Following their acquisition by billionaires, a number of prominent newspapers and media organizations have consistently incurred significant annual losses amounting to multiple millions of dollars. These billionaires started out with the belief that they could both improve the financial situation and uphold an editorial bias that is openly critical of Trump and the Republican Party.
As to an article in DNYUZ, prominent publications such as the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and Time magazine continue to incur significant financial losses even years after being acquired by wealthy patrons. Unfortunately, there is no indication of any improvement in their financial situation in the foreseeable future.
The article states that, “As the prospects for news publishers waned in the last decade, billionaires swooped in to buy some of the country’s most fabled brands. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, bought The Washington Post in 2013 for about $250 million. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotechnology and start-up billionaire, purchased The Los Angeles Times in 2018 for $500 million. Marc Benioff, the founder of the software giant Salesforce, purchased Time magazine with his wife, Lynne, for $190 million in 2018.”
According to the article, the newsrooms cautiously embraced the new proprietors on every situation, anticipating that their financial acumen and technology skill would offer solutions to the complex task of producing income as a digital journal.
From my time on the border near Lukeville, Arizona. The port of entry closed because so many illegal aliens were there. Mostly male illegal aliens from the African countries of Senegal and Guinea which are majority Islamic. Tensions were very high because people tried to cut in… pic.twitter.com/COoB6te6AE
— Just Jeff From Cali (@liberty_clarion) January 19, 2024
Nevertheless, it seems that the millionaires are encountering comparable difficulties to nearly all the others. Time, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times all experienced enormous losses in revenue in the previous year, despite significant expenditures from their owners and deliberate attempts to create other sources of income, as confirmed by knowledgeable individuals.
“Wealth doesn’t insulate an owner from the serious challenges plaguing many media companies, and it turns out being a billionaire isn’t a predictor for solving those problems,” stated Ann Marie Lipinski, the curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism with Harvard University, in an interview with DNYUZ. “We’ve seen a lot of naïve hope attached to these owners, often from employees.”
Anticipated repercussions from the financial damage are likely to be seen most immediately at The Los Angeles Times, where employees are bracing themselves for possibly adverse outcomes. Kevin Merida, a respected newspaper editor, recently declared his departure due to conflicts with Soon-Shiong about editorial and financial priorities, according to two sources who are acquainted with the matter.
DNYUZ went on:
In the middle of last year, The Times was on track to lose $30 million to $40 million in 2023, according to three people with knowledge of the projections. Last year, the company cut about 74 jobs, and executives have met in recent days to discuss the possibility of deep job cuts, according to two other people familiar with the conversations. Members of The Los Angeles Times union have called an emergency meeting for Thursday to discuss the possibility of another “major” round of layoffs: “This is the big one,” read the email to employees.
Bezos has faced difficulties at The Washington Post too. Like many journalistic businesses, The Post has struggled to maintain the rapid growth it achieved following the 2020 election. The company incurred losses of around $100 million in the past year due to a decrease in subscriptions plus advertising income.
“At the end of the year, the company eliminated 240 of its 2,500 jobs through buyouts, including some of its well-regarded journalists,” according to DNYUZ.
However, the majority of these news media organizations persistently maintain a clear bias against Trump and conservatism in their works. “Total revenue decreased for CNN and MSNBC and increased for Fox News in 2022, according to estimates from Kagan, a media research group in S&P Global Market Intelligence,” reported by the Pew Research Center.
Pew added that “CNN’s total revenue decreased by 5%, from $1.9 billion in 2021 to $1.8 billion in 2022. Similarly, MSNBC’s revenue fell from $977 million to $903 million, an 8% decrease. Fox News saw a 5% increase, from $3.1 billion in 2021 to $3.3 billion in 2022.”
“In 2022, Newsmax made $66 million in revenue, a 14% decrease from 2021. Since Newsmax had zero license fee revenue, virtually all of the channel’s revenue came from advertising,” Pew explained.
Last week, Fox News personality Laura Ingraham made a strong declaration on her broadcast, urging the other prospective Republican presidential aspirants, specifically Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, to acknowledge defeat and endorse Donald Trump.
Trump’s resounding triumph in the Iowa caucuses, which Ingraham characterized as a crucial turning point for the GOP, was subsequently followed by this.
“This is my advice to the last three, and that’s the focus of tonight’s angle. After what we witnessed in Iowa last night, it’s time for everyone to start living in the real world,” she exclaimed. Trump’s triumph in Iowa, while grappling with numerous indictments and managing court appearances alongside his campaign, served to reinforce his position as a strong political powerhouse.
Ingraham’s communication was unambiguous and straightforward, particularly in reference to Ron DeSantis, whose campaign endeavors she recognized by stating: “He outperformed last night. He beat Nikki Haley’s war chest. So he has a lot to be proud of.”
DeSantis ended his campaign on Sunday, January 21.