Mather Report with David Clinch – October 14

The Mather Report – David Clinch

Happy Friday and welcome to our weekly review of important #MediaRevenue stories this week.

It has been a busy week for media revenue stories, in both the publishing and streaming worlds. In both industries we see pricing and cost of services as playing an increasingly important role, and we are the pricing and costs experts at Mather.

Always let me know on Twitter if you spot any #MediaRevenue stories I may have missed. If you have any questions or comments about these updates, please get in touch.

Here is this week’s curated selection of #MediaRevenue news:

Netflix Confirms Ad Tier to Launch in November, Reveals Pricing for Cheaper Basic Plan

Basic With Ads will be $3 cheaper than Netflix’s Basic plan ($9.99/month in the U.S. currently), which provides the ability to stream on one device at a time. Previously, the Basic plan has not supported HD, but with the launch of the ad tier, Netflix will provide video quality of up to 720p HD for both Basic With Ads and the plan with no ads.

Gannett, owner of USA TODAY, continues cost-cutting measures

“Gannett announced a significant cost reduction program in early August in response to soaring inflation, labor shortages and “price-sensitive” consumers. Gannett reported a net loss of $53.7 million in the second quarter, compared with net income of $15.1 million the same period a year earlier.”

Local Newspapers Try Mail Delivery as Drivers Choose Better-Paying Gigs

“Gannett Co, the largest news publisher in the country, last year began exploring replacing carrier delivery with mail delivery in a small number of local markets where it has been hardest to recruit drivers, including South Bend, Ind., where subscribers on some delivery routes are too spread out.”

How Newsday topped 50k digital subscriptions

“The publisher counts a highly-skilled data science team of five which helps Newsday understand its churn, reader engagement and the impact of new products on retention. Two recent leavers were hired by Facebook’s parent Meta.”

At the Athletic and New York Times, a marriage with promise and tension

“As a company, the Times has set lofty goals for subscribers. It wanted 10 million by 2025 and delivered ahead of schedule, reaching that mark this year after adding around those million Athletic subscribers. (About 120,000 of the Athletic’s million paying customers were already Times subscribers, Perpich said.) Now the Times wants to hit 15 million by 2027, drawing users to news, cooking advice, games and, now, coverage of their favorite teams.”

Timesism & Its Discontents

“…the executive team and masthead have turned a storied-but-beleaguered print paper with a reluctant digital presence into a robust, multi-platform profit machine with nearly 10+ million digital subscribers, 1,700 journalists, and dozens of new franchises and acquisitions—Wordle, The Athletic, Cooking, Wirecutter—that have become an essential daily habit for millions of readers.”

How Tortoise podcasts became the most profitable part of the ‘slow news’ start-up

“As well as membership acquisition, the podcasts have several other ways of making money. Tortoise has sold the rights of Sweet Bobby, the “blockbuster success” that won Podcast of the Year at the Future of Media Awards, to a “global major streaming platform””

The State of Local News

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Newspaper ownership shifting back to local

“A group of regional newspaper chains and family-owned newspaper groups are beginning to buy back newspapers from major groups like Gannett, Alden and Lee Enterprises, which are trying to reduce their footprints to save costs.”

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Financial Times profit up after ‘strong rebound’ from Covid-19 in 2021

“Financial Times Ltd accounts filed with the UK’s Companies House show it went from a loss before tax of £29m in 2020 to a pre-tax profit of £4.3m in the year ending 31 December 2021. Revenue for FT Ltd grew by 16% to £370m.”

Bloomberg Media Is Shutting Off Its Open-Market Programmatic Advertising

“To improve the user experience, on Jan. 1 Bloomberg Media will stop serving open-market programmatic display ads, which represent ~5% of its inventory. Instead, the publisher will use the space to promote editorial products like events.”

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Published by

David Clinch

Head of Global Partnerships – Mather Economics. Former Storyful, CNN, ITN. #MediaRevenue
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