Penske Media May Cut Ties with Founder of Rolling Stone
New York Post: Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone magazine, could sever ties with the publication after his current contract expires. New York Post: Penske Media's Variety-Hollywood Reporter deal will result in hefty...
Bustle Digital Pitches to Investors with Bullish Forecast
WWD: Bustle Digital Group, the publisher of Bustle, Nylon and Mic, appears to be pitching potential investors amid the pandemic. In its quest, BDG is understood to have shared bullish forecasts, projecting revenues of $121 million and gross profit of $92 million,...
G/O Media Names Hearst Veteran as Technology Officer
PR Newswire: G/O Media has named former Hearst Magazines technology executive Michael Dugan as chief technology officer. Dugan will lead all technology operations, covering development, IT, product and QA efforts across G/O Media's portfolio of...
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter in Ad Pact on Hate Speech
BBC News: Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have agreed to a deal with major advertisers on how they define harmful content. The agreement will see the social networks use common definitions for things such as hate speech, aggression and bullying....
Alphabet Plans Hybrid Work-at-Home Models at Google
CNBC: Google is rethinking its long-term work options for employees, as most of them say they don't want to come back to the office full-time. Sixty-two percent of Google employees want to return to their offices at some point, but not every...
Disney Hits Pause on Major Films Amid Covid Concerns
Los Angeles Times: In another setback for theaters, Disney has delayed the release of its highly anticipated Marvel Studios film “Black Widow” until next year, amid concerns about the global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on...
Fox Corp’s Murdochs Take Pay Cut in Nod to Pandemic
Deadline: Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch's compensation totaled $29.15 million for the fiscal year ended in June, down sharply from $42.11 million the year before. His dad, chairman Rupert Murdoch, took home $33.98 million, also below the $42.16 million for fiscal...
ViacomCBS to Keep Showtime as Standalone Streamer
Wall Street Journal: When ViacomCBS unveiled plans last week to launch supersize streaming service Paramount+, something was missing: Showtime. The omission set off a round of speculation about the fate of the premium...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia to Shutter BuzzFeed Rival at CNN
New York Post: CNN is shuttering Great Big Story, the digital video company it launched in 2015. The short-form video network was billed as a way for CNN to reach a younger generation and compete with digital rivals like Vice and...
Quibi Faces Short List of Potential Buyers, Experts Say
Business Insider: Experts have varying views on who might buy Quibi, but all agree it is a hard sell right now. Potential buyers include a telecom like T-Mobile, a content creator like Disney, or a streaming-music company dabbling in video like Spotify....
DAZN Sells Sports Websites to TPG’s Integrated Media
Sports Business: DAZN Group has finalized an agreement to sell a majority stake in its digital football-focused platforms, including Goal.com, to Integrated Media Company, a venture backed by US-based private equity firm TPG...
New York Times’s Sulzberger to Hand Chief Role to Son
New York Post: Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr. is retiring as chairman of the New York Times Co. at year-end and passing the reins to his 40-year-old son A.G. Sulzberger. Pinch, 69, already passed down the publisher's job to A.G. in...
Tribune Apologizes for Fake Offer in Staff Phishing Test
Washington Post: There are few places in media where the dangling of a phony bonus would receive a worse reception than at Tribune Publishing. Employees of the newspaper colossus have been subjected to furloughs, pay cuts andthe closure of their shared...
Washington Post Details Reporting on Hacked Materials
Vanity Fair: Top editor Marty Baron outlined five "principles for covering potential hacked or leaked material ahead of the election," in a memo to the Washington Post newsroom. Baron urged his journalists to slow down in handling leaks and beware of echoing...
Penske Media Rounds Up Hollywood Trade Publications
Next TV: The owners of Variety and The Hollywood Reporter announced a joint venture that effectively merges the two oldest and biggest show business trade publications, housing them in a joint venture controlled by Variety owner Penske...
Conde Nast Names New Editor at LGBTQ+ Digital Brand
Fashion Week Daily: Whembley Sewell has been promoted to editor in chief of Conde Nast’s online magazine Them. In her new role, Sewell will continue to expand the brand's creation of content for the queer community. Sewell was most recently executive...
