US Supreme Court to Eye FCC Media Ownership Rules
Reuters: The US Supreme Court said on Friday it will take up a long-running legal dispute over whether the Federal Communications Commission can loosen US media ownership rules. A lower court has thwarted the FCC's efforts to revise the rules since 2003 in a series of...
AT&T Chief Mulls Possible Divestitures at WarnerMedia
Wall Street Journal: AT&T CEO John Stankey is working to convince investors that the deal making executives pursued to fortify AT&T in lean times won’t end up weighing it down. Stankey is in the meantime scanning assets for potential divestiture. “There’s...
MGM Delays Release of James Bond Film to April 2021
Bloomberg: The next big Hollywood movie release, MGM's James Bond flick "No Time to Die," is being delayed until next year, a result of the woeful economics that studios are facing because of the pandemic. "No Time to Die," starring Daniel Craig, will now be released...
Netflix Social-Media Film Stirs Rebuttal from Facebook
CNBC: Facebook on Friday offered a rebuttal to the hit Netflix documentary-drama, “The Social Dilemma.” The movie revealed, perhaps for the first time to some viewers, how social networks use algorithms to keep people coming back. Some viewers said they were deleting...
Comcast Launches News Shows for Streamer Peacock
Mediaite: Peacock announced two news shows featuring political commentators Mehdi Hasan and Zerlina Maxwell set to launch on October 5. “Zerlina” will air weekdays at 6:00 pm and “The Mehdi Hasan Show” will follow right after at 7:00 pm on Peacock’s latest news...
Vice Media Names Ogilvy Veteran for Marketing Officer
Variety: Vice Media has named Nadja Bellan-White, an ad agency and marketing exec with more than two decades of experience, to lead its brand-storytelling efforts globally. Bellan-White, previously based in the UK, will work from Vice’s Brooklyn headquarters and will...
New York Times Under Fire For Trump Diagnosis Story
Fox News: The New York Times was slammed on Friday for suggesting that President T rump might not be able to remain on the ballot following his positive coronavirus test. While many critics have sent the president well wishes, the Gray Lady was quick to float the idea...
McClatchy Taps Veteran for President of Miami Herald
Miami Herald: Nancy Meyer will join the Miami Herald as president, McClatchy announced Friday. She will be responsible for the business operations of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald. A media industry veteran with nearly two decades of experience, Meyer has worked...
Hearst Erects Paywall for Community News in Houston
Chron: Local news coverage from 12 suburban newspapers serving more than half a million homes in the greater Houston area has a new home on HoustonChronicle.com, the exclusive subscriber website of the Houston Chronicle. The coverage appeared previously on the...
Conde Nast Reveals 75% of Senior Leadership is White
Digiday: Last month Conde Nast released its first ever diversity and inclusion report which showed the legacy magazine publisher, like so many other large media companies, has a diversity imbalance, particularly in upper management. Per the report, at least 75% of...
Maven Ends Publisher Guarantees at Sports Illustrated
Awful Announcing: New CEO Ross Levinsohn has brought in some dramatic changes for Maven's independent publishers, including the publishers of the Sports Illustrated team sites. Changes involve removing guaranteed payouts, switching the publishers to a fully...
American Media Shutters 60-Year-Old Surfer Magazine
Surfer Today: Surfer Magazine has announced the end of its regular print editions. It's the end of the surfing's golden era. Todd Prodanovich, editor-in-chief of Surfer magazine, revealed that issue number three of volume 61 will be the legendary publication's...
Roundup: Media Enjoy ‘2020 Moment’ Despite Job Cuts
Axios: It's easy to dog the media. But stop for a second and reflect on everything we know thanks to the media — and often the media alone. It was the media that gave light to the negligence of White House officials in containing the coronavirus. It was Bloomberg's...
Analysis: Trust Falls as Trump Era Sires ‘Media Remora’
Air Mail: A number of media professionals and outlets have been enriched by trashing President Trump — or sucking up to him. They are the remora of the Trump swamp — fishy creatures who attach themselves to bigger fish. The question many of them should be asking now...
Twitter: Trump Tweets Covid News, Then Media Tweet
CNN: President Trump tweeted early Friday that he and his wife both tested positive for the coronavirus, an extraordinary development coming months into a global pandemic. TheWrap: Media and entertainment figures tweeted their reactions to the...
