The New York Times tries to add more fuel to growth by buying Athletic sports site PLUS How publishers are trying to offset ad revenue decline

January 07, 2022

The new year has started off with a bang of media news. First it was Justin Smith and Ben Smith announcing the launch of a new global news brand, which is thin on details (see the FT story, which I've made a gift link for the first three readers who click it). But that was just the first big story.

Yesterday brought news that the New York Times has bought the sports site The Athletic. The goal is to continue to fuel its subscriber growth. There was a lot of analysis about this move below, and some that I saw on Twitter was how this would move the NYT into direct competition with local news providers.

PLUS LinkedIn is launching interactive audio events ala Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces. How publishers are offsetting the decline in ad revenue with subscriber-only content. Journalism.co.uk looks at the extent to which philanthropy can support local journalism. (This is an increasing focus in the US.) And where is the line between using analytics to improve the performance of content and 'traffic whoring'?

LinkedIn, now with more than 800 million people listing their professional profiles to build out their careers, is taking its next steps to get them to spend more time on the platform. The company is rolling out a new events platform, where it will be listing, hosting and marketing interactive, virtual live events. It is […]

New report explores both common and unconventional tactics to help publishers diversify their income opportunities In the world of online publishing, it takes more than high-quality content to make money. From advertising and affiliate marketing to premium content and subscriptions, publishers of all sizes are constantly on the lookout for innovative ways to turn their …

The New York Times Company agreed to purchase sports media outlet The Athletic in a deal valued at $550 million, The Information reports. This deal comes after months of speculation — at one point, The Athletic CEO Alex Mather approached Axios about a merger, which did not come to fruition. With this deal, the company […]

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300 US-based non-profit news organisations raised $12m in donations, showing that public interest stories, solid business skills and trustworthiness pay off

The year in data and privacy Chrome’s cookie delay has been a welcome respite for an industry under pressure. But with no viable replacements on the horizon, publishers wasted no time doubling down on their first-party data plans. Esther Kezia Thorpe rounds up 2021 in data and privacy as part of our Media Moments 2021 report. It’s almost …

Ex-Bloomberg executive and New York Times journalist are aiming for multi-decade growth

I've created a gift link from the FT allowing the first three people who click on this story to read it based on my FT subscription.

"Journalists go to some lengths to construct symbolic boundaries that allow them to incorporate metrics into their work while preserving their professional self-conception."