Quick take:
- A recent report by Press Gazette UK has revealed that news publishers made nearly $12 million from NFTs over the last 12 months.
- According to the report, Time Magazine led the charts with $10 million in proceeds related to Web3 initiatives.
- New York Times, The Economist, and Forbes also made hundreds of thousands of dollars, redirected to charitable organisations.
The Press Gazette Uk has published a report showing that news publishers earned nearly $12 million from NFTs over the last 12 months. The report analysed data beginning March last year highlighting some of the top NFT projects announced by leading players.
Although a majority of the publishers redirected the proceeds from NFT-related initiatives to charitable courses, some had other ideas. According to the report, Time Magazine, which wasn’t among the companies sending their NFT sales to charity organisations earned $10 million from Web3 initiatives.
Although the US magazine publisher never published the exact sale proceeds figure from NFTs, it mentioned in January that it had generated in excess of 8-figure of revenue from Web3 initiatives.
The company even proceeded to create a new division to handle all things related to NFTs, with Keith Grossman taking charge.
Time began its Web3 campaign in March last year via an auction of three tokens of front covers. The company reportedly netted $435,000 from the auction based on the ETH price at the time.
It also reportedly managed 100 NFT sales in January, generating $70,000 in collective revenue according to Press Gazette’s own research.
The report also highlights the New York Times “technology columnist Kevin Roose who auctioned an NFT of one of his own columns – titled “Buy This Column on the Blockchain!” for $560,000 (350 ETH-at the time) after initially listing it for just 0.5 ETH. The funds were donated to the NYT’s Neediest Cases Fund.
Elsewhere, The Economist’s Alice in Wonderland cover sold for 99.9 ETH in October last year, an equivalent of $420,000 at the time. Although the publisher will continue to receive 10% of all future resales, proceeds from the primary sale were donated to the Economist Educational Foundation, an independent charitable organisation that teaches young people how to analyse current affairs.
On the other hand, Forbes, which recently announced the Virtual Billionaires NFT Collection, auctioned the “Merchants of the Metaverse” token for $408,000. The proceeds were donated to the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Women’s Media Foundation.
Other notable publishers that have made significant earnings from NFT include the South China Morning Post, which raked in $130,000, while CNN made $329,700. Both companies did not declare whether the proceeds were donated to a charitable organisation.
The Associated Press and Quartz Magazine are also among the leading players in the news publishing industry to launch their NFT campaigns.
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