Mediagazer: Sources: Sinclair is exploring strategic alternatives for the Tennis Channel, including bringing in an equity partner; Sinclair purchased it in 2016 for $350M (Eric Fisher/Front Office Sports)

Thomas Barrabi / New York Post:

News Corp CEO says it is in advanced talks with major AI companies to license its content and that Sam Altman understands “the social importance of journalism” — News Corp — the media giant that owns The Post and the Wall Street Journal — is in “advanced” …

Discussion: @johnbuckley_, @katie_robertson, The Guardian and The Wrap

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour says the company had 3.17M digital-only subscriptions in Q4 2023, up 60% on Q3 2019, and 80% of its revenue comes from subscriptions — Dow Jones, the parent company to the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch, Investor's Business Daily and Financial News …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, Ashok Sinha on LinkedIn, Sheryn Weiss on LinkedIn, Sara Fischer on LinkedIn, IAPE 1096 and New York Times

Natalie Korach / The Wrap:
News Corp Q2: revenue up 3% YoY to $2.59B, vs. $2.58B est., net income up 95% to $183M, Dow Jones with its highest quarterly revenue since its 2007 acquisition

Discussion: Press Gazette, The Bookseller, @katie_robertson, News Corp, News Corp, Reuters and Variety

Kenneth Li / Reuters:

Thomson Reuters reports Reuters News Q4 revenue rose 11% YoY to $220M, driven mainly by generative AI licensing, and adjusted EBITDA grew 56% YoY to $61M — Thomson Reuters Corp (TRI.TO) on Thursday reported higher than expected profit but sales of divisions impacted total revenue growth …

Discussion: Thomson Reuters, The Wrap and Talking Biz News

Ben Smith / Semafor:

An interview with Piers Morgan on ending his live broadcast show Piers Morgan Uncensored on News UK's TalkTV to focus on YouTube — The Scoop — The British broadcaster Piers Morgan is giving up his live, daily, hour-long evening news show for a YouTube-first, digitally native …

Discussion: The Times, @nelsabbey, @joshgnosis, @mediaguido, @chaykak, @piersmorgan, @semaforben and @semaforben

Eric Fisher / Front Office Sports:

Sources: Sinclair is exploring strategic alternatives for the Tennis Channel, including bringing in an equity partner; Sinclair purchased it in 2016 for $350M — Sinclair Inc. is exploring bringing in an equity partner for the Tennis Channel as well as other strategic alternatives for the network …

Discussion: Awful Announcing, @fos, The Streamable, Bloomberg, Bloomberg and @aericfisher

Martin K.N Siele / Semafor:

Sources: Kenya's media giants are weighing a legal fight with the government for awarding a contract to The Star, a newspaper with only 3% market share in 2022 — NAIROBI — Executives at two of Kenya's largest media houses are considering legal challenges to what they believe …

Discussion: @semaforafrica and @gengetonedon

Ashley Fetters Maloy / Washington Post:

Q&A with millenial EICs of five fashion outlets on how the job has changed since its heyday, relationships with advertisers, accountability to readers, and more — Town cars are over, transparency has replaced aspiration and diversity finally exists. Top editors talk about leading a style magazine in 2024.

Discussion: @laurahazardowen and Florencia Cavallo on LinkedIn

Jem Aswad / Variety:

Spotify paid out $9B to music rights holders in 2023, a “figure that has tripled over the past six years”, and more than $48B since its founding — Spotify paid the music industry some $9 billion in 2023, according to a statement from the streaming giant, which added that the …

Discussion: @spotifynews, The Ankler, Music Business Worldwide, Hypebot and Music Ally, more at Techmeme »

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:

Battle for the Bird book excerpt: how Jack Dorsey's plan to get Elon Musk to save Twitter failed, as Musk dismantled the company after taking over, and more — An excerpt from Battle for the Bird shows how Twitter's two most prominent leaders contributed to its current dilemma.

Discussion: TechCrunch, @kurtwagner8, @annmlipton, @business, @sarahfrier, @danilo@hachyderm.io and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Connor Jones / The Register:

Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center says Iran's cyber operations in Israel show how Iran could target the 2024 US elections, including AI-generated fake news — Tactics are more sophisticated and supported in greater numbers — Iran's anti-Israel cyber operations are providing a window …

Discussion: Adweek, Florian Pennings on LinkedIn, The Guardian, Dave Sloan on LinkedIn and Microsoft On the Issues

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Bauer Media Group says its UK publishing CEO Chris Duncan is leaving, amid its plans to split print and digital businesses and merge international operations — Bauer is splitting its print and digital operations and moving away from a localised structure.

Discussion: Bauer Media Group on LinkedIn, Bauer Media and Jan Rudolph on LinkedIn

Todd Spangler / Variety:

CBS News Digital staffers form a union with WGA East; WGA East also represents workers at CBS News and won a first collective bargaining agreement at MSNBC — Amid a wave of layoffs sweeping across the media industry, writers and editors at CBS News Digital have formed a union with WGA East for the purpose of collective bargaining.

Discussion: The Wrap, @cbsdigitalunion, Writers Guild of America …, @wgaeast and The Hollywood Reporter

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: NFL, NBA, and other sports leagues were kept in the dark about the sports streaming platform being launched by Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Fox — NFL, NBA digest details of new platform looming over their businesses — Sports leagues including the National Football League …

Discussion: Fast Company, Newser, Insider Intelligence, Yahoo Finance, Jean Edhlund on LinkedIn, Sportico, @nikosray.bsky.social, Ad Age, Ars Technica, Financial Times, New York Times, USA Today, AllEars.Net and CNBC

Discussion: The Streamable, The Athletic, Advanced Television, @matthewkeyslive, @davezatz, @tvgrimreaper, @matthewkeyslive, The Desk, The Desk, Next TV, Media Play News, Cord Cutters News, Sports Media Watch and Business Insider