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posted by martyb on Monday September 17 2018, @06:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the AOL-Time-Warner dept.

Phys.org:

Time Magazine is being sold by Meredith Corp. to Marc Benioff, a co-founder of Salesforce, and his wife, it was announced Sunday.

Meredith announced that it was selling Time magazine for $190 million in cash to Benioff, one of four co-founders of Salesforce, a cloud computing pioneer.

Meredith had completed the purchase of Time along with other publications of Time Inc. earlier this year.

The Benioffs are purchasing Time personally, and the transaction is unrelated to Salesforce.com, where Benioff is chairman and co-CEO and co-founder. The announcement by Meredith said that the Benioffs would not be involved in the day-to-day operations or journalistic decisions at Time. Those decisions will continue to be made by Time's current executive leadership team, the announcement said.

Tech wealth continues to swallow up old media. Will old media improve?


Original Submission

Related Stories

Billionaires Wanted to Save the News Industry. They’re Losing a Fortune. 41 comments

There's an old saying about the news business: If you want to make a small fortune, start with a large one:

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.

[...] But it increasingly looks like the billionaires are struggling just like nearly everyone else. Time, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times all lost millions of dollars last year, people with knowledge of the companies' finances have said, after considerable investment from their owners and intensive efforts to drum up new revenue streams.

[...] 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.

[...] Mr. Bezos hasn't fared much better at The Washington Post. Like many news organizations, The Post has struggled to hold onto the momentum it gained in the wake of the 2020 election. Sagging subscriptions and advertising revenue led to losses of about $100 million last year. At the end of the year, the company eliminated 240 of its 2,500 jobs through buyouts, including some of its well-regarded journalists.

[...] Time is facing similar headwinds. The publication lost around $20 million in 2023, according to two people with knowledge of the publication's financial picture. Time has weighed cutting costs in the first quarter of the year to help offset some of the losses, one of the people said.

Related:


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Monday September 17 2018, @07:21PM (17 children)

    by suburbanitemediocrity (6844) on Monday September 17 2018, @07:21PM (#736131)

    and why should I care?

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Monday September 17 2018, @07:32PM (13 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday September 17 2018, @07:32PM (#736139) Journal

      Because you're the 2006 TIME Person of the Year. Yes, you.

      --
      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 1) by Scottingham on Monday September 17 2018, @07:47PM

        by Scottingham (5593) on Monday September 17 2018, @07:47PM (#736147)

        I'm going to put that on my resume. When the look it up, it'll be priceless! I may not get the job, but I'll have fun in the meantime.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Monday September 17 2018, @07:49PM (9 children)

        by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday September 17 2018, @07:49PM (#736150) Homepage Journal

        Time Magazine called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named "Man (Person) of the Year," like 2016, but I would have to agree to an interview and a MAJOR photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!

        You know, Time Magazine, they were both nice and a little bit wise guy in 2016. They gave me the "Person of the Year." It used to be the "Man of the Year." Now it's "Person of the Year." That's good. They're politically correct. They were very politically correct.

        • (Score: 2, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday September 18 2018, @09:54AM (8 children)

          by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Tuesday September 18 2018, @09:54AM (#736445) Homepage Journal

          Spam Modders are OUT OF CONTROL. Sad!

          • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 18 2018, @03:11PM (7 children)

            by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday September 18 2018, @03:11PM (#736543) Homepage Journal

            If you knew how rare a bad Spam mod was, you'd know why I'm about to mod you Funny. We have had more than our usual share of them this month though. Almost half a dozen.

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
            • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday September 18 2018, @09:17PM (6 children)

              by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Tuesday September 18 2018, @09:17PM (#736736) Homepage Journal

              Thank you, TMB!!! And thank you for taking away Spam Mods. If that was you. Big waste of your time. Because Spam Modding doesn't work. As I've said many times. You've got this person doing the baby rape tweets, the child rape & murder tweets. That nobody wants to see. That one gets so many Spam Mods. But she -- or he -- keeps tweeting. Possibly to make it hard for other folks to tweet!!!

              • (Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 18 2018, @09:49PM (5 children)

                by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday September 18 2018, @09:49PM (#736756) Homepage Journal

                Oh we know exactly who's doing those posts. We haven't done anything about them because the community member posting them is keeping them to a tolerable level that's better handled via moderation. If it gets to a level where we have to get involved it'll entail badness for all their registered accounts as well; they'd basically be ruining their own fun.

