Reddit to Reward Frequent Users with Own Cryptocurrency
Bloomberg: Reddit, the website and discussion platform that is a favorite of many cryptocurrency enthusiasts, is launching its own digital token. Users of two Reddit subgroups familiar with digital coins will be able to earn tokens for things like posting a...
iHeartMedia Adds Poison Pill Amid Coronavirus Disruption
Hollywood Reporter: "Poison pills" have made a comeback amid the coronavirus pandemic as companies devise defenses against hostile takeover attempts from investors looking to take advantage of weakened stock...
Katie Couric Media Prospers as Anchor Turns Entrepreneur
The Information: Katie Couric Media has a staff of around 20 and pays the bills via sponsorships from brands like Procter & Gamble. Couric’s husband and business partner, John Molner, said the business charges “in excess of a million a year” per...
New York Times Places Spotlight on Star Journalist Farrow
New York Times: "Ronan Farrow may be the most famous investigative reporter in America. He has delivered revelatory reporting on some of the defining stories of our time. But a close examination reveals the weaknesses in what may be called an era of resistance...
Conde Nast’s Wintour ‘Newly Vulnerable’ from Covid Crisis
New York Post: "It's looking like Covid-19 might do what decades of rumors, Condé Nast power plays, Page Six leaks and 'The Devil Wears Prada' could not: Kill off Anna Wintour’s career. Wintour surely must wonder if her own time is...
Penske Media to Invest in Events Agency LDJ Productions
Variety: Penske Media has made a strategic investment in LDJ Productions, an event management and technical production agency. The addition of LDJ will further PMC’s ability to leverage its brands’ content with an in-house live media team....
American Media to Face ‘Death Spiral’ at National Enquirer
Daily Beast: As CNN airs a documentary about the “scandalous” National Enquirer, insiders ponder whether we are finally witnessing the end of the tabloid. New York Post: American Media is waiting for a loan valued at between $5 million and $6...
The Economist Cuts 90 Jobs, Makes Spinoff Title All-Digital
Press Gazette: The Economist Group is slashing 7 percent of its global workforce and turning its culture and lifestyle magazine 1843 digital-only as it battles the impact of Covid-19 on trading. Some 90 job roles will be lost out of a global workforce of...
Nikkei’s Financial Times Unveils New Cuts to Spending, Pay
Press Gazette: The Financial Times is cutting its spending on non-staff contributors and making further cuts to pay and working hours as it continues to “navigate through” the coronavirus downturn. The publisher seeks to guarantee its “mission beyond this...
TheSkimm Shelves Subscription App Amid Pandemic Woes
Business Insider: Once-buzzy newsletter TheSkimm just laid off 20% of its workforce as it faces a downturn in advertising. It had been banking on a subscription-based app to boost and diversify revenue, but decided to make it free for the rest of the...
First Person: My Phony News Site Lured Real Ads with Ease
CNBC: "I made my own 'news' site with content scraped from a legitimate publisher to see if it would be approved by ad tech partners. Within days, I had the ability to monetize my site with legitimate advertisers." ...
Vice Media Lays Off 155 with Big Cuts in Digital, Refinery29
Variety: Vice Media, which includes Refinery29, is laying off 155 employees, or more than 5% of its total worldwide headcount, in response to revenue declines stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. Fifty-five layoffs will affect U.S....
Disney Hit ‘Frozen’ Becomes a Covid Casualty on Broadway
Reuters: The Broadway musical "Frozen" is closing permanently, the first big casualty of the coronavirus shutdown in New York's theater industry. The Disney production, which opened in March 2018 and is based on the blockbuster 2013 movie, will not...
ViacomCBS Sees Pluto TV Prosper in Free Video Streaming
Bloomberg: Pluto TV isn't the only free streaming service trying to capitalize on the moment. While there's huge demand for online video, the slumping economy has left many consumers with less money to spend. No-cost services see it as their time to...
Fox Corp’s News Channels Snub Pandemic, Focus on Obama
Guardian: Since last week, Fox News and Fox Business have mentioned Michael Flynn, the FBI and Barack Obama far more often than the coronavirus pandemic. President Trump has regularly claimed "Obamagate” is bigger than...
