Media Briefing: What publishers’ latest earnings reports say about the state of the media business

By Tim Peterson

In this week’s Media Briefing, media editor Kayleigh Barber analyzes the latest quarterly earnings reports from BuzzFeed, IAC’s Dotdash Meredith, News Corp’s Dow Jones, Future plc, Gannett and The New York Times.

The state of the media market
BuzzFeed’s news dump, media’s diverse leaders, publishers’ four-week subscriptions and more

The state of the media market

The key hits:

Digital subscriptions are no longer in a slump for some news publishers.
However, digital ad revenues are starting to sag, especially on the programmatic end.
Commerce businesses are also taking a hit as audiences change shopping habits from online to in-person.

After the first quarter of 2022, publishers have a lot to consider when it comes to maintaining the health of their businesses.

From the earnings reports of BuzzFeed, Future, Gannett, IAC’s Dotdash Meredith, NewsCorp’s Dow Jones and The New York Times, it’s clear that the advertising economy is already starting to slow, be it from an impending recession or major world events like the Russian-Ukrainian war. And with audiences changing everything from reading behaviors to shopping behaviors, commerce isn’t as lucrative a business as it once might have been.

Overall, revenue was up in the latest earning reports:

BuzzFeed’s total revenue increased by 26% to $91.6 million in Q1 2022 compared to the first quarter of 2021.
Future’s total revenue increased by 48% to £404.3 million ($508.4 million) in H1 2022 from £272.6m ($342.8 million) in H1 2021.
Gannett’s total revenue decreased 3.7% to $748.1 million in Q1 2022 compared to the first quarter of 2021.
Dotdash Meredith’s total revenue reached $500.5 million in the first quarter of 2022, compared to $65.4 million in Q1 2021, a 765% increase due primarily to the acquisition of Meredith.
Dow Jones’ total revenue grew by 16% in the third quarter of its 2022 fiscal year from the same quarter in 2021, increasing from $421 million to $487 million.
The New York Times’ total revenue increased by 14% year over year to $537.4 million in Q1 2022.

But by the looks of it, publishing executives are bracing themselves to just get through 2022, with hopes that these slight dips and slow downs in revenue are only temporary adjustments to a pseudo post-COVID world.

“We remain more focused on 2023 and beyond and will continue to make the changes and take the charges necessary to set up a cleaner and clearer future for the business,” wrote Joey Levin, CEO of Dotdash Meredith parent IAC in the holding company’s Q1 2022 shareholder letter from May 9. – Kayleigh Barber

Digital advertising revenue hits a rough patch

The New York Times’ first quarter earnings revealed the possibility of a less than desirable digital advertising landscape emerging. The company’s digital advertising business fell “below our expectations,” according to CEO Meredith Kopit Levien, despite digital advertising revenue increasing 13% year over year to $67 million, according to its Q1 2022 earnings release published on May 4.

The Times, however, was not the only publisher to be slightly displeased with the digital advertising results of the first quarter.

“In …read more

Source:: Digiday