared services program, which will have a "materially positive impact" on the bottom line.
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost. 
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
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.
