#MediaRevenue - David Clinch

Welcome to my weekly round-up of all things #MediaRevenue. It has been a fascinating week in the world of subscriptions and media revenue.

Let me know if I have missed any important stories, especially in rural or underserved news markets.

This exclusive new AI-powered daily news word game for local news publishers launched last week in Atlanta. Let me know if you want to sign up for this amazing new product to drive retention, attention and revenue ->

If you need help navigating the threats and opportunities that AI represents for your news organization, let me know: david@mediagrowthteam.com

Here are the top #MediaRevenue stories from this week ->

More than 250,000 subscribers have left 'Washington Post' over withheld endorsement: "Subscribers keep deserting The Washington Post after it announced it would not endorse any candidate in the race for the White House." - NPR Dave Folkenflik

The Washington Post’s non-endorsement led to record-breaking weeks at other news orgs: "The Philadelphia Inquirer had its best week for new subscriptions ever and The Guardian U.S. broke its single-day fundraising record — twice." - Nieman Lab. Sarah Scire

Guardian endorsement of Harris reaps it near $2m boost after editor’s email: "Email from Guardian US editor capitalised on Washington Post spiking election endorsement" - Press Gazette. Dominic Ponsford

Marc Benioff is in talks to sell media company Time to Antenna Group: "No deal is assured and the talks are still early, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private." - CNBC - Alex Sherman

The Daily Beast Tries to Claw Its Way Back to Relevance: "Can Joanna Coles and Ben Sherwood revive the once-buzzy news site and reclaim their perches atop the New York media world? Their own staff isn’t sure." - New York Times. Katie Robertson

Star-Ledger ending print edition and closing production facility in 2025: "The Star-Ledger will cease publishing a print newspaper and will close its Montville production facility in February 2025. The decision was made by the Star-Ledger’s owner, Newark Morning Ledger Co., due to rising costs, decreasing circulation and reduced demand for print." - NJ .com

The State of Local News 2024: "News “deserts” growing across the country; —On average, more than two newspapers a week folded in the past year" - Medill Local News Inititiatie. Tim Franklin

Wall Street Journal, New York Post Sue AI Startup Perplexity, Alleging ‘Massive Freeriding’: "In copyright suit, News Corp titles say AI firm is stealing content and revenue, and asks court to block its use of their material" - WSJ.

AI startup TollBit raises $24M series A: "TollBit hopes its marketplace can reduce the legal and business friction that's made data-sharing between the media industry and AI firms tense and complicated. - Axios." Sara Fischer

Meta strikes multi-year AI deal with Reuters: "Meta has struck a multi-year deal with Reuters to use its news content to provide real-time answers to user queries about news and current events in its Meta AI chatbot, sources familiar with the agreement told Axios." - Axios.

Lenfest Institute, OpenAI, and Microsoft announce $10 million AI Collaborative and Fellowship Program for US metro news organizations: "Five news publishers will receive grant funding and enterprise credits for experimentation with generative AI" - - LenFest.

How Two Irreverent Historians Made Their Podcast a Global Sensation: "The Rest Is History podcast gets 11m monthly downloads, 1.2m YouTube views, and over 45,000 paying subscribers." - WSJ.

The Minnesota Star Tribune launches statewide news partnership: "Powered by a Google News Initiative grant, the partnership supports quality, statewide local journalism" - Editor & Publisher.

The Print Magazine Revival of 2024: "Print magazines are making a comeback." - Bloomberg.