Mediagazer: 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 (Kenneth Li/Reuters)

11:30 AM ET, February 8, 2024

Top News:

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: The Wrap, Talking Biz News and Thomson Reuters

Alex Sherman / CNBC:

Disney plans to launch ESPN's D2C service in August or the fall of 2025, and include integration with ESPN's fantasy platforms and ESPN Bet — - ESPN will launch its flagship direct-to-consumer streaming service in the fall of 2025, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Wednesday.

Sarah Whitten / CNBC:
Disney plans to invest $1.5B for a stake in Epic Games and collaborate on a new “universe” connected to Fortnite with content from Disney, Pixar, and more

Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Disney Q1: 111.3M Disney+ subscribers, down from 112.6M in Q3, Disney+ Hotstar adds 700K subscribers to 38.3M, and expects streaming profitability by Q4 2024

Discussion: MediaPost, NBC 7 San Diego, @bristei, @bristei, @bristei, @bristei, AllEars.Net, Media Play News, The Streamable, IndieWire and ComingSoon.net

Sarah Whitten / CNBC:
Disney reports Q1 revenue of $23.55B, about the same from a year ago, operating income up 27% YoY to $3.9B, and raises its guidance; DIS up 5%+

Discussion: MediaNama, Los Angeles Times, Reuters, NBC 7 San Diego, Disney, @sherman4949, @lucas_shaw, @sherman4949, @bristei, @sherman4949, @tvgrimreaper, @sherman4949, NBC Bay Area, Axios and @app_economy_insights …

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: Yahoo Finance, Sportico, Business Insider, The Hill, The Atlantic, @nikosray.bsky.social, Ad Age, Ars Technica, Financial Times, USA Today, CNBC, AllEars.Net and Associated Press

Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Fubo says it is concerned about the “impact on fair market competition” after Disney, Fox, and WBD announced a sports streaming platform; FUBO closed down 20%+

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

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, Sheryn Weiss on LinkedIn and IAPE 1096

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, @johnbuckley_, @katie_robertson, @katie_robertson, Billboard, News Corporation, Reuters and Variety

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: @business and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

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: The Ankler, Music Ally and Hypebot, more at Techmeme »

Sophie Culpepper / Nieman Lab:

How the Alliance of Nonprofit News Outlets, launched in August 2023 and now with 32 member publications, helps small news nonprofits reach large funders — “There are haves and have-nots in the nonprofit journalism space. And this isn't right.” … Here's a question I bet …

Discussion: @sarahscire, @laurahazardowen and @fara1

David Gilbert / Wired:

How a Russian disinformation campaign is using bots, lifestyle influencers, and state-run media to boost calls for a US “civil war” over the Texas border crisis — An all-encompassing Russian disinformation campaign is using everything from bots to lifestyle influencers …

Discussion: MIT Technology Review, @leahfeiger, @daithaigilbert, @alecluhn, @w7voa@journa.host and @weilawei@mastodon.online

Jem Aswad / Variety:

Memo: Warner Music plans to lay off 10% of its staff, or 600 people, wind down its podcast network Interval Presents, and sell the websites Uproxx and HipHopDX — The tough news continues for the music industry as Warner Music announced that it will lay off 10% of its staff, or 600 people, in the coming weeks.

Discussion: Warner Music Inc., Music Ally, @lucas_shaw, Hypebot, Billboard, @kbeninato.bsky.social, Forbes, Music Business Worldwide, CNBC, The Wrap, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, Bloomberg, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline and Digital Music News

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: The Guardian and Microsoft On the Issues

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

UK-based ITN warns about AI deepfake online videos featuring some of its leading journalists, and says Meta can be slow to act once alerted to such content — Social media platforms such as Instagram are slow to remove harmful deepfake video content. — ITN has warned of the threat posed …

Reed Albergotti / Semafor:

Q&A with Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine on Medium expecting to turn a profit in 2024, distribution, training LLMs, AI-generated content, media layoffs, and more — The Scene — Amid turmoil in the media industry, online publishing platform Medium expects to post its first profit around the middle of this year.

Discussion: @andyorin, @semaforben and @bigmeaninternet, more at Techmeme »

Isaiah Colbert / IGN:

Funimation plans to shut down on April 2, and provides an option to merge users' account with Crunchyroll; copies bought on Funimation won't work on Crunchyroll — Funimation subscribers can access their anime history and queue on Crunchyroll by merging their accounts.

Discussion: Gizmodo, Forbes, The Verge, Funimation, Engadget, @eposvox, @minoru79, @eposvox, @jezcorden, @_cckirby, @ordinarygamers, @mcmovieman, Comic Book and CBR

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Sources: OpenAI considered making a browser, discussed deals to power AI features on Samsung devices and search on sites and apps from Condé Nast and others

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