MEDIA

The New York Times Hits a Milestone

Three days without publishing an op-ed that caused a minor earthquake on social media.  

Just kidding, it’s even more monumental than that: For the first time in the paper’s history, the NYT’s digital revenue ($189 million) exceeded print revenue ($175 million) last quarter.

Probably should stop calling it “the paper”

The NYT added 669,000 digital subscribers in Q2, its best quarter for subscription growth ever. It now has 6.5 million total subscriptions across print and digital, with the goal of hitting 10 million by 2025. 

Bezos would be proud: The Times is ruthlessly crushing its peers. 

• Those 669k new subscribers is more than the combined paid online readership of the Boston Globe and the LA Times, per the FT.
• And the beatdown is happening on local news’s home turf. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, the NYT has “more digital subscribers in Dallas-Fort Worth than the Dallas Morning News, more digital subscribers in Seattle than the Seattle Times, more digital subscribers in California than the LA Times or the San Francisco Chronicle.”

How does that happen?

The vast majority of news subscribers only pay for one (1) online subscription, concludes the Reuters Institute, and in the U.S., that’s increasingly the Times.

The company’s been able to attract readers through a variety of strategic investments—in high-quality journalism/talent, games and lifestyle offerings, and multimedia products such as podcasts.

• Take “The Daily,” the NYT’s weekday morning podcast, for example. On the earnings call yesterday, incoming CEO Meredith Kopit Levien said host Michael Barbaro’s luscious voice greets an audience that’s “vastly larger” than the daily or Sunday paper. It gets more than 3.5 million listeners each day. 

Zoom out: The NYT may be king of the news hill, but the view isn’t all that great. The pandemic has walloped advertising revenue across the media industry, and the Times felt it—ad revenue slid 44% and revenue on the whole declined 7.5%.

INTERNATIONAL

“Paris of the Middle East” in Agony

Beirut, the capital of Lebanon and onetime jewel of the Middle East, is convulsing in the aftermath of Tuesday’s gigantic explosion. 

In a word? Heartbreaking. At least 135 people have been killed, over 5,000 injured, and more than 300,000 people displaced from their homes. The city’s bustling waterfront neighborhood was flattened. Minister of Information Dr. Manal Abdel Samad Najd declared a two-week state of emergency, and rescue workers are struggling to search for survivors with no electricity. 

The cause: 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly combustible substance, that had been unloaded at Beirut's port from a Russian cargo ship in 2014. The people of Lebanon are demanding answers from leaders as to why such dangerous material wasn’t treated with more caution. 

• Public records show that Lebanese customs officials wrote to the courts at least six times for help in disposing of the substance...and got no response. 

Bottom line: The outrage rippling through Lebanon reflects not just fury over the explosion, but frustration with decades of government mismanagement.

+ How you can help: Donate to the Lebanese Red Cross or this crowdfunding campaign from Impact Lebanon. 

MARKETS

Surprise Kodak Deal Under Investigation

When people get really rich really quickly it’s natural to get jealous. And then say, “Wait...what?” 

Last week, shares of Eastman Kodak (yes, the camera company) popped as much as 1,481% after it secured a government loan to produce coronavirus drug ingredients. House Democrats launched an investigation yesterday into the circumstances around that deal. The SEC has also launched its own probe, according to the WSJ.

What smells weird? A few things:

• Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren noted “unusual trading activity” before the deal was made public, taking aim specifically at stock purchases made by executive chairman Jim Continenza and another board member in June. 
• The SEC is reportedly looking into Kodak’s disclosure of the news. It sent a media advisory to outlets in Rochester, NY, a day before the public announcement...then asked those outlets to delete the stories. Any small peep about company developments can move markets drastically. 

Important note: These investigations have just kicked off and we don’t know whether they’ll find anything unkosher about the deal. 

SPONSORED BY GOLDMAN SACHS

We Like Our Job, But…

Goldman Sachs is hiring. So even though this is a pretty good gig, we’d be silly not to throw our hat into this particular ring, right?

