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Dana E. Neuts

Dana Neuts is Subscription Insider's Editorial Director, covering our daily subscription news as well as member features, case studies, premium content, and reports. Dana is also a writer, editor, marketer and communications professional. Her work has appeared in AARP Bulletin, The Seattle Times, Seattle Business, 425 Business, 425 Magazine, South Sound Magazine, Northwest Travel and more. Her specialties include business writing, community news, senior issues, travel and, of course, subscriptions!

Dana E. Neuts

The Dallas Morning News Lays Off 43 Employees

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The Dallas Morning News is attempting to position itself for financial success in the new year, by laying off 43 employees from its newsroom and other sections of the company, reports Maria Halkias for the newspaper. The cuts represent about 4.0 percent of total staff and include about 20 writers, editors, photographers and newsroom support staff. Among the cuts are beat reporters and administrative staff who were surprised by the layoffs, says WFAA, Channel 8 for ABC, who talked with several of the laid off workers in this interview.

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National Geographic Learning to Launch Subscriptions for High Schools

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National Geographic Learning, a division of Cengage, announced yesterday that it was launching a first-of-its-kind subscription service for high schools course materials. The new service is called Pathways, and it offers a curated collection of online educational programs for more than 200 career and technical education (CTE) and advanced placement (AP), honors and elective courses and nearly 70 programs to prepare students for college, said the company in a news release.

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Arkansas Life Magazine Makes Desperate Plea for New Subscribers

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In a letter that accompanied its January issue, the publisher of Arkansas Life, a monthly lifestyle magazine, said the publication will cease if a “substantial number of paid subscribers aren’t found in the next two weeks.” The magazine’s subscription rate is $20 per year, and new subscribers have until January 15 to pay by credit card. Arkansas Life, which has been published since 2008, employs four who can apply for openings at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette if the magazine folds.

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Weekly Subscription News: ProRata, Pearl Jam and Political Ads

Business Operations, Business Services, Consumer Services, Entertainment and Streaming, Mergers and Acquisitions, News, Payment Processing, Product Development, Regulation and Compliance, Revenue and Sales, SaaS and Cloud Services, Subscription Apps, Subscription Business Marketing /

We may be just days into the new year, but the subscription economy is going strong with headlines around the globe. Here are a few we thought were interesting: Instagram releases a test update en masse, causing serious frustration among users, and Chargify acquires revenue recognition software ProRata. Also this week, Pearl Jam is canceling its subscription service, Facebook may be developing cryptocurrency for WhatsApp transfers, and Google and Facebook settle complaints over its political ads.

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Roku to Add 25+ Premium Subscriptions to The Roku Channel Line-Up

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Happy New Year from Roku! On Wednesday, the streaming TV interface announced it would soon be expanding content on The Roku Channel to include more than 25 premium subscriptions such as SHOWTIME, Starz, College Humor’s DROPOUT, CuriosityStream and EPIX. In addition to more than 10,000 free ad-supported movies and TV shows, Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU) users will be able to find all their favorite programs in one spot, complete with personalized recommendations.

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Five on Friday: Micropayments, Content Marketing and OTT Ad Fraud

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To help get your new year off to a good start, weve got some great information about subscriptions, payments and ad fraud for you. In this weeks Five on Friday, PaymentsJournal explores ways publishers can overcome objections to paying for media with micropayments, Pixalate shares its estimates about the potential for over-the-top TV ad fraud new year, Business2Community shares 2019 content marketing trends, Computerworld looks at what Microsoft could be looking at for Windows 10 subscriptions, and Your Story explains how focusing on subscribers, not products, will make for a better business model.

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Netflix Pulls the Plug on iTunes Billing for New Subscribers

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If you’re an iOS user and are considering a Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) subscription in the new year, or a canceled subscriber who wants to re-up, you won’t be able to make your monthly subscription payments via iTunes. According to TechCrunch, in 2018, Netflix conducted a two-month test in 33 countries across Europe, Latin America and Asia to see if omitting the payment option would be a deal breaker for new customers. Apparently not. Netflix told Venture Beat the change will be permanent and global. Netflix’s FAQ page has been updated to reflect this change.

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Meredith Completes Sale of FORTUNE for $150 Million Cash

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Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP) is starting the new year with $150 million of new cash in its pocket, after closing the sale of FORTUNE magazine and the FORTUNE brand. FORTUNE was purchased by Fortune Media Group Holdings Limited, owned by investor Chatchaval Jiaravanon. Meredith first announced the sale on November 9. When the initial announcement was made, Jiaravanon said he would invest in FORTUNE’s digital capabilities, expand geographically and invest in editorial talent.

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AMC Theatres’ Movie Subscription Program Grows to 600K Members

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AMC Theatres is ending the year on a high note, boasting more than 600,000 members in its AMC Stubs A-List movie membership program. The program officially launched on June 26, 2018 and, at that time, AMC Theatres estimated it would hit 500,000 subscribers by the end of its first full year. The membership program has exceeded the company’s expectations, however, hitting its first-year goal in less than five months and adding another 100,000 members in the final six weeks of the year.

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Weekly Subscription News: Autos, Air Fleets and iPhones

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In this week’s subscription round-up, Netflix will overtake Sky’s satellite TV subscriptions by the end of this year, Apple is in trouble for sending unwanted, promotional push notifications, and CNN warns FedEx and UPS to watch out because Amazon is growing its air fleet again. Also this week, Elton John and Quincy Jones are working on a vinyl subscription service, and Avanan raises $25 million in funding. …

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