Ad downturn impacts DMGT’s & The Guardian’s revenue – weekly news digest

DMGT, a British media company that owns the Daily Mail and other titles, showed revenue growth in 2023 “as a strong performance from UAE-headquartered B2B events division offset falling income at its UK consumer newsbrands”, Press Gazette reports.

While online advertising slightly declined and print advertising shrinked to the smallest revenue stream, print subscriptions remained a major source of revenue, and the events business showed strong growth.

In the meantime Guardian News and Media, The Guardian’s publisher, came under budget in the wake of the advertising downturn. “GNM brought in £192m [€226m] in revenue in the nine months [to 31 December], down £10m [€11.8m] or 5% compared to the same period in 2022”, Press Gazette notes. Digital reader revenue increased year-over-year but came in slightly below expectations.

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Over in the US, tech outlet 404 Media said it was profitable six months after launch, NiemanLab reports. The publisher is small but interesting for its ownership structure – it’s wholly owned by the journalists. “404 Media’s founders and co-owners — a staff of four — all come from Motherboard, Vice’s tech vertical”, NiemanLab writes. 

Meanwhile Slate, a 27-year-old veteran of digital publishing, reported its best year ever. The company’s revenue grew 28% year-over-year thanks to the focus on its podcasting business and the website, Semafor reports. “Podcasting now accounts for 50% of the company’s advertising revenue, with the other 50% coming from digital ads on its website”, Semafor notes citing Slate; ads account for less than a half of the overall revenue, which also relies on the membership program.

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Axel Springer, the European media giant headquartered in Germany, announced its new US leadership team. 

Over the past years the company made significant investments in the US media market, most notably with the acquisitions of Business Insider and Politico. Axel Springer now employs about the same number of journalists in the US as in Germany, the company says.

The new leadership team in the US, “comprised of executives representing key corporate functions, including group sales, communications, government affairs, compliance, information security, investments, and people & culture” is set to oversee US operations.

Source of the cover photo: m. for Unsplash

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