Lupa Systems, from Murdoch, to Invest in India’s Newshunt
Entrackr: The news aggregator Dailyhunt has raised $35.6 million from James Murdoch's investment arm Lupa India. This is the second investment by the media mogul in India. Four months ago, Lupa backed e-learning firm Harappa Education....
Snap Says Trump Goes After Youth Vote by Using Snapchat
Bloomberg: President Trump’s Snapchat following has nearly tripled to over 1.5 million in about eight months, far exceeding rival Joe Biden’s audience on the app. But the former vice president is starting to invest in the app,...
ByteDance’s TikTok Readies Big Pitch to Digital Advertisers
CNBC: For the first time, TikTok will join companies like YouTube and Hulu as they present to advertisers at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s NewFronts. The event was originally scheduled to run from April 27 through May 6 in New York...
Google’s YouTube Posts Covid-19 Videos with False Claims
BBC News: More than a quarter of the most-viewed coronavirus videos on YouTube contain "misleading or inaccurate information," a study suggests. In total, the misleading videos had been viewed more than 62 million...
Microsoft Plots Growth in Editorial Redo of LinkedIn News
Adweek: LinkedIn is rebranding its editorial team from LinkedIn Editorial to LinkedIn News after undergoing a redesign to bring more visual consistency to the vertical. The professional network began a thorough branding overhaul two years...
Amazon CEO on Track to Become World’s First Trillionaire
MarketWatch: The world’s richest man could be rich beyond imagining in a few years — tracking as he is, according to the content and comparisons site Comparisun, toward becoming the planet’s first trillionaire — and the pandemic may be speeding the...
Bezos’s Washington Post to Work Remotely Until September
The Hill: Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan said that the newspaper's offices will remain closed until after Labor Day, writing in a memo to staff that "we have concerns that we cannot adequately safeguard the health of our employees with a return to office...
Conde Nast Partners with Amazon for New Vogue Storefront
New York Times: Amazon, along with Vogue and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, has announced the unveiling of "Common Threads: Vogue x Amazon Fashion" a new storefront featuring 20 buzzy creative...
Hearst Produces CNN Alum’s TV Show from Home Bedroom
Los Angeles Times: Soledad O'Brien hosts "Matter of Fact," a syndicated weekly public affairs show for Hearst Television that averages close to 2 million viewers. During the pandemic, she has taped the show in her home bedroom using an...
Meredith: Ad Pullback is Worse Than During Financial Crisis
WWD: Meredith CEO Tom Harty warned that the advertising downturn has been "more severe" than during the Great Recession. Harty also revealed that the company has seen "incredible demand" for print magazines in the last six...
Tribune Plans Furloughs for Journalists at Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune: Tribune Publishing and the Chicago Tribune Guild agreed to a three-week furlough for all unionized newsroom employees making $40,000 or more as a cost-saving measure. The furloughs will be taken in one-week increments from May through...
New York Times Stirs Ire for Rereporting, Raiding BuzzFeed
Vanity Fair: The New York Times has been getting under the skin of BuzzFeed a lot lately. It's not just that BuzzFeed feels like the Times has a knack for rereporting stories. More frustrating is the extent to which the Times has been raiding BuzzFeed for...
BuzzFeed Among Publishers Focusing on Data in Pandemic
Adweek: Media organizations from BuzzFeed to Business Insider to Conde Nast say they've been piecing together insights into how consumers have already changed. BuzzFeed, for example, noticed a shift toward escapist...
Uzabase to Lay Off 80 Employees in Restructuring of Quartz
Talking Biz News: Uzabase, the Japanese parent company of financial news site Quartz, announced that it will restructure the business and reduce its employees by 40 percent, or 80 positions. The editorial staff of 85 positions is being cut to 50...
First Person: Laid Off Media Worker Now Writes Covid Obits
CNBC: "On Friday the 13th this past March, I was laid off from my full-time associate editor job at a Manhattan-based trade publication. I spent most of April figuring out how to apply for unemployment and juggling freelance jobs — mostly writing...