                --
                My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday September 18 2018, @11:08PM (4 children)

                  by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Tuesday September 18 2018, @11:08PM (#736801) Homepage Journal

                  You thought it was me. Back in February. Sounded like, you thought it was me. Like you thought, "oh, that's gotta be Donald J. Trump, he loves to rape & murder babies" (I don't). You didn't say that, maybe you were thinking that. And decided those were my tweets. 100% WRONG. And possibly you still think it's me, possibly you're telling me that in a very NICE way. Sounds nice, it's still wrong. Or, possibly you decided it's somebody else. But you were wrong in February. You thought you knew, you didn't know. So I wonder if you really know now. And if you don't know, the cyber doesn't know. The cyber, the AI is VERY DUMB. You had a story at the beginning of the month about, "AI Sucks." Where it can't tell, is this person wearing clothes or not? You wear a pink shirt -- in Florida I wear pink -- the AI decides you're naked. And somebody said, the baby rape person WANTS a lot of Spam Mods. Because the cyber can't tell that person from anyone else. So other folks get banned. Because the IP Karma doesn't just go to that one person. You said yourself, there's a bunch of accounts. That you think are one person. Maybe they are and maybe they aren't. And you're talking about, you can ban a bunch of accounts. Which, you absolutely can. But then, the baby rape person wins!!!!

                  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday September 18 2018, @11:19PM (3 children)

                    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday September 18 2018, @11:19PM (#736807) Homepage Journal

                    I'd suggest having a wood shed build out past the rose garden then, so you can take Barron out to it.

                    --
                    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                    • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday September 18 2018, @11:35PM (2 children)

                      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Tuesday September 18 2018, @11:35PM (#736815) Homepage Journal

                      Barron, he's 12. I don't rape babies. And I don't rape boys. VERY VERY NOT NICE thing to say!!!

                      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday September 19 2018, @10:50AM (1 child)

                        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday September 19 2018, @10:50AM (#736972) Homepage Journal

                        I was talking about taking a belt to his ass as punctuation to a lecture about being a little shithead on the Internet. You should see someone about that rape fascination you have going there. I mean, as rich and powerful as you are, you should basically be able to just go up to a woman and grab them by the pussy.

                        --
                        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                        • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday September 27 2018, @12:45AM

                          by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Thursday September 27 2018, @12:45AM (#740555) Homepage Journal

                          My sons are wonderful young men. I've always given them the best -- best nanny (very gun-adept), best schools, best everything. I guarantee you it's not them tweeting.

                          But maybe it's someone in my Administration. We're looking very hard for the VERY DISLOYAL person that wrote that horrible editorial.

                          Don't fall for the Dem con game. For their big, fat con job. Look what they're doing to Brett, one of the highest quality people that I have ever met. These are false accusations. If they get away with that, it can happen to any of us!!!

      • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @08:54PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @08:54PM (#736177)

        What a bizarre sight. Having never witnessed something so strange before, little Eric could only stare blankly as the man slithered towards him. Yes, that's right: "slithered."

        A man was lying face-first on the sidewalk and somehow slithering towards the boy like a snake. This man, who was bald and obese, did not appear to be in any pain, despite the fact that he was sliding across rough cement. Just what was going on here? As little Eric was pondering that very question, he did not even notice that the man's head had bumped into his feet. Then, in accordance with the man's iron will, everything changed.

        Several separate but simultaneous changes happened in an instant. One, Eric's body was instantly repositioned such that he was lying face-first on the sidewalk. Two, all of Eric's clothing vanished. Three, Eric could no longer move, as if he was paralyzed. Startled by these sudden events, Eric barely noticed that the man had slithered on top of his body. Or, at least, he didn't notice until it entered his body...

        "No! Stoooooooooooop! It huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurts!" Eric screamed. A hard, thick object had entered the boy's anus. This object was rapidly being slammed into and then pulled out of Eric's hole. Even the word "brutal" would be an understatement here; it was as if the kid's anus was being torn apart, to the point where it was bleeding profusely. Although the boy screamed for mercy, the man said nothing and simply continued pumping.

        Yes, he pumped. The man pumped even when Eric screamed. The man pumped even when Eric sustained several anal fissures. The man pumped, until everything was squirted inside. And then, it was over.

        For a moment, and even though he was still in massive pain, Eric was relieved. Perhaps the man had finally been satisfied, and he would leave the boy alone. Indeed, the man had no further interest in Eric, having utilized the boy thoroughly. However, as the man was slithering off of Eric's body, the kid's head snagged on one of the man's many fat rolls and his neck snapped instantly. That was the end of little Eric.

        The man slithered into the sunset without a care in the world. His destination was a world in which freedom prevailed. For without freedom - without men's rights - all would be lost.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @05:47AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @05:47AM (#736398)

        *golf clap*

    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday September 17 2018, @07:47PM (2 children)

      by Freeman (732) on Monday September 17 2018, @07:47PM (#736148) Journal

      A magazine is like an out-dated website, printed on dead trees, using possibly toxic ink.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @08:14PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @08:14PM (#736158)

        Magazines were outdated newspapers back in the day, but their role was to investigate stories in depth. That's not the role mainstream American journalism sees itself in anymore. Nowadays it's all about the best zinger, the best diss and the most "likes" and retweets.

