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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.
Versant Media Group, the NBCUniversal cable TV spin-off, today reported its first financial results as 2025 revenues dipped 5.3 percent to $6.7B and standalone EBITDA dropped 9.1 percent to $2.2B.
Trump Media & Technology Group is discussing a spin-off of the Truth Social platform following the expected closing of its $6B merger deal with TAE Technologies... Condé Nast sells off Them, the digital LGBTQ-focused platform it launched in 2017, to Equalpride, publisher of Out, The Advocate, Out Traveler, Health PLUS Wellness and Pride.com... CBS News has parted ways with longevity influencer Peter Attia, one of the 19 contributors that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss brought on as part of her plan to present a wider variety of voices on the platform. 
Symbolic.ai forms a partnership with News Corp to begin using the company’s AI-native publisher platform in the newsrooms of News Corp publications to augment research, writing and publishing... Mediaite launches a newsletter that promises to give readers a summary of—media newsletters... The Fund for American Studies launches the Journalism Excellence Fellowship, a program that will provide promising young journalists the opportunity to work alongside top writers, reporters, and media professionals.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has roots going back to 1786, is going out of business, the paper’s owners, Block Communications, announced on Jan. 7... GQ editor Will Welch is stepping down to take on a new Paris-based role with the musician Pharrell, who is also men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton... Semafor says it has raised $30 million on a $330 million valuation, following its first profitable year. 
The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI reach an agreement that will make a set of more than 200 animated, masked and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars available for use by Sora, OpenAI’s short-form generative AI video platform... CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has moved Tony Dokoupil, a co-host at “CBS Mornings” since 2019, into the anchor’s chair for the “CBS Evening News,” following the departure of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois... USA Today editor-in-chief Caren Bohan has left the paper.
