Research notes: News Corp’s newspaper squeeze tests the subscription story 5 November 2026 | Ivan Massow Method Research included a review of publishing coverage by Noah, a research and forecasting service, alongside the linked company disclosures. Archive leads were checked for the right company, period and measure. Search-result totals were not used as business-performance or public-opinion estimates. No numerical forecast is used. The automatic workflow returned saved forecast targets but did not expose publishable probabilities in its terminal response. No replacement forecasts were commissioned. The full target register and exact return statuses are retained in the private audit. What the figures mean News Corp’s figures cover the quarter ended 30 September 2026, released on 4 November. News Media is a broad segment containing News UK, Australian and US businesses and broadcasting. Its 40% EBITDA decline does not establish a decline in Times standalone profit. Its segment EBITDA is an adjusted measure, not net profit. Times/Sunday Times/TLS subscribers are closing digital counts. Wall Street Journal subscriptions are quarterly averages, with enterprise growth. Neither is a directly comparable count of full-price individual customers. Illustrative corporate pricing in the article is hypothetical. Dow Jones EBITDA divided by revenue: 160/630 = 25.3968%. News Media: 18/540 = 3.3333%. The article rounds these to about 25% and roughly 3% as descriptive arithmetic, not forecast odds. The New York Times’ reported operating profit is a different measure. RELX and Informa report nine-month growth using their own underlying definitions. RELX excludes print and print-related activities among other adjustments. Informa Academic Markets’ 4% excludes non-recurring data contracts. Thomson Reuters’ 8% is organic recurring-revenue growth for its third quarter; Global Print is discontinued and prior-year figures are revised. These are contextual comparisons, not a like-for-like ranking. The Informa explanation about technology customers’ AI spending is attributed to the company. It does not prove an industry-wide causal effect. There is no agreement-specific AI return estimate in the article. Early quotations Robert Thomson, News Corp chief executive: “high quality content is the very essence of AI”. News Corp’s 4 November results statement, in its management commentary about AI and intellectual property. Meredith Kopit Levien, NYT Company president and chief executive: “Subscriber growth was powered by strong engagement and retention across our portfolio.” NYT’s 4 November third-quarter results announcement. This is management’s explanation, not an independent retention study. Neither quotation came from a Tomorrow’s Publisher interview. Sources News Corp: results for the quarter ended 30 September 2026, released 4 November https://investors.newscorp.com/static-files/2942876d-6ced-4968-8ca4-ee03656079c6 News Corp fiscal 2026 annual report: segment scope and professional information products https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1564708/000110465926109973/tm2624691d4_ars.pdf New York Times Company: third-quarter 2026 results and exact quotation https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/71691/000007169126000039/pressrelease9302026.htm Reach: corporate subscription bundle across 25 paid titles, 12 October https://www.reachplc.com/news/2026/reach-launches-corporate-subscription-bundle-offering-premium-access-to-25-titles Reach: third-quarter trading update, 13 October 2026 https://www.reachplc.com/content/dam/reach/corporate/documents/results-and-reports/2026/Q326%20Trading%20update%20Reach%20plc%20131026%20final.docx%20(8).pdf.downloadasset.pdf RELX: nine-month trading update and underlying growth definition, 22 October https://www.relx.com/media/press-releases/year-2026/trading-update-oct Thomson Reuters: third-quarter 2026 results, 3 November https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1075124/000119312526444408/d65855dex991.htm Informa: nine-month trading update, 27 October 2026 https://www.informa.com/media/press-releases-news/latest-news/informa-2026-nine-month-trading-update/