 |
The New York Times continues to improve its financial performance, the company revealed in its first-quarter 2025 results, which were released on May 7. The NYT added about 250,000 digital-only subscribers, compared to the end of Q4 2024—bringing its number of total digital-only subscribers to 11.06M. With the addition of its 600,000 print subscribers, the overall subscriber number hit 11.66M. By the end of 2027, the company aims to have 15M subscribers. Despite a 5.8 percent jump in operating costs, the NYT’s operating profit still rose 21.9 percent from Q1 2024. Digital advertising was up 12.4 percent to $70.9M, while print ad revenues slid 8.5 percent to $37.2 M. In addition, close to half (49 percent) of NYT subscribers have such extras as Cooking, Games and Wirecutter as part of their subscription, up from 43 percent in Q1 2024. ARPU (that’s “average revenue per user”) jumped 3.6 percent from the year-ago period. Even The Athletic, which had long been a money-loser, was $2.9M in the black. “Our strategy is working and our business is growing and demonstrating resilience amidst the current economic and geopolitical uncertainty,” said New York Times Company president and CEO Meredith Kopit Leven.
 |
One America News Network, a far-right, pro-Trump platform, will take over the job of providing newsfeed services to Voice of America and other US government-funded media outlets, according to US Agency for Global Media (parent agency to VOA) senior advisor Kari Lake. OAN’s services will be provided free of charge. This follows a move by USAGM to cancel contracts with wire services including Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse. OAN, which is owned by San Diego-based Herring Networks, faced defamation lawsuits over its false claims that Trump won the 2020 presidential election. “What they have done, in effect, is replace our 83-year legacy of producing reliable, authoritative news with the hard work and commitment of countless journalists with a contract to outsource our news-gathering to a source that is clearly partisan,” said Voice of America White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara, who has been put on indefinite leave.
 |
| Gemma Fox |
TIME hires Gemma Fox, who was previously deputy US editor for the Times of London, as editorial director, news. At the Times of London, Fox oversaw coverage of the 2024 presidential election. She was previously deputy foreign editor at The Independent and worked at Sky News. In her new role she will oversee TIME's news team. “Gemma will lead coverage of major news events across the newsroom, working closely with subject matter teams and collaborating across departments—including audience, photography, art, and video—to bring the news to life across platforms,” said TIME editor in chief Sam Jacobs in a memo sent to staffers on May 8.
Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Chris Van Hollen have blasted Kari Lake’s decision to partner Voice of America and Office of Cuba Broadcasting with One America News.
Lauren Skowronski, director of communications at Snap Inc., has been named senior VP-communications at CNBC.
Trust in the news media has continued to decline among Americans, with skepticism especially growing among younger audiences, according to a recent study.
Amazon may be coming to TikTok’s rescue in the nick of time as the app faces an April 5 deadline to cut ties with its Chinese owner or face a ban in the US, according to the New York Times... Vanity Fair editor Radhika Jones is heading out the door at the Condé Nast title she has headed up since 2017... Newspapers have dodged the bullet as regards the proposed tariffs on newsprint—for now.
Financial Times group chief executive John Ridding is stepping down after close to 20 years in the position... MSNBC hires Scott Matthews as SVP of newsgathering, effective March 17, as the network prepares for life after its connection to NBC News... Gallup has released a report showing that two-thirds of Americans either do not trust the media very much (31 percent) or do not trust it all (36 percent). 
Have a comment? Send it to 
No comments have been submitted for this story yet.