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The Philadelphia Inquirer is the latest news outlet to shut down comments on most of its stories, following similar decisions by platforms including NPR, The Atlantic and NJ.com. The only content exempt from the decision are the Inquirer’s sports stories and Inquirer Live events. The paper says that just two percent of Inquirer.com visitors read the comments, with even less posting. Noting the amount of time spent on policing comments, the paper said, “We’d rather invest in vital local journalism than an endless and expensive game of comment whack-a-mole.” Readers will still be able to comment through letters to the editor and social media, and the Inquirer says it is “working on building new two-way connections with our existing audience and with new audiences we hope to reach.”
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The New European, a British pro-EU weekly newspaper that started up in 2016, has been purchased by its management and investors. The buyers include Mark Thompson, the former BBC director-general and chief executive of the New York Times and Lionel Barber, the former editor of the Financial Times. Matt Kelly, former head of content at Archant, the publishing company that launched the paper, will be majority owner and serve as chief executive and editor-in-chief. Launched in the wake of the Brexit referendum as a “pop-up,” the New European was expected to have a print run of just three or four weeks. However, it is still publishing, with a combined weekly print and online circulation estimated at around 20,000. “Since the referendum, The New European has shown that there is a significant market for high-quality, informative, provocative and entertaining journalism written for an audience who cares deeply about both Britain and Europe’s future,” said Kelly.
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Microsoft is offering to fill in the digital gap that would be created in Australia if Google pulls its search engine there, a Reuters report says. Google’s search engine currently has 94 percent of the country’s search market, according to industry data. Australia has introduced laws that would force Google and Facebook to negotiate payments to domestic media outlets whose content links drive traffic to their platforms. Both companies say the laws are unworkable and they would withdraw key services from Australia if the regulations went ahead. Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told him the company was ready to grow the presence of its search tool Bing, the distant No. 2 player, to make up for any loss of Google’s services.
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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