Amazon Looks to Invest in Podcasts About Local News, Sports
Axios: Amazon is looking to invest in localized podcast content, like news and sports. Sports content is top of mind as the company plans to buy up more TV rights and have adjacent audio content for users. Amazon sees a strategic advantage in podcasts by leveraging...
Apple Plans Reboot of ‘Fraggle Rock’ for Streaming TV Service
Vulture: Apple TV+ is going all-in on "Fraggle Rock." Weeks after debuting a handful of pandemic-produced shorts, the streamer has struck a deal with the Jim Henson Company to produce a formal reboot of the classic kids’ show, complete with full-length...
Quibi to Reduce Costs as Advertisers Seek to Defer Payments
Wall Street Journal: Streaming service Quibi is beginning to feel the pinch of its lackluster performance since launching last month, as major advertisers seek to defer payments and the company looks to cut costs. The advertisers have concerns about the service’s low...
Amazon Writes TV News Segments to Trumpet Virus Response
Bloomberg: After weathering a couple of months of withering news coverage about its response to the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon is offering its own take on the news. Several local TV news stations recently broadcast strikingly similar reports about Amazon safety...
Twitter Begins Adding Warning Labels to Trump’s False Tweets
Associated Press: For the first time, Twitter has flagged some of President Trump’s tweets with a fact-check warning. On Tuesday, Twitter added a warning phrase to two Trump tweets that called mail-in ballots “fraudulent” and predicted that “mail boxes will be...
News Corp Warns Trump of ‘Hidden Risks’ in Feuds on Twitter
New York Post: President Trump often says outrageous things on Twitter. "But is that really the president you want to be, sir?" asks the editorial board of the New York Post. "The president for whom people disregard half or even most of what you say as...
Torstar, Owner of Toronto Star, Agrees to $52 Million Sale Deal
Toronto Star: Torstar, the publisher of the Toronto Star and other newspapers in Ontario, has agreed to be sold to a company run by entrepreneurs Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett, in a deal worth roughly $52 million. The Toronto Star is Canada's largest daily...
New York Times Columnist to Move On After Internet Backlash
New York Post: Food columnist Alison Roman is temporarily moving on from her post at the New York Times following her controversial comments about Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo. "This was a huge shake-up for me both personally and professionally, and I’m still...
Meredith’s People ‘Smash’ Live Stream Becomes a Real Smash
MediaPost: Last week, People live streamed "Bombshell in Concert," featuring a cast reunion of the NBC show that ended in 2013. The event, which aired across People.com, PeopleTV and People's Facebook and Twitter feeds, report 2.8 million...
Atlantic Media Gets Tweet from Trump: ‘Boring, Nasty Magazine’
The Hill: President Trump touted recent layoffs at The Atlantic, slamming the magazine as "boring but very nasty" as part of his latest broadside against the media. The title, Trump tweeted, is "rapidly failing, going down the tubes. ... This is a tough time to be in...
G/O Media Says No to Writer Mandates for Revival of Deadspin
Folio: Despite a staff exodus, months of subsequent inactivity and a long, accusation-filled dispute with a union representing staffers at several of its brands, G/O Media remains committed to resurrecting Deadspin. "I haven’t been given, nor shared with my writers,...
Netflix Nabs First-Look Advantage Amid Media Paradigm Shift
Deadline: "The media paradigm has shifted," says Jefferies analyst Alex Giaimo. "Netflix now gets the first look at acquiring content rather than the last, a significant go-forward advantage." In addition, the company "remains in 'land-grab'...
AT&T Finds Viewers in the Dark About New Streamer HBO Max
Bloomberg: In a poll earlier this month, some 2,000 US adults were asked to choose from a list of TV shows and movie titles which ones they think will be available on HBO Max, a new Netflix-like service being introduced by AT&T's WarnerMedia. The results...
ViacomCBS Faces Backlash Over Deal for ‘Some Good News’
USA Today: After John Krasinski sold his free, feel-good web series "Some Good News" to ViacomCBS, following a massive bidding war, some fans were no longer feeling so good. "Way to completely lose the integrity behind it," said one viewer on...
CBS Former News Chief Bemoans Liberal Creep in News Biz
Wall Street Journal: Van Gordon Sauter, former president of CBS News: "Two of the three leading cable news sources are unrelentingly liberal in their fear and loathing of President Trump. News organizations that claim to be neutral have long been creeping...