Alphabet’s Google to Pay $1 Billion for News Content
Bloomberg: Google will start paying select media outlets to display curated content on its news app in a concession to the industry which has accused tech giants of unfairly using content for years. The company has set aside more than $1 billion to cover the program's...
Facebook Tightens Political Ad Ban as Election Nears
Associated Press: Facebook has expanded restrictions on political advertising, including new bans on messages claiming widespread voter fraud. Banned ads "would include calling a method of voting inherently fraudulent or corrupt, or using isolated incidents of voter...
Comcast, Fox Corp Eye Ad Windfall from US Election
Reuters: Television news networks will benefit from a US presidential race that may not be decided on election night. A drawn-out, nail-biter of an election could appeal to marketers like the finance, technology, retail, social media and entertainment companies that...
Fox Corp Former News Host in New Hush-Money Flap
Mediaite: Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former Fox News host, was reportedly forced out of the network in 2018 after she faced an internal review over lurid allegations about sexual harassment from her former assistant. Fox paid her assistant "upward of $4 million" to...
Disney Chief Exits California Task Force Amid Layoffs
Sacramento Bee: Bob Iger has quit California Gov. Gavin Newsom's economic recovery task force. A Disney spokesperson would not say why or precisely when the Disney chairman left the task force, but the news comes as the Newsom administration is preparing to release...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia Rejiggers Team of Global Execs
Hollywood Reporter: Gerhard Zeiler, head of international at WarnerMedia, has moved to make good on a promise to integrate the entertainment company's businesses outside the US and bring them together as "One WarnerMedia International," rounding out his leadership...
Disney Forecast to Double Streaming Payers by 2024
MediaPost: Disney+ is projected to double its subscriber growth in four years, according to MoffettNathanson Research, to reach 159 million subscribers worldwide. Bloomberg: Disney+ gets its first big test of subscriber loyalty next month, when a free trial with...
Comcast’s NBC Readies Opinion Offering for Peacock
Wall Street Journal: MSNBC has underperformed rivals CNN and Fox News as Covid-19 and national protests overshadowed political news. A streaming channel is said to be in the works for NBCUniversal's Peacock service that would be devoted to progressive opinion...
Vice Media Assures Staffers of No Ties to Proud Boys
The Wrap: Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc emailed her global staff to assure them that Vice founder Gavin McInnes — who also launched the Proud Boys — no longer has anything to do with the company. Her email came after President Trump mentioned the group during the...
IAC’s Barry Diller Says Staffers Don’t Want to Return
Fox Business: On Labor Day, when IAC's New York headquarters was reopened, the company's 750 employees were given the option to come back to the building and only about 5% returned to the office. "If you give people the choice, they're going to say, 'No. I am working...
Quibi’s Slow Start Pressures Founder to Boost Cash
Bloomberg: By compiling Quibi's statements about content spending, advertising, subscribers and more, a picture emerges of a company headed for financial distress after a tough first year. In one scenario, if little changes, the company faces a funding shortfall of...
FuboTV Sports Streamer Files to Go Public on NYSE
Fast Company: FuboTV has filed for a public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. The sports-focused streaming service, first launched in 2015 as a way to watch soccer games without cable, has been rapidly growing its subscriber count in recent years, despite a...
Playboy Inks Deal to Go Public Again Within 90 Days
Wall Street Journal: Playboy plans to go public again after being acquired by a blank-check firm, a deal that valued the brand made famous by its iconic adult magazine at $415 million. Playboy will return to the public markets by merging with Mountain Crest...
Gannett Sells Data Firm to Location-Marketing Vendor
MediaPost: Gannett has sold its location-marketing platform SweetIQ to Uberall, which will become the exclusive location-marketing vendor for Gannett's digital agency ReachLocal. Gannett purchased SweetIQ in 2017. "There's meaningful benefit for Gannett...
News Corp CEO Praises Google’s Plan to Pay for News
Business Wire: News Corp CEO Robert Thomson has commented on Google's announcement regarding partnerships with news publishers: "We applaud Google's recognition of a premium for premium journalism and the understanding that the editorial eco-system has been...