Time Magazine’s 100 ‘Influential’ TV Special Disappoints
Showbiz411: Not many people watched the "Time 100" special on ABC Tuesday night. Just 2.4 million, actually, tuned in from 10-11 pm ET. The "Time 100" tried to turn Time magazine's long-moribund special edition magazine into a TV awards...
Chicago Sun-Times Editor Exits for Digital News Startup
Chicago Sun-Times: Chris Fusco, the top editor at the Chicago Sun-Times, says he is leaving the publication to begin work at a media startup in California that aims to rejuvenate local news. Fusco will become the founding executive editor at Lookout...
Vox Media Journalist Joins the Big Jump to Newsletters
New York Times: Casey Newton announced that he was leaving The Verge, the website where he has covered the tech industry since 2013, to write a subscription newsletter hosted by Substack, a three-year-old platform that is growing in...
Harold Evans, Journalist Legend, Dies in New York at 92
Reuters: Sir Harold Evans died on Wednesday of congestive heart failure in New York, according to his wife, Tina Brown. A former editor of Britain's Sunday Times and, at his death, Reuters editor-at-large, Evans put a unique stamp on investigative...
Facebook to Restrict Use if Election Descends Into Chaos
Financial Times: Facebook says it will take aggressive and exceptional measures to "restrict the circulation of content" on its platform if the US presidential election descends into chaos or violent civic unrest. "There are some break-glass options available to...
Fox Corp’s App to Let Users Bet on Presidential Debates
Deadline; Fox Bet Super 6, a free-to-play app where users make predictions about what they think will happen, is adding presidential politics to its offerings. A $25,000 pool of prize money is guaranteed to be given away after the Sept. 29...
Disney’s ABC ‘World News’ Emerges as Top US Newscast
Axios: For the first time in 24 years, ABC's "World News Tonight," anchored by David Muir, won the season as the No. 1 newscast in total viewers, adults 25-54 and adults 18-49. Muir's dinnertime newscast out-delivered primetime, daytime, morning, late-night and...
Comcast Eyes Streaming in Big Rethink at NBCUniversal
New York Post: NBCUniversal, which owns cable networks like Bravo, E!, USA and Syfy, is overhauling its entertainment division to focus on video streaming. Wall Street Journal: New CEO Jeff Shell is centralizing decision-making and slimming down the cable unit....
ViacomCBS to Rebrand Paramount TV in Shift to Movies
Variety: Paramount Network plans to move out of long form series television and instead focus its efforts on made-for-TV movies featuring big name stars. To that end, the network will be rebranded as the Paramount Movie...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia Sees Departure of Marketing Chief
Deadline: Chris Spadaccini, who spent two decades at HBO and became WarnerMedia Entertainment's chief marketing officer in 2019, is exiting the company. His departure comes as WarnerMedia continues to undergo significant reshaping at the direction of CEO Jason...
Disney Preps Weekly Rollout of Products from Streaming
MarketWatch: Disney and Lucasfilm have teamed up for "Mando Mondays," a weekly release of new product tied to the blockbuster Disney+ series "The Mandalorian." New products, games and more will be introduced each Monday starting on Oct. 26 until Dec. 21....
Samsung Brings TV Streaming Service to Mobile Phones
Protocol: After turning Samsung TV Plus into a success story on smart TVs, Samsung is launching the service on some of its latest mobile phones this week. People who own a Galaxy Note20, Galaxy S20, Galaxy Note10 or Galaxy S10 will be able to access TV Plus on their...
Quibi Founder Sells Mansion to Co-Founder of WhatsApp
Variety: Jeffrey Katzenberg has electrified LA's luxury real estate market by inking a deal to sell his custom-built Beverly Hills home for $125 million in cash. That figure represents the third-largest residential transaction ever closed in...
Univision Investor Boosts Support for Biden, Democrats
CNBC: Haim Saban says that he and his wife, Cheryl, plan to ramp up their campaign spending up and down the ballot to back Joe Biden and Democrats with just six weeks until Election Day. "We are going to continue pushing and doing everything that's asked of us and...