We know what you’re thinking, what would a venerable financial institution like Goldman Sachs want with a newsletter journalist? Well, that’s the best part, they’re hiring in lots of areas that are not financial. 

Goldman Sachs is seeking people with all types of backgrounds, experiences, interests, and skills. Basically, they want people who can dream big and who are interested in creating a better future. 

As a company dedicated to advancing inclusivity and opportunity, Goldman Sachs knows that culture and teamwork are key. And they want you to be part of that team.

Learn more about the career opportunities at Goldman Sachs here.

APPAREL

The Mask Economy

Hey, everyone needs at least one. 

M&A

Did You Know Blackstone’s Great-Great-Uncle Was Portuguese?

Yesterday, private equity giant Blackstone agreed to buy a majority stake in consumer genealogy company Ancestry.com for $4.7 billion. Ancestry was last valued at about $3 billion in 2017. 

What’s in it for Blackstone: Ancestry has a plethora of data from its at-home DNA tests, which it hopes to use to create additional health products. When talks began a few months ago, Blackstone's leadership was reportedly thinking that people stuck at home would turn to their family trees for entertainment. 

• Blackstone boasts an enormous $156 billion cash pile, which it's recently used to gain footholds in #trending companies like Oatly. 
• The firm is also pushing deep into the life sciences, investing in cholesterol drugs and diabetes devices. 

As for Ancestry, sales have been rolling downhill recently, and in February it had to lay off 100 people, about 6% of its staff. 

Zoom out: For four years, Ancestry has been majority-owned by private equity firm Silver Lake and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC. GIC will reportedly retain about 25%.

HISTORY

75 Years Since Hiroshima

Today marks 75 years since the U.S. dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It killed 80,000 people immediately and tens of thousands more in the aftermath. 

• The U.S. dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki three days later, Aug. 9.
• On Aug. 15, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender for WWII. 

75 years later...global non-proliferation efforts are “in jeopardy,” GZERO Media writes. Russia and the U.S., which account for 90% of the world’s nuclear arsenal, are modernizing their programs, and the New START Treaty (focused on arms reduction) is teetering on the brink of failure. 

GZERO Media

BTW, they've got the best newsletter on global politics. Check it out.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Facebook launched its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels, in the U.S. yesterday.
• Samsung unveiled the latest Galaxy phones at its Unpacked event.
• NYC is setting up checkpoints on entrances to the city to better enforce quarantine measures.
• More than 1 million people in the New York tristate area remain without power after Tropical Storm Isaias ripped through the region Tuesday. Hope everyone is doing okay. 
• UConn became the first major college football program to cancel its upcoming season.

SPONSORED BY GOLDMAN SACHS

If you made it this far in the newsletter, you’ll be glad to know that Goldman Sachs is still hiring. They are still looking for people in all types of fields (engineering, strategy, finance, communications, and more). All you have to do is check out their open jobs and find the one that’s right for you. 

BREW'S BETS

It's baaack: The Brew's style blog is hot off the press, and in this edition Brew grammar guru Eliza Carter is teasing out the big differences between similar-sounding words. Don't miss it.

Very on brand: Countries are best summarized by their corporate income tax schedule description. Don't believe us? See for yourself.

Get in the zone: The 10 best apps to help you stay focused and avoid distractions. Only use after reading Morning Brew.

FROM THE CREW

Strong back-to-school vibes on this week's episodes of Business Casual. Give these two guests a little of your time and you'll never think about higher ed the same way again. 

• Reset college? Maybe. Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig lays out the problems with postsecondary schooling in the U.S. and explains why companies are disincentivized to help their employees pay off their loans. 
• The Big Dog himself NYU Stern professor Scott Galloway is back on the pod to discuss higher ed and does not disappoint. When you see that “explicit” label next to the episode, know that we are not kidding.

Think you know how to fix our current education system or the student loan crisis? Take it up with Kinsey on Twitter.

NUCLEAR TRIVIA

The Manhattan Project was the code name for the American effort to produce nuclear weapons during WWII. At its peak, how many people did the project employ?

NUCLEAR TRIVIA ANSWER

More than 130,000