Mediagazer: 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 (Sara Fischer/Axios)

9:30 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: Fox News, @davidfolkenflik, @renee.diresta@threads.net, @davidfolkenflik and Fox News

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: Poynter, NPR, @michaelluo, @jbenton, Poynter, Michael A. Riepe, Ph.D. 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, Chicago Tribune and Edmund Carlevale on LinkedIn

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, @jbflint, @jbflint, @jbflint, @jbflint and Fox

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

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

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 — As news consumption habits become more digital, U.S. adults continue to see value in local outlets — Table of Contents Table of Contents

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

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, @knibbs, @extremeknibbs@threads.net and 9to5Mac

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” — The company says its plans are unrelated to a potential TikTok ban. — Newsletter platform Substack is ramping …

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

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 — OpenAI says it's developing a tool to let creators better control how their content is used in AI. — Called Media Manager …

Discussion: Android Headlines, The Information, Ars Technica, Neowin, Wired and VentureBeat

Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal:
OpenAI releases a tool to detect DALL-E 3-created images, claiming 98% accuracy for unaltered images, and joins Microsoft and Adobe's content credentials group

Discussion: Microsoft On the Issues, Quartz, New York Times, Reuters, ZDNet and TechCrunch

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 9:30 AM ET, May 8, 2024.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Deputy Health & Science Editor, DC — WaPo

Weather Reporter, NY — Bloomberg

Legal Editor, Johannesburg — LexisNexis

Transcription Copy Editor - Opinion, CA — NYT

Agriculture Reporter, Winnipeg — Reuters

Part-time Editor, Remote — Techmeme

Home & Travel Reporter - Ireland — Newsweek

Investigative Reporter, SC — Post & Courier

Deputy Spotlight Editor, MA — Boston Globe

Disinfo/Extremism/Tech Reporter — Mother Jones

Audience Editor - Search, NY — ProPublica

Awards Specials Editor, CA — Hollywood Reporter

Middle East Editor, Remote — Semafor

Arts Editor, London — FT

Deputy Tech Ed. - CNBC, CA — NBCUniversal

Reporter - Police Beat, OR — The Oregonian

National Tech Reporter — States Newsroom

Express Desk Reporter, CA — SF Standard

Alabama Reporter, AL — Inside Climate News

Tech Reporter, CA — Fortune

Executive Editor, OR — Lookout

Deputy Editor - Investigations, NY — WSJ

Senior Writer - Biotech, Remote — Fierce

Senior IP Correspondent, Brussels — MLex

Senior Editor - Business Desk, DC — NPR

Freelance Reporter - L.A. Education, CA — The 74

Associate Editor, London — WIRED

Copy & Weekend Editor, NH — Keene Sentinel

Private Equity Reporter, NY — The Information

Political Reporter, TX — Courier Newsroom

Economic Mobility Reporter, FL — Miami Herald

Reporter - Skift Meetings, Remote — Skift

Reporter, NC — NC Newsline

Digital Editor, DC — Stars & Stripes

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:

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

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, Reddit, Fast Company, The Guardian, Neowin, Quartz, The Information and Bloomberg

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”

Earlier Picks:

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: 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 and The A.V. Club

Robbie Whelan / Wall Street Journal:
Disney's streaming unit reports a loss of $18M in Q2, down from a $659M loss YoY, and says it is on track to achieve streaming profitability in Q4 2024

Discussion: @tvgrimreaper, Dylan Jones on LinkedIn, Axios, Media Play News, The Walt Disney Company, The Hollywood Reporter and CNBC

Max Tani / Semafor:
Memo: Business Insider Global Editor-in-Chief Nich Carlson is stepping down and will become an editor-at-large focused on longer-term projects

Discussion: @billackman, @julie188, @nichcarlson, @thestalwart, @mjnblack, @sarafischer, @sportsrapport, @nataliekorach@threads.net, Talking Biz News, Reuters, New York Post, Axios, The Wrap and The Daily Beast

From Techmeme:

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple and OpenAI are preparing a major announcement of their partnership at WWDC; the new AirTag with a better chip is scheduled to arrive by mid-2025

Sam Altman / @sama:
Sam Altman says he is embarrassed that there was a provision about potential equity cancellation in exit docs, and OpenAI never took back anyone's vested equity

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: US officials have told Google, Meta, and others about concerns that undersea cables could be vulnerable to tampering by China-owned repair ships

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