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| Lachlan Murdoch |
Fox Corp. reports fiscal Q3 revenues plummeted 15.4 percent to $3.4B from the year ago period that included the broadcast of advertising-rich Super Bowl LVII.
Net income soared to $704M from the $50M 2023 loss, which was largely due to the nearly $800M charge to settle the Dominion Voting Services case.
Fox’s cable programming segment posted a 6.4 percent drop in revenues to $1.5B. Ad revenues fell 6.3 percent to $296M due to lower digital revenues and direct response pricing declines at Fox News Media.
CEO Lachlan Murdoch told analysts that overall advertising trends are moving in the right direction.
He expressed disappointment that the Republicans didn’t have a competitive primary season, which cut into Fox’s political advertising revenues.
Murdoch expects stronger ad revenues during the second-half of the year, driven by the presidential and Congressional races, along with local ballot issues.
He noted that Republicans and Democrats have raised a tremendous amount of money and much of that will flow to local television stations.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
USA TODAY brings on Jamie Stockwell as VP of news, effective March 30. Stockwell was most recently deputy managing editor of news for the Washington Post... YouTube expands its likeness detection capabilities to a pilot group of government officials, journalists and political candidates... The AP Fund for Journalism adds 50 news organizations to its local news program, bringing the total number of participating newsrooms to 100. 
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.
