Mediagazer: Lee Enterprises reports Q4 operating revenue down 15.3% YoY to $164M, net loss down 80% YoY to $1.3M, and digital-only subscribers up 36% YoY to 721K (Lee Enterprises, Inc.)

5:40 PM ET, December 8, 2023

Top News:

Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:

Paramount's stock jumps ~14% over reports Skydance Media CEO David Ellison and RedBird Capital's Gerry Cardinale are “kicking the tires” on acquiring its assets — The companies are reportedly interested in parent company National Amusements' majority stake in the media conglomerate

Discussion: Puck, Deadline, CNBC, Next TV, The Information, Matthew Belloni on LinkedIn, The Hollywood Reporter, @benmullin and Cord Cutters News

Nick Robertson / The Hill:

ABC News plans to host the sixth Republican presidential primary debate, in New Hampshire on January 18, three days before a CNN debate at the same location — ABC News announced Thursday that it will host the sixth GOP debate on Jan. 18 in Manchester, New Hampshire, set to take place just days before a CNN event at the same location.

Discussion: New York Times, Fox News, Mediaite, The Daily Beast, HuffPost, WMUR, ABC News, The Messenger, Politico and CNN

CNN:
CNN plans to host two Republican presidential primary debates, set for January 10 in Iowa and for January 21 in New Hampshire; CNN Max will stream both debates

Reuters:

After a Reuters report found that Israel fired the shells that killed journalist Issam Abdallah on October 13, Israel says Abdallah was in an active combat zone — The Israeli military, responding on Friday to a Reuters investigation that determined its forces killed a Reuters journalist …

Discussion: The Wrap, HuffPost, Talking Biz News, CBS News, @jsymmescobb@threads.net, PetaPixel, Why Evolution Is True, The Messenger, UPI and The Guardian

Lee Enterprises, Inc.:

Lee Enterprises reports Q4 operating revenue down 15.3% YoY to $164M, net loss down 80% YoY to $1.3M, and digital-only subscribers up 36% YoY to 721K — Total Digital Revenue(1) was $73M in the quarter, representing 44% of revenue — Digital-only subscribers total 721,000, exceeding guidance and up 36% YOY

Discussion: MediaPost and @byjonharris

Jeremy Barr / Washington Post:

CBS News journalist Catherine Herridge could face a contempt of court sanction and fines for not revealing a source for stories she wrote at Fox News in 2017 — First Amendment advocates are alarmed by the case of Catherine Herridge, who is facing an imminent court deadline and steep fines

Discussion: @brandonmillman

Poynter:

Challenger, Gray & Christmas: the news sector of the media industry has seen 2,681 job cuts from January through November 2023, more than in all of 2022 or 2021 — The news sector alone has lost 2,681 jobs so far in 2023 — more than it did in all of 2022 or 2021.

Discussion: Donovan Farnham on LinkedIn, @skyler_higley, @danackerman, Challenger … and Variety

Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:

An experiment involving nearly 1,483 US readers showed that people perceived news outlets as less trustworthy when the outlets labeled articles as AI-generated — “We already expect quite a lot from the public in terms of media literacy to be able to navigate the contemporary information environment …

Discussion: Futurism, American Press Institute, @joelmathis.bsky.social and @nic221@techhub.social

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:

An untitled countdown timer viewable only on the Threads.net homepage in EU countries suggests that the service will be expanded to EU users on December 14 — Following its rollout in countries like the US and UK this past July, Threads will finally be expanded to users in the European Union on December 14th.

Discussion: Engadget, The Messenger, Interhacktives, @Cafeine@mastodon.social, 9to5Google and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

Axel Springer is shutting down its news aggregator app Upday at the end of December and plans to relaunch it as a “trend news generator” driven by AI in 2024 — Axel Springer is shutting down the news outlet Upday, the German publishing giant said on Friday, in plans to revive the brand as a …

Discussion: Axel Springer SE

Bloomberg:

Sources: DAZN Group, the sports streaming company backed by Len Blavatnik, is exploring ways to raise as much as $1B, seeking to accelerate its global expansion — - Blavatnik's sports broadcaster holds talks with advisers — CEO previously said DAZN would welcome strategic partners

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: X has held preliminary talks with Amazon to make ads available via Amazon's ad-buying software, and PubMatic, seeking to attract more small advertisers — Social-media platform has had preliminary talks with Amazon to sell ads through e-commerce giant's ad-buying software

Discussion: PRWeek, The Messenger, The Guardian, Reuters, @iedamarcondes.com, Forbes, The Hill, The Daily Beast, NPR, New York Post, Financial Times and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Lisa Heyamoto / LION Publishers:

Lessons from LION's Revenue Growth Fellowship: revenue growth requires operational readiness, a clear strategy, leader involvement, and hiring the right person — How strategy, structure and consistency are essential for revenue growth, and other lessons learned from our Revenue Growth Fellowship

Discussion: Anika Anand on LinkedIn

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Zachary Small / New York Times:
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Spotify says CFO Paul Vogel plans to leave on March 31, 2024, and launches a search for a successor; Daniel Ek wants a CFO “with a different mix of experiences”

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
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Jake Kanter / Deadline:
The BBC says the new TV license fee deal leaves a £90M funding gap, as insiders warn the deal sets a “worrying” precedent and “threatens the BBC's independence”

Discussion: The Guardian, The Independent, WORLD SCREEN, @scottygb, @jake_kanter, @jake_kanter, @scottygb, Variety, The Sun, Financial Times, Press Gazette, National Union of Journalists … and BBC

Earlier Picks:

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
UK magazine publisher Future reports FY 2023 revenue down 4% YoY to £788.9M, and plans to hire 150 editorial staff over the next two years; FUTR drops 16%+

Discussion: Media Voices, @seangriffey, @pressgazette, @seangriffey, FUTURE PLC, Financial Times and MediaPost

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Disney is mulling launching shopping and gaming experiences on Disney+, with which advertisers could get involved, hinting at an ad presentation on January 10

Discussion: MediaPost, Engadget, Graham Fisher, ACE on LinkedIn and The Streamable

Christi Carras / Los Angeles Times:
Study: since the Hollywood strikes began in May 2023, entertainment employment in Los Angeles fell 17% to ~118K workers, with a collective wage loss of ~$1.4B

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, @otiscollege, The Messenger, Deadline, Otis College of Art and Design and Variety

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
The UK's The New European EIC says the outlet ended November with 28K+ subscribers, ~17.4K of which are digital, and October was its first profitable month

Discussion: @matthewdancona and @pressgazette

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Memo: Vice Media Group co-CEO Hozefa Lokhandwala plans to step down to start “a new endeavor”, leaving Bruce Dixon as the sole CEO; Lokhandwala joined in 2018

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap and @maxwelltani

From Techmeme:

The Information:
Sources: the jump in quality from GPT-4 to Orion is far smaller than the jump from GPT-3 to GPT-4; Orion may not outperform predecessors in tasks like coding

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple's future growth may come from several new Watch- or iPad-level businesses; visionOS 2.2 ultrawide Mac display option may be Vision Pro's first killer app

Reuters:
Source: the US ordered TSMC to halt shipments of AI chips, of 7nm or more advanced designs, to Chinese customers starting on November 11

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