Mediagazer: Fox Corp reports Q3 revenue down 15% YoY to $3.4B, ad revenue down 33% YoY to $1.2B, a $704M net income, up from a $50M loss YoY, $1.9B affiliate fee revenue (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)

11:05 AM ET, May 8, 2024

Top News:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

The NYT added 210,000 digital subscribers in Q1, for 10.5M subscribers in total, up 8% YoY, and ad revenue fell 2.4% YoY to $103.7M; the OpenAI lawsuit cost $1M — Adjusted operating profit was $76.1 million, an increase of about 41 percent from a year earlier.

Discussion: The Wrap and @benmullin

The New York Times Company:

The NYT reports Q1 revenue up 6% YoY to $594M, subscription revenue up 13% YoY to $293M, operating profit up 73% YoY to $48.3M, Athletic revenue up 33% to $37M — NEW YORK, May 8, 2024 - The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) announced today first-quarter 2024 results. Key Highlights

Austin Fuller / Current:

NPR CEO Katherine Maher will not attend a US House committee hearing on May 8 looking at alleged NPR bias due to a schedule conflict, but offers to appear later — NPR CEO Katherine Maher will not attend a U.S. House committee hearing Wednesday aimed at looking into alleged ideological bias at the organization.

Discussion: @davidfolkenflik, @brandyzadrozny@threads.net, Fox News, @davidfolkenflik, @renee.diresta@threads.net, @davidfolkenflik and Fox News

Todd Spangler / Variety:

NBCUniversal signs deal to make iHeartMedia the exclusive audio partner for the 2024 Paris Olympics; iHeartMedia will create an original iHeartPodcast — Pact includes new podcast from ‘Las Culturistas’ hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers — NBCUniversal inked a deal with iHeartMedia making …

Discussion: @xpangler and Next TV

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Source: last month, Sundial Media bought Refinery29 for ~$30M, or roughly its 2023 revenue; Refinery29 buys trade beauty show Beautycon to move away from ads — - The company bought Refinery29 for roughly the same amount that the publisher made in top-line revenue in 2023, which was $30 million, a source told Axios.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:

EchoStar reports losing ~348K net pay TV subscribers in Q1, vs. a 552K drop in Q1 2023, and revenue down 8% YoY to $2.7B; Sling TV subscribers fell 135K to 1.9M — Telecom mogul Charlie Ergen's EchoStar is led by Hamid Akhavan as president and CEO, with Ergen serving as executive chairman.

Discussion: The Streamable and Streaming Better

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:

A historical look at Pulitzer winners shows the decline of local and regional newspapers and the growth in online news outlets, especially at the local level — For the first time ever, more online news sites produced Pulitzer finalists than newspapers did.

Discussion: @roypeterclark, Poynter, @michaelluo, @jbenton, Poynter, Michael A. Riepe, Ph.D. on LinkedIn, Rich Jaroslovsky on LinkedIn, @kottke@mastodon.social, artofneed, @niemanlab@mastodon.social, The New York Times Company and Axios

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
A look at Chicago's Invisible Institute, a nonprofit newsroom with about a dozen journalists incorporated in 2015 that won two 2024 Pulitzers

Discussion: @chrisahowell@threads.net, Poynter and Chicago Tribune

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Fox Corp reports Q3 revenue down 15% YoY to $3.4B, ad revenue down 33% YoY to $1.2B, a $704M net income, up from a $50M loss YoY, $1.9B affiliate fee revenue — The owner of Fox, Fox News and Fox Sports hosted the Super Bowl a year ago, leading to the advertising decline.

Discussion: The Wrap, Variety, @brianstelter, @jbflint, @jbflint, @jbflint, @jbflint, Fox and WORLD SCREEN

Reuters:

A Moscow court places veteran Russian journalist Nadezhda Kevorkova in pre-trial detention for two months on suspicion of “justifying terrorism”, per her son — Veteran Russian journalist Nadezhda Kevorkova was placed in pre-trial detention for two months by a Moscow court …

Discussion: Fox News

Hanaa' Tameez / Nieman Lab:

Internews survey of 25 exiled news outlets: all but two are financially dependent on philanthropic or institutional funding, 28% are fully funded by donors — On World Press Freedom Day last week, the International Consortium of Investigative Reporters said in a statement that …

Discussion: @internews, @niemanlab and Internews

Natalie Korach / The Wrap:

Dotdash Meredith unionized workers ratify contracts with management after negotiating since 2021; the deal covers ~160 staffers at People and other magazines — The three-year deal covers approximately 160 staffers at People, Entertainment Weekly and Martha Stewart Living

Discussion: @meredithunion and @nyguild

Kate Knibbs / Wired:

A look at Musi, a free music streaming app popular among high schoolers that uses YouTube to source music, opening Musi up to legal action from record labels — Musi's free music streaming app is a hit with thrifty teens. The app claims to tap content on YouTube, but some in the music industry question the legitimacy of that model.

