All posts tagged: profit

New York Times-owned The Athletic reports quarterly profit for first time

New York Times-owned The Athletic reports quarterly profit for first time

The New York Times building in Manhattan, 26 October 2022. Picture: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images The Athletic made a profit in the third quarter of 2024 for the first time since its launch, according to the latest financial results from parent publisher The New York Times Company. NYT Co bought the loss-making sports news brand, which launched in 2016, for $550m in January 2022 and it has taken two-and-a-half years since then to get it into quarterly profit of $2.6m. This is an improvement from a loss of $2.4m in Q2, of $8.7m in Q1, $4.4m in Q4 2023 and $7.9m in Q3 last year. The publisher said the improvement was down to higher revenue in both subscriptions and advertising. Revenue was up 30% year-on-year to $44.7m for the quarter, with subscriptions making up 70% of that total for The Athletic, advertising (which was up 7% to $9m due to growth in direct-sold display) comprising 10% and other revenue such as Apple licensing making up the rest. Thanks for subscribing. Close On an investor …

Amazon Jumps On Record AWS Profit Margin, Solid Holiday Quarter Guidance

Amazon Jumps On Record AWS Profit Margin, Solid Holiday Quarter Guidance

As we noted in our preview earlier, Hedge Funds are getting picky into the quarter. While most were short as given a perceived miss below Street for Q4 EBIT, some have covered as downside (if any) would be short-lived with investors having messaged a “buy-the-dip” mentality. Investors are starting to understand the variability of operating income and there is a general agreement that this is the best capital allocator in the space, so would rather Amazon invest than harvest profit dollars. The bull case continues to center around prospects for faster gross merchandise value growth and share gains on higher level of service amidst ongoing fulfillment regionalization efforts in the US and eventual global rollout; ongoing margin expansion in Amazon’s ecommerce franchise due to improving unit economics; new high margin revenue stream from Prime Video with ads – although still in its early innings it should become a meaningful contributor over time, especially as content costs are already incorporated in the model. Investors are also focused on the payouts through the investment cycle with AWS …

Anna Kendrick donated entire profit of Netflix film to charity as it made her feel ‘gross’

Anna Kendrick donated entire profit of Netflix film to charity as it made her feel ‘gross’

Anna Kendrick has revealed she donated all the money she made from Woman of the Hour to charity. The Pitch Perfect actor, 39, made her directorial debut with the new Netflix film, which revolves around a series of killings committed by Rodney Alcala, a smooth-talking predator who charmed at least eight young women in the Seventies, took their photograph, then murdered them. The true extent of Alcala’s crimes is unknown – some suggest he may have been responsible for 130 murders. Kendrick’s film primarily focuses on a surreal episode in Alcala’s spree: his 1978 appearance on the US TV show The Dating Game, where he served as one of three bachelors attempting to woo a young woman named Cheryl, played by Kendrick. Speaking on the Crime Junkie AF podcast, Kendrick said of the project: “This was never a money-making venture for me. “Eventually, Netflix bought the movie. But it wasn’t until, like, the week before TIFF [Toronto International Film Festival] that I thought, ‘Oh, this movie’s gonna make money.” The Alice, Darling star admitted this …

Hacking Generative AI for Fun and Profit

Hacking Generative AI for Fun and Profit

You hardly need ChatGPT to generate a list of reasons why generative artificial intelligence is often less than awesome. The way algorithms are fed creative work often without permission, harbor nasty biases, and require huge amounts of energy and water for training are all serious issues. Putting all that aside for a moment, though, it is remarkable how powerful generative AI can be for prototyping potentially useful new tools. I got to witness this firsthand by visiting Sundai Club, a generative AI hackathon that takes place one Sunday each month near the MIT campus. A few months ago, the group kindly agreed to let me sit in and chose to spend that session exploring tools that might be useful to journalists. The club is backed by a Cambridge nonprofit called Æthos that promotes socially responsible use of AI. The Sundai Club crew includes students from MIT and Harvard, a few professional developers and product managers, and even one person who works for the military. Each event starts with a brainstorm of possible projects that the …

From showing animals for profit to protecting them: the reinvention of Buenos Aires zoo | Zoos

From showing animals for profit to protecting them: the reinvention of Buenos Aires zoo | Zoos

