Reuters is launching research subscriptions for individuals, Axios reports.

Called Reuters Insight, the product will be the company’s first subscription offering designed for individuals rather than for businesses, part of Reuters’ recent drive towards servicing individual professionals

“Reuters Insight will provide subscribers with custom polling of senior industry executives, as well as custom research and analysis, to help them make professional decisions and shape their business strategies,” Axios notes. 

Some 75 people work on the project now. Business sector covered by Reuters Insight will include insurance, pharmaceuticals, automotive, sustainability, supply chain, and more. Prices will range from $2,500 (€2,500) annually per sector.

Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest person and prominent media tycoon, is exiting his media business.  

Akhmetov has owned several widely popular TV channels, including general-interest channel Ukraina & sports channel Football, as well as newspaper Segodnya. For many years, Akhmetov has been one of the most powerful figures in Ukrainian business, politics, and media – the spheres that have traditionally been largely intertwined.

Now, however, Akhmetov’s holding company SCM Limited is exiting the media business so Akhmetov is not labeled as an oligarch per Ukraine’s recent law, which was passed in 2021 and recently came into effect. Considerable influence over media is one of the criteria that constitute an oligarch.

Akhmetov media’s licenses will be returned to the government, and the media group has stopped producing new content. Despite early speculations, the group’s assets and intellectual property, however, are not being transferred to the state; their fate is being decided, according to the company’s statement.  

BBC Studios, the broadcaster’s commercial subsidiary, has recorded record profit. According to the annual report, the revenue has increased to £1.63 billion (€1.92 billion), while pre-tax profit is at £226 million (€266.5 million).

BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC, is behind high-profile shows like Doctor Who. As The Financial Times writes quoting media analyst Abi Watson, the financial results are “really good”, though “they followed a year full of lockdowns, meaning that a production rebound and pent-up advertising demand were likely to have helped.”

At the same time, financial prospects for the BBC as a whole, are not as optimistic. It has recently been forced to announce considerable spending cuts as the government had refused to raise the license fee – an annual tax paid by British citizens and a major source of funding for the BBC.

The BBC’s funding model is under question, with a prospect of the license fee being abolished altogether in five years. 

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