        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday September 17 2018, @08:24PM

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 17 2018, @08:24PM (#736160)

          Carefully curated picture-books is another genre.

          Pr0n is self organizing by the community, mostly, so pr0n mags are no longer needed, just go to the subreddit of your choice. Rumor has it that 99% of reddit traffic is pr0n, then the remainder is 99% freaky SJW degeneracy, but theres just so much traffic theres supposedly real communities out there. I followed /r/mechanical_keyboards or whatever it was called for awhile, but there's no way to sustain interest past the first thousand posts. I'm typing this at 100WPM on a genuine original equipment model M plugged into a USB converter (not adapter, back in the old days adapters didn't work) and that goes into a switchbox into mutiple machines on my desk.

          Some hobbies benefit from editing and quality pictures; think of stereotypical crafty stuff.

          The biggest problem for "the magazine of XYZ" is the pyramid shape of craft XYZ skills means its pretty unlikely to have long term readers unless its a VERY wide base to pull from. So fine woodworking in the sense of "we send you new plans every month" and ham radio in the sense of "technology changes faster than people can get sick of reading about the old stuff" are OK.

          I have a bookshelf with every issue of Make magazine ever produced, its a couple feet. Kinda interesting when I'm bored to pull an issue out and re-read it.

  • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @07:48PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @07:48PM (#736149)

    I happened to be in B&N and saw Time magazine in the stands there. Two levels above the new Mad Magazine. It had a caricature of a fat man's body floating in a flooded room. Obviously Trump.

    For some of the younger people here, Time magazine used to be one of the iconic weekly news magazines in the United States, back when journalism involved cultivating an adversarial relationship with the government by seeking out the truth, yet not conspiring with other forces in the establishment to incite opinion against the duly elected president of this country with innuendo and running anonymous admissions of disloyalty from members of his staff.

    I knew Newsweek got rebooted, I didn't know Time had fallen so low to be sold off to yet another Internet millionaire.

    • (Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday September 17 2018, @09:33PM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Monday September 17 2018, @09:33PM (#736209) Homepage

      I used to love Newsweek even though in retrospect there was a lot of neocon in the geopolitics. If Newsweek were like its old self, then I would shell out the money to buy hard-copies.

      Then they went full Conde Nast: Half the magazine is ads and the remaining half is pop-culture bullshit and TV/Movie reviews.

      Thank Jesus Christ for nationalinterest.org. [nationalinterest.org]

      Anyway, as far as Time goes, there won't be much difference in the content since it and all others like it already went full open-borders libtard over a decade ago. Guess it just needed a maintainer, like when CIA Bezos took over the globalist neocon mouthpiece the Washington Post because Trump cut its Afghan heroin funding.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Monday September 17 2018, @09:34PM (3 children)

      by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday September 17 2018, @09:34PM (#736210)

      I'm old enough to remember a time when the President of the United States was competent enough that his staff did not feel the need to conspire against him.

      I am also old enough to remember a time when the President of the United States demanded loyalty to the United States, not personal loyalty to the actual President.

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @09:45PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @09:45PM (#736220)

        Woah. Another immortal! What was George Washington like? Did you get to meet him?

        • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday September 18 2018, @12:48AM

          by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Tuesday September 18 2018, @12:48AM (#736313)

          He was alright I suppose. Wouldn't shut up about some apple tree, but he had nice teeth.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @03:07AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 18 2018, @03:07AM (#736359)

        As long as the United States have existed, the president has had the executive power vested in his person. The president is the boss of the entire executive branch, so his subordinates do owe him loyalty (besides of course working for the good of the country). If his staff are disloyal, he can can them. Congress has tried to interfere in the past with measures like the "Tenure of Office Act, as a result of which President Andrew Johnson got impeached after firing a congressional mole in his cabinet. But by the time of publication of my copy of Magruder's American Civics, the personnel authority of the president was only curtailed in departments that were rule-making and not purely executive in character.

  • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday September 17 2018, @09:18PM (1 child)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Monday September 17 2018, @09:18PM (#736195) Journal

    And I didn't know old media needed improvement. Unless you're speaking of old media returning to its roots of being more about journalism and less about entertainment.

    --
    This sig for rent.
    • (Score: 2) by arslan on Tuesday September 18 2018, @05:50AM

      by arslan (3462) on Tuesday September 18 2018, @05:50AM (#736400)

      It is code word for the uber rich. They use media as an outlet to push their private agenda. Once your rich beyond a threshold, it is all about power and influence. Buying a media outlet is probably in the handbook under the quick and easy win section.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @09:58PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @09:58PM (#736227)

    all of those story links will probably vanish now like usual when one company gobbles up another.

    These guys know their stuff:

    https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/ [reddit.com]

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