A mara, stretched out under the shade of a huge ombu tree, greets you at the entrance to the Buenos Aires Eco-park. It’s just one of dozens of the hare-like rodents that roam the grounds of the former city zoo. Today, only a few “legacy animals” remain in Buenos Aires, those hard to relocate due to their age. These include two hippos, which wallow in a new enclosure; a pair of geriatric giraffes; two aged elephants, which have regular podiatry sessions; and an arthritic camel, which receives acupuncture and magnet therapy five times a week. Aerial view of Buenos Aires Eco-park on 14 April 2020. The park closed as a zoo in 2016. Photograph: Getty Images The zoo closed its gates for the last time in 2016. Public opinion in the city had turned against the idea of displaying animals for entertainment, often in enclosures that had changed little since they were built in the late 1800s. Over the past seven years, more than 1,000 animals have been moved to sanctuaries around the world, reflecting …

Trump Lawyer Grills Stormy Daniels, Says She Sought to Profit off Story of Sex

Trump Lawyer Grills Stormy Daniels, Says She Sought to Profit off Story of Sex

By Luc Cohen and Jody Godoy NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s lawyer accused porn star Stormy Daniels of profiting off her story they had sex in 2006, part of an effort to undermine her credibility as a witness in the first criminal trial of a sitting or former U.S. president.  Daniels’ unflattering account of a sexual encounter with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite in 2006 riveted jurors on Tuesday, reminding U.S. voters of the more lurid aspects of his 2017-2021 presidency as he campaigns to win back the White House this year. Trump, 77, is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Daniels, 45, for her silence ahead of the 2016 election about the alleged encounter. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies ever having sex with Daniels. His lawyer Susan Necheles showed jurors Daniels’ social media posts advertising merchandise on her online store around the time Trump had been charged last year. The merchandise included a “Stormy Saint of …

Rivian (RIVN) Q1 results – revenue beat, earnings miss, Q4 profit reaffirmed

Rivian (RIVN) Q1 results – revenue beat, earnings miss, Q4 profit reaffirmed

Rivian production at its Normal, Ill facility (Source: Rivian) Rivian has released its Q1 2024 results, slightly beating analyst estimates on revenue, which grew sharply year-over-year, but with wider losses than expected and only slight gross margin improvement as it still hopes to turn some quarterly profit by the end of the year. Electric truck maker Rivian announced its results after the bell today, capping off a quarter that has seen difficulty for some EV makers. Rivian previously announced that deliveries remained flat between Q4 and Q1 at 13,588 units, but were up 71% since the same quarter last year. Rivian says it achieved 5.1% market share in US EVs in Q1, quite a feat for a company that sells only upmarket vehicles, with the R1S being the best-selling EV over $70k Q1 tends to be a down quarter for vehicle deliveries, so year-over-year numbers are often used – though with EV makers experiencing rapid growth, quarterly numbers can still be useful. Analysts estimated that Rivian would bring in $1.175 billion in revenue this quarter, with …

Reddit predicts surprise core profit in second quarter, shares surge

Reddit predicts surprise core profit in second quarter, shares surge

:Reddit predicted that it could post an adjusted core profit in the second quarter on the back of strong user growth and an uptick in the advertising market, sending its shares up more than 16 per cent in extended trading on Tuesday. The forecast contrasted with Wall Street expectations of a loss. Reporting its first results since going public in March, the company also forecast revenue for the second quarter that was widely above market estimates. Reddit is also trying to diversify revenue by licensing its user-generated content for the training of data-hungry AI models. It signed a deal with Google earlier this year that is worth about $60 million per year. The results follow strong earnings from rivals including Snap and fan optimism that marketers are ramping up spending this year, after an ad market slump in 2023 caused by sticky inflation and an uncertain economic outlook. Reddit said it expects adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization to be between break-even and $15 million in the second quarter, compared with analysts’ estimate …

Disney’s streaming business (sans ESPN+) turns a quarterly profit

Disney’s streaming business (sans ESPN+) turns a quarterly profit

Walt Disney Co. is making massive strides toward turning its streaming business profitable, a milestone that comes none too soon as its traditional TV networks continue to decline. The Burbank media and entertainment giant reported overall streaming business revenue of $6.19 billion for its fiscal second quarter of 2024, up 12% compared with a year earlier. Disney’s streaming business — which includes Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ — reported an operating loss of $18 million for the three-month period that ended March 30, compared with a $659-million operating loss in the same period last year. The company’s “entertainment streaming” business, which consists only of Disney+ and Hulu (and not ESPN+), was profitable for the quarter, notching operating income of $47 million, compared with a loss of $587 million a year earlier. Excluding ESPN+, streaming revenue of $5.64 billion was up 13% from a year earlier. Overall, Disney generated $22.1 billion in revenue that quarter, up 1% from the same period a year earlier. Sales came in roughly in line with analysts’ estimates, according to FactSet. Earnings, …