Discussion: Business Insider, @jtlg@mastodon.lawprofs.org, @knibbs, @extremeknibbs@threads.net and 9to5Mac

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 11:05 AM ET, May 8, 2024.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Output Producer, CA — AP

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Senior Assignment Editor, DC — WaPo

Breaking News Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Senior Correspondent - Wealth, NY — WSJ

Reporter - Ottawa Bureau — Globe & Mail

Local Government Reporter, IA — The Gazette

Research Director, CA — OCBJ

Immigration Enforcement Reporter — Documented

Presque Island Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Contributing Parks Ed. - SW, CA — SFGATE

AI Content Editor, WA — Outlier

Legislative Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Editorial Assistant, Remote US — Launch Potato

Elon Musk Reporter, NY or CA — The Information

Government & Politics Editor, WA — Seattle Times

Business & GA Reporter. VT — VTDigger

Sports Reporter, WA — Everett Herald

Energy Reporter, TX — Houston Chronicle

Senior Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Trade & Climate Correspondent, DC — FT

Reporter, WI — Racine County Eye

Political Newsletter Writer, CO — The Lever

Jackson Reporter, MS — Verite

Music Editor, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Breaking News Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Fearless Reporter/Producer, IA — BPC

Reporter II - Technology, Remote — NPR

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

City Reporter, WA — Tacoma News Tribune

Executive Editor, OR — Lookout Local

Education & Budget Reporter, CA — Politico

Senior Writer/Editor, FL — Gulfshore Business

Media Editor, Remote — Axios

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Substack announces Substack Creator Studio, a program to support 10 US-based video creators to “turn their TikTok channels into Substack shows and communities”

Discussion: Christina Loff on LinkedIn, Washington Post, On Substack and On Substack

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:
Ricky Strauss, who has been head of marketing at Apple TV+ for 16 months, is leaving; he earlier was president of content and marketing at Disney+ at its launch

Discussion: Variety, @rarebre3d, The Wrap, Puck and 9to5Mac

Pew Research Center:
Survey: 48% of US adults prefer websites or social media for local news; 15% paid for local news in the last year; 63% believe local outlets do well financially

Discussion: @knightfdn, @mattdpearce, @pewresearch, @pewresearch, Press Gazette, Sarabeth Berman on LinkedIn, @jackshafer, @jenrubin9@threads.net, @dustysneakers_@threads.net, @iohn.bsky.social, Nieman Lab and Poynter

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Meta announces an update to its AI ad tools, which can now make full new images, not just backgrounds, and claims to add strong guardrails to prevent abuse

Discussion: Facebook, Marketing Interactive, Social Media Today, Digiday, Neowin, Hadar Dor on LinkedIn, The Drum, Bloomberg, VentureBeat, Ad Age, Search Engine Land and The Media Leader, more at Techmeme »

Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Reddit reports Q1 revenue up 48% YoY to $243M, vs. $212.8M est., net loss of $575.1M, driven by IPO expenses, and DAUq total up 37% to 82.7M; RDDT jumps 15%+

Discussion: MediaPost, Reuters, Quartz, New York Post, Reddit, Fast Company, The Guardian, Neowin, The Information and Bloomberg

Earlier Picks:

New York Times:
TikTok sues the US government over the law forcing a sale or ban, saying it violates users' First Amendment rights and divestiture is “simply not possible”

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI is developing a Media Manager tool, slated for release by 2025, to let content owners identify their works to OpenAI and control how they are used

Discussion: TOOLKITS, Android Headlines, The Information, Ars Technica, Social Media Today, Neowin, Wired, VentureBeat and Wall Street Journal

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Amazon announces three new interactive ad formats for Prime Video: shoppable carousel ads, interactive pause ads, and interactive brand trivia ads

Discussion: The Verge, Quartz, Gizmodo, Business Insider, Digiday, Ars Technica, The Streamable, Amazon Ads, AdExchanger, Variety, Adweek, Next TV, Ad Age, Deadline and MediaPost

Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Disney CEO Bob Iger says Marvel is going to reduce output and focus on quality by releasing “about two TV series a year” and a “maximum of three” films per year

Discussion: Empire, Screen Rant, ComingSoon.net, IGN, @ballmatthew, The Hollywood Reporter, @tvgrimreaper, The Playlist, Deadline, Business Insider, The Wrap, Jackie Szymanski on LinkedIn, Gizmodo, SlashFilm, TVLine, The A.V. Club and CNBC

From Techmeme:

Wall Street Journal:
Gina Raimondo says holding back China in the chips race is a “fool's errand”, and investment, more than export controls, will keep US ahead of Beijing

Paresh Dave / Wired:
Google says it wouldn't force its device makers, browser, and wireless carrier licensees to distribute Gemini to US users for three years, in a proposed remedy

Reuters:
Albania bans TikTok for a year from January 2025, part of a broader plan to make schools safer following the killing of a 14-year-old near a school in November

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page