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This week's Media Briefing recaps how five publicly traded publishers' businesses performed in the third quarter of 2024.
In third quarter earnings calls, executives at publishers like Dotdash Meredith and News Corp blamed the lead-up to the U.S. presidential election for a pullback from some advertisers, which resulted in a softer ad market. But they seemed confident their companies would see more ad spend in Q4.
Overall, Q3 was a mixed bag for publishers. Of the five public media companies included in this earnings analysis, four reported increases in total revenue over Q3 2023. Three companies reported digital advertising revenue growth year over year. All three companies that report figures for their digital subscription businesses – Gannett, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal – gained more subscribers too.
Below is a look at how publishers' businesses fared between July 1 and September 30.
By the numbers:
- BuzzFeed's total revenue in Q3 was $64.3 million, growing 7% year over year. It was the first quarter of year-over-year revenue growth for BuzzFeed in over a year.
- Dotdash Meredith's total Q3 revenue was $439.5 million, up 5% year over year.
- Dow Jones' total revenue was $552 million during the company's fiscal Q1 2025 (which runs July 1 – September 30), up 3% year over year.
- Gannett's total revenue for the quarter was $612.4 million, down 6.2% year over year. But digital revenue increased 5.2% to $277.4 million.
- The New York Times Co's total revenue in the quarter was $640 million, up 7% year over year.
Digital advertising
Dotdash Meredith, Gannett and The New York Times all reported year-over-year digital advertising revenue growth in the third quarter. BuzzFeed and Dow Jones didn't fare as well.
- Dotdash Meredith advertising revenue (which primarily includes revenue from display ads) was up 26% year over year.
- Gannett's digital advertising revenue in Q3 was up 4.9% year over year.
- The New York Times' digital advertising revenue was up 9% year over year.
- BuzzFeed's advertising revenue declined 3% year over year.
- Dow Jones' digital advertising revenue declined 5%. (Dow Jones' digital advertising was calculated based on the reported year-over-year increases in total ad revenue and share of digital advertising within that business line, since the company does not explicitly report out total revenue for the business subdivision.)
One bright spot for DDM and BuzzFeed was revenue derived from programmatic ads.
Christopher Halpin, CFO and COO of Dotdash Meredith owner IAC, said in an earnings call on Nov. 12 that programmatic ad rates were up “30%-plus in the quarter.” BuzzFeed's programmatic ad revenue grew 9% year over year to $17.3 million.
