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...
Netflix Resumes Filming Overseas as Hollywood Plans Return
Reuters: California on Monday will roll out guidelines for the resumption of production of Hollywood movies and TV shows. Netflix is already resuming filming in South Korea, Iceland and Sweden, where strict testing and tracing is...
Report: Global Entertainment to Lose $160 Billion from Covid
World Screen: Over the next five years, the Covid-19 pandemic will cost the worldwide entertainment business $160 billion, according to Ampere Analysis. "Advertising is hit hardest, but drilling down shows that areas like theatrical are hit...
Comcast’s Universal Studios to Reopen Florida Park on June 5
Reuters: Universal Studios Orlando has announced plans to reopen its park to the public on June 5. The theme park will open at reduced capacity and will provide staggered parking, requiring temperature checks and masks both for employees and...
Facebook Begins Transition to Permanent Remote Workforce
NBC News: Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook will start allowing many of its 50,000 employees and new recruits to work from home on a permanent basis. "We are going to be the most forward-leaning company on remote...
Spotify to Let Employees Work from Home Through Year-End
TechCrunch: Spotify has joined a growing number of tech giants expanding their work from home policies as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to drag on. The new policy allows staff to continue working from home through the end of the...
Fox Corp’s Home-Bound News Hosts Urge Viewers to Go Out
Mediaite: The denizens of "Fox & Friends" urged New York businesses to reopen en masse despite lockdown orders and a still-deadly coronavirus pandemic, but they did so from the safety of their own homes and secure...
ViacomCBS Strikes Deal with Krasinski for ‘Some Good News’
Entertainment Weekly: John Krasinski's wildly popular web series, "Some Good News," will be coming to ViacomCBS. The actor-director started the internet show in order to uplift and encourage fans amid the coronavirus...
Apple to Hire Boss for New Podcasting Effort with Ties to TV
Bloomberg: Apple is ramping up its push into original podcasts by seeking an executive to lead the initiative and buying shows that would be exclusive to its services. The technology giant has begun acquiring two types of original...
Disney-Bashing Heiress Unveils Podcast with Eye on Politics
Daily Beast: Disney heiress Abigail Disney has become increasingly outspoken on issues like income inequality and taxation, often with a progressive sensibility that’s earned her plaudits among Democrats. And now she's starting a...
Liberty Media Chief Bullish on Live Events Despite Pandemic
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Top executives with Liberty Media expressed confidence in the viability of the live-events business post-pandemic, but acknowledged that events may not be as large-scale or profitable as before. "There is demand for live...
Tribune Shareholders Approve Hedge Fund’s Seats on Board
Chicago Tribune: Shareholders of Tribune Publishing formally elected two representatives of hedge fund Alden Global Capital to the newspaper chain's board, as the man with the third-largest stake in the company seeks to break it up....
Gannett Longtime Cincinnati Newspaper Executive Dies at 93
Associated Press: Bill Keating is remembered widely as gentlemanly, considerate and modest. Underneath that genial exterior was a fiercely competitive and driven athlete, lawyer, politician and news...
Conde Nast Shutters Unpaid Wired Blog After Nearly 20 Years
Boing Boing: Bruce Sterling has been writing an unpaid blog called Beyond the Beyond for Wired for 18 years. However, Wired publisher Conde Nast "is in such deep financial trouble that they're realizing savings ... from shutting down an unpaid...
Bauer Media in Fracas with Fitness Guru Over Tracking Device
Hollywood Reporter: Richard Simmons has sued Bauer Media claiming a private detective hired by its magazine In Touch Weekly attached an electronic tracking device to his live-in caretaker's...
Atlantic Media to Lay Off Nearly 70 Staffers Amid Ad Collapse
New York Post: Atlantic Media, the publisher of The Atlantic magazine, said it will cut about 20 percent of its staff in response to the advertising collapse tied to the coronavirus crisis. "The contraction affects mainly our events, sales and editorial...
Gawker Media Veterans Prep TV Series Based on Snarky Site
Vanity Fair: Apple TV+ is in the early stages of developing a series about Gawker. The show was conceived and pitched by two former Gawker staffers, Max Read and Cord Jefferson, who have been working on scripts for the past couple of...
Big Media CEOs Under Fire for Lofty Pay in Coronavirus Era
Variety: Bob Iger's industry-leading pay package at Disney made him 911 times more valuable than a typical employee at the entertainment giant. That group averaged $52,184 in pay, bonus and company contribution to health...