Fox Corp News Channel Star Bashes Rival Media ‘Groupthink’
Mediaite: Sean Hannity, the Fox News host and most-watched broadcaster on cable news: "I've never seen a media so singularly focused on this groupthink, psychotic hate-Trump. Watch any 24 hours of fake news CNN. They wake up in the morning hating this...
Disney in Talks with NBA to Resume Games at ESPN Complex
Associated Press: The NBA is in “exploratory” talks with Disney for a resumption of play in Florida in late July, the clearest sign yet that the league believes the season can continue amid the coronavirus pandemic. Games would be held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports...
DAZN Seeks Investors, Mulls Sale to Rescue Sports Streamer
Financial Times: DAZN is racing to secure its financial future, with billionaire owner Len Blavatnik exploring options to raise money for a business hard hit by the pandemic. The sale of an equity stake in the business the preferred option. However, an outright sale...
Nine Entertainment in Deal to Sell New Zealand’s Stuff for $1
Associated Press: One of New Zealand’s largest media organizations is being sold for a single dollar to its CEO. The organization Stuff prints many of the nation’s daily newspapers and runs a popular news website of the same name. It employs about 900 staff, including...
iHeartMedia Radio Host Rebukes Biden After ‘You Ain’t Black’
New York Post: Charlamagne tha God ripped Joe Biden after the ex-veep suggested that politically undecided African Americans “ain’t black.” Charlamagne’s “The Breakfast Club” radio show is syndicated by Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of...
4Forty4 Media Strikes $5 Million Podcast Deal with Larry King
Variety: Larry King, 86, whose career has spanned more than six decades in radio and TV, is set to host “The Millionth Question,” an entertainment and celebrity interview podcast. Targeted for a mid-June debut, the podcast will feature guests across pop culture,...
Amazon’s Audible Looks Beyond Books for Push Into Podcasts
Bloomberg: Audible, the audiobook service owned by Amazon, is meeting with talent agencies and producers to discuss acquiring potential new podcast projects — or, in the terminology that Audible prefers, “Audible...
Meredith Magazine Star’s Bikini Body Gets Buzz on Instagram
People: Ayesha Curry is showing off her fit figure in an army green bikini, posting a few photos on Instagram taken by her husband, NBA star Steph Curry. It's been a busy few months for Curry, who recently launched a new lifestyle magazine, Sweet...
Conde Nast Promises to Become Carbon Neutral Before 2030
What's New in Publishing: Conde Nast has announced plans to become completely carbon neutral by 2030 as part of its long term global sustainability commitments. The company also intends to transition to 100% internationally certified paper by December...
Axel Springer Among Bidders for eBay’s Classifieds Business
Financial Times: Axel Springer, the German media group backed by private equity firm KKR, has submitted an initial bid for eBay’s classifieds business, as the ecommerce group embarks on one of the biggest sale processes since the outbreak of the coronavirus...
New York Times Devotes Front Page to Names of Virus Victims
Mediaite: The New York Times unveiled an astonishing cover for Sunday’s paper, featuring the names of 1,000 victims of Covid-19. “As the death toll in the United States approaches 100,000, editors at the Times have been planning how to mark the grim...
Los Angeles Times Offers Tips on How to Rescue Newspapers
Los Angeles Times: "There are a number of steps the federal government should consider that could make the local news business more sustainable. ... In the longer term, lawmakers are going to have to grapple with the damage Google and Facebook have...
Air Mail’s Graydon Carter Opens Newsstand, Snubs Magazines
WSJ. Magazine: Graydon Carter, in lockdown in Provence, France, is working on a memoir while producing his weekly newsletter Air Mail. The former Vanity Fair editor says he no longer readers magazines very often. “I prefer a digital newspaper.” Nonetheless, Air Mail...
Analysis: Newsletters Can Pay Off for the Next-Gen Media Star
New York Times: In the mainstream heart of the media business, both artists and writers are moving quickly to find new business models as huge swaths of the media business have been wounded or shut down by the coronavirus...
AT&T Ready to Unveil WarnerMedia’s New Streamer HBO Max
Financial Times: HBO Max, WarnerMedia's answer to Netflix, launches in the US on May 27. It lands at a time when the coronavirus pandemic means that production has gone dark, talent is confined to their homes and 36 million Americans are...