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Gannett to stop Saturday print editions at 136 newspapers — www.bizjournals.com

I'm not going to lie, this story confused me a little. I've always viewed publishers' plans to cut daily print editions but continue printing weekend editions as smart.

We're in a hurry during the week and a quick hit of digital news makes sense. Weekends on the other hand are for leaning back - perfect for long-form print features in a bigger paper that I'm willing to pay more for.

So this report that Gannett is killing off more than 130 weekend titles struck me as a counter intuitive. Why give up on the opportunity to create a lux print experience? Unless of course weekend sales are so low that ditching the legacy cost is the only option. If that's the case it doesn't bode well for weekday print.

Pharma billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong wants LA Times to be his ‘family legacy’ — pressgazette.co.uk

Press Gazette has been talking to LA Times owner Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong. It's been four years since the pharmaceutical tycoon spent $500 million to buy his local newspaper, the Los Angeles Times. The interview covers that original price point, his intentions to hold on to the title, and plans to turn the paper into a platform.

The inside story of Politics for All, Twitter’s infamous UK news account — www.vice.com

This long-read from Vice about the rise and fall of Politics for All is terrifying and (whisper it) maybe just a little bit inspiring. Marie Le Conte tells how the social media brand started by a teenager grew to have half-a-million followers only to be suspended last week by Twitter for 'platform manipulation and spam'.

The year in subscriptions: Platforms and publishers benefitted from steady growth in consumers paying for content — voices.media

2020 saw many publishers enjoy Covid-induced waves of new subscribers. But as life slowly returns to normal, attention is now turning to clever retention tactics. Esther Kezia Thorpe rounds up the past twelve months in subscriptions as part of our Media Moments 2021 report.

This week's podcast:

We're releasing the first episode of 2022 on Jan 17th; a special looking at local news start-ups in the US and what they need to become sustainable. In the meantime, here's a throwback from last year:

Editor and publisher of Freelancer magazine Sophie Cross on the joys of launching an indie mag — voices.media

I've just seen an email from Sophie saying she'll be sending out issue four of Freelancer Magazine at the end of this month and thought that was as good a reason as any to resurface the interview I did with her not long after her first issue landed.

Buy the Media Voices team a virtual coffee — ko-fi.com

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