What next for Yahoo News and TechCrunch?

FN 104

There was just one mention of Yahoo News in Verizon’s statement on Monday. The outlet had apparently become the fastest growing news publisher on TikTok, it boasted. But its future looks unclear as Verizon Media, including Yahoo, is now being acquired by Apollo Funds for $5bn ($4.25bn of it in cash).

Verizon will retain a 10% stake in the company, which will be known as Yahoo at close of the transaction and continue to be led by CEO Guru Gowrappan. The business had acquired AOL and Yahoo $8.9bn some years back. Revenues, however, were still strong across Verizon Media at the end of 2020:

Total Verizon Media revenues were $2.3 billion in fourth-quarter 2020, up 11.4 percent year over year, the first quarter of year over year growth since the Yahoo acquisition in 2017. Growth in the quarter was fuelled by strong advertising trends with revenue from the demand side platform growing 41 percent year over year. 

Journalists at the likes of Yahoo News, TechCrunch and Engadget will no doubt hope their fate is not reminiscent of another former Verizon outlet, HuffPost, which recently moved away from news in the UK and scaled down its staff under new owner BuzzFeed.  

🚀 TPM Podcast has launched

• The Tech, Power & Media Podcast, exploring the intersection and relationships between technology, media and the power it creates, limits and changes has launched. Subscribe on Spotify and Apple. 

💼 Jobs and business

• The Telegraph now has more than 600,000 total subscribers and saw operating profits grow by 76% year-on-year to £28.3m in 2020.

• Facebook, including WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, had 1.8bn daily users in the three months to March.

• Twitter fails to meet analyst expectations, causing stock to drop. It had 199 million monetizable daily users.

• News UK will reportedly only be producing streaming video content, rather than traditional TV, as GB News is set to launch this year.

• MailOnline has clashed with Google. “We will defend ourselves against these meritless claims,” the search giant said.

• Reach launches The Northern Agenda newsletter, covering the politics and current affairs in the North of England. 

• HuffPost UK will focus on politics, entertainment and lifestyle as its news team leaves the BuzzFeed-owned outlet.

• The golden-era of ‘cheap TV’ is dead, according to the FT.

🎧 Podcasts

• Spotify immediately catches-up with Apple with subscription platform.

• Longform: The New York Times Magazine’s Brooke Jarvis. 

• DraftKings buys rights to Dan Le Batard’s podcast. 

• Digiday: How to make the transition to Substack.

• BBC Media Show: Podcasts go premium.

• Exponent: Why Exponent left Spotify.

• Strictly Business: PBS’ Paula Kerger. 

🤖 Technology and research

• Twitter urges people to follow local news outlets and journalists in the US.

• The New York Times thinks Twitch has a conspiracy theory problem.

• Science is losing the anti-vax information war.

• UK news outlets lead social media boycott. 

• Burning Man goes virtual.

₿ Crypto Corner 

• CoinDesk is looking for a new news editor.

📧 Contact

For high-praise, tips or gripes, please contact the editor at iansilvera@gmail.com or via @ianjsilvera. Follow on LinkedIn here. 

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Image: Future News, “TV Error" by Sibe Kokke is licensed under CC BY 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/4142290...