Weekly Digest Issue #161, 7 Feb 2026
This week's earnings reports from the US show that with the right focus, the Post can return to growth, and it's actually a pretty good time to be a premium news publisher.
Much of the debate about the Washington Post layoffs has focused on the declining news industry. This week's earnings reports show that with the right focus, the Post can return to growth. Bloomberg Media, Dow Jones, Thomson Reuters, People Inc., and The New York Times all reported robust revenue growth, driven by reader subscriptions, events, and premium advertising strategies that are not dependent on programmatic ads. In the UK, Daily Mail publisher DMGT saw a 5% rise in EBITDA despite a dip in revenue, primarily due to careful cost management, growth in subscriptions and non-news sectors, and improved margins in events and other property information areas, offsetting declining digital ad revenue driven by AI changes.
