- The New York Times lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, which charges both companies with feeding millions of copyrighted articles to their LLMs, could soon (maybe soon after the end of this month) yield a settlement of up to a billion dollars—and set the NYT on another M&A spree. (Puck)
- The UK government has referred to competition and media regulators Sky TV’s proposed £1.6bn acquisition for the ITV broadcaster, with an initial finding due by end-January. Like the Telegraph Media Group before it, will a rival bidder step-in?
- “If you opened Claude on US midterm Election Night this week, the latest polling data was provided by, and attributed to, Associated Press. The deal marked a change of strategy for Anthropic, owner of Claude, which had not previously struck any content licensing deals with publishers – unlike its primary competitor, ChatGPT, whose parent company OpenAI has signed a dozen deals with publishers including Axel Springer, News Corp., and The Atlantic. Why the change? The likely answer is that Anthropic finally admitted what publishers have long known to be true, which is that an information index without access to up-to-date data is dramatically limited in its utility. Because it had previously eschewed content licensing deals, it lacked access to the kind of credible, timely reporting that consumers turn to in key moments like an election cycle.” A turning point? (Adweek)
- UK digital publishers‘ revenue declined 1.5% year-on-year in Q2 to £155mn, despite 2.5% growth in subscriptions to £58mn and 4.5% growth in display advertising to £54.1mn. The gains were offset by losses in other revenue categories, namely off-platform, video and digital audio. (Media Leader)
- News Corp posted revenue up 6% year-on-year for its fiscal first quarter at $2.28bn, “driven by growth at Digital Real Estate Services, Book Publishing and Dow Jones”, while net profit was 43% higher at $215mn. Total segment EBITDA was up 19% over the three months at $403mn. Revenue at News Media was down 1% at $540mn, as circulation and subscription revenues increased 3%, while advertising revenues fell 2%. Revenue of the star business, Dow Jones, increased 8% to $630mn. Its subscriptions (93% digital only) totalled 6.9mn – 8% up. Some 5mn of these are for WSJ (+9%). A growing case for de-merger, IPO or even divestment? Background
- New York Times Co Q3 revenues were up 9.7% year-on-year to $769mn. Adjusted operating profit climbed 13.9% to $150mn, sending shares up 3.92% in pre-market trading. Digital subscriptions were up by a net 420,000 during the quarter, to 13.76mn, a 14.6% climb, with NYT Co total subscription revenues up by 10.7%. Digital-only subscribers grew by 420,000, with total paid subscribers now counting 13.8mn. Background
- People Inc reported Q3 revenue of $430.8mn, down 4% year-on-year. The core magazine-centric segment accounted for 95% of the revenue and was down 5%, with digital +2% but print (still 31% of the total) down 16%. The company is forecasting slight full-year revenue and at least profit growth. The People Inc media performance (i.e. the part of the company previously known as Dotdash Meredith) continues to be underwhelming, given that the 2026 revenue is expected to be $1.8bn, compared with $1.9bn in 2024 and $2.3bn for 2021, the year when it had paid $2.7bn for Meredith. The fact that 67% of People Inc’s $3.3bn enterprise value is covered just by its 26% stake in MGM Resorts might make some kind of future transformative deal inevitable. Could it just be time for People Inc to seriously consider again the idea of merging with the UK’s £750mn ($1bn) -revenue Future Plc whose quiet digital transformation is underway, even though its share price has lost 38% YTD. They’re two lifestyle publishers on either side of the Atlantic moving as fast as they dare from magazines to digital, both listed companies. Just think. Background
- “Declining referral traffic and AI disruption aren’t stopping some of the largest publishers from growing revenue, according to recent earnings. The New York Times, News Corp, People Inc., Reuters all reported gains in the third quarter, fueled by a mix of subscriptions, advertising and content licensing. But their latest earnings also point to a common challenge heading into the final part of the year: sustaining that momentum as last year’s revenue gains make for tougher comparisons. Notably, AI licensing has delivered real revenue growth for People Inc. and Reuters, especially as they look to diversify revenue beyond advertising. But the initial boost from those deals is becoming harder to replicate as those agreements mature.“(Digiday)
- Life Science Connect has acquired BrevisRefero Corporation, the Toronto-based, nine-year-old biopharma consulting company and developer of RFP>Navigator®, a digital platform designed to make CDMO sourcing and RFP management faster, more structured, and easier to evaluate.Background
- Flashes & Flames has become an Associate Member of the SPUR Coalition (Standards for Publisher Usage Rights), a non-profit global alliance of news publishers formed to give the industry collective leverage over how generative AI uses their journalism. Members include: Financial Times, AP, Mediahuis, New York Times, Ringier, Bonnier, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Economist, Telegraph and BBC.
- Nearly two decades after its last reincarnation folded, the legendary Life magazine is being re-born, on Nov. 23, It will start publishing again, as a quarterly print magazine, under license from People Inc. Karlie Kloss, the model and entrepreneur is backing the project through her Bedford Media company. Life magazine had been launched in 1936 by Henry Luce, the founder of Time and Fortune magazines. Its circulation peaked in the 1960s, reaching more than 8mn copies. But Time Inc. stopped publishing the weekly magazine in 1972. It was restarted in 1978, as a monthly magazine, until 2000. (New York Times)
