AT&T, WarnerMedia Are Very Happy to Have Made ‘Friends’
Los Angeles Times: Warner Bros. Television is running a massive marketing campaign tied into the 25th anniversary of "Friends." The push precedes the arrival of the hit sitcom on WarnerMedia's new HBO Max, which has the "Friends" cast in the opening image of its...
Comcast-NBC, Netflix Stars Booked for White House Dinner
NBC News: The White House Correspondents' Association announced that "Saturday Night Live" cast-member Kenan Thompson and Netflix's Hasan Minhaj will headline the White House Correspondents' Dinner in April. Thompson will serve as the host while Minhaj will be the...
Fox’s Murdoch Encouraged Bloomberg to Run for President
Hollywood Reporter: Rupert Murdoch once wanted Michael Bloomberg to run for president. With Donald Trump's candidature becoming a proposition back in 2015, Murdoch tweeted in August of that year that it was time for the "next billionaire candidate." He described...
Bloomberg to Sell Off Company if Elected, Campaign Says
Associated Press: Mike Bloomberg would sell the financial data and media company he created in the 1980s — which bears his name and made him a multibillionaire — if he is elected U.S. president, a top adviser said. Bloomberg would put Bloomberg LP into a blind trust,...
Discovery Plans True-Crime TV Projects with New York Post
Variety: The New York Post often runs stories filled with grit, color and melodrama – just the kind of stuff that seems right for TV. Now some of those stories will find their way to a TV network. Investigation Discovery will partner with News Corp.'s New York Post...
Paley Center Closes in Beverly Hills, Relocates TV Archives
Variety: The Paley Center for Media has vacated its longtime Beverly Hills location earlier than expected, setting up offices in Century City and finalizing a new home for its digital archives. The Beverly Hills Public Library will become the new home for the TV and...
Netflix Likely to Stop Seeing US Growth from Cord Cutting
Fast Company: Netflix has squeezed just about all it can out of American TV viewers who cut the cable cord, according to a new report from analyst firm MoffettNathanson. The reason is simple: A lot of potential cord cutters already pay for the quintessential...
Facebook Must Get Rid of Zuckerberg as CEO, Soros Says
Financial Times: "Mark Zuckerberg appears to be engaged in some kind of mutual assistance arrangement with Donald Trump that will help him to get re-elected," writes billionaire philanthropist George Soros. “Facebook does not need to wait for government regulations...
Twitter Acquires Startup from Facebook, Instagram Alumni
Bloomberg: Twitter is acquiring Chroma Labs, a seven-person startup that was founded by former Facebook and Instagram employees for building photo and video-editing features. Chroma Labs is joining Twitter to "give people more creative ways to express themselves in...
News Corp Knewz Aggregator Yet to Aggregate Much Buzz
Folio: Nearly five months after News Corp. announced it was launching a product billed as a "generous aggregation" of news, the company debuted Knewz in January. The launch didn't generate much consumer buzz, despite Knewz having an ad-free model that includes 400...
Thomson Reuters Faces Backlash from Freelance Workers
Financial Times: Dozens of freelance workers at Thomson Reuters in the UK are threatening to leave the media group unless it guarantees their pay will not fall due to a government crackdown on tax avoidance. The UK media sector has been scrambling to respond to the...
Bloomberg Media Tests Digital Bundle with The Information
Digiday: The Information and Bloomberg Media are the next set of publishers to test a digital subscription bundling model. The two publishers have come together to offer a $499 one-year subscription to both Bloomberg.com and TheInformation.com, which will allow...
Conde Nast Chatter Continues About ‘Once Hot’ Vanity Fair
Showbiz411: Speculation is rife that Vanity Fair's editor in chief of not quite two years, Radhika Jones, is on her way out. There may some truth to this theory, although publisher Conde Nast denied it. All of the heat that former editor Graydon Carter cultivated is...
Hearst Extends Search for a New Editor of Harper’s Bazaar
WWD: As the search for Glenda Bailey's successor as editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar goes on, Hearst executives are casting their net far and wide — and a few new names have come into the picture. One of those said to be in the running is Fabien Baron. Another is...
Meredith: Our Magazines Compete with Candy at Checkout
Mr Magazine: "In our fiscal year, we're going to sell about 20 million copies of special interest publications at retail," reports Scott Mortimer, vice president and group publisher at Meredith. This achievement comes despite the fact that "we're competing at...
Conde Nast Veteran Revisits Fake-Byline Dispute at Details
Columbia Journalism Review: Many bizarre things transpired in the glory days of Conde Nast, writes Andrew Essex. But the fake-byline fiasco at Details magazine involved "a very different sort of surreality" -- one the New York Times "didn't get quite right in its...
Vox Media in Spat with Writer Over Stolen Twitter Account
Vice: A senior executive from Vox Media managed to break into a sports blogger's Twitter account and change the login credentials, effectively stealing it — and its nearly 10,000 followers — from its 23-year-old creator who was primarily responsible for growing its...
Bustle Digital’s Plan to Reboot Gawker ‘Didn’t Make Sense’
Daily Front Row: What happened with the relaunch of Gawker? "Just as with print changing, the same is true within digital," says Dan Peres, who was once set to be the editor of the Gawker reboot. "Owners look at a business and say, 'This doesn’t make sense to move...
Apple, Amazon Forecast to Take Over Entertainment Media
No Mercy / No Malice: What happened in retail, over the last decade, is about to happen in entertainment media, according to New York University professor Scott Galloway. "Most large entertainment media firms (Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Netflix, Fox, Sony, etc.)...
Google’s YouTube Touts $3 Billion+ Pay to Music Industry
Digital Music News: YouTube has the lowest per-stream payouts among streaming music platforms. But CEO Susan Wojcicki says it all adds up. She touted a very healthy payout to the music industry and its artists: "YouTube offers twin engines for revenue with...
Amazon’s Bezos Offers $10 Billion to Fight Climate Change
CNBC: Amazon's Jeff Bezos on Monday announced the launch of a new Earth Fund that the e-commerce chief plans to use to combat the effects of climate change. He said in an Instagram post that he’s pledging $10 billion to start the fund, which will be called the Bezos...
Facebook’s Zuck: We’re a Hybrid of a Newspaper, Telecom
Reuters: Online content should be regulated with a system somewhere between the existing rules used for the telecom and media industries, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told global leaders and security chiefs at the Munich Security Conference in...
Google in Talks to Pay Publishers Licensing Fee for News
Dow Jones: Alphabet's Google is in talks with publishers about paying a licensing fee for content that would be in a premium news product, a move that would mark a shift in the search giant's relationship with news organizations. Most of the publishers in talks with...
AT&T Auction to Sell Regional Sports Channels Falls Short
New York Post: AT&T's auction to sell four regional sports networks appears to be faltering — the latest sign that the business of airing local sports is in trouble as Americans continue to cut their ties with cable. All of the bids came in around or below $500...
Viacom Former CFO Leads Group in Talks to Buy Univision
Wall Street Journal: Univision is in exclusive talks with a bidding group that includes a former senior exec of Viacom for a sale that could value the Spanish-language broadcaster at close to $10 billion including debt. The development indicates that a deal for...
CBS Radio Faces New Lawsuit Claim of Sexual Harassment
New York Post: Jacquelyn Musiello, a former payroll specialist at CBS Radio, quit her job in 2017 due to the "physical and emotional distress" of being sexually harassed by the talent, and witnessing countless situations in which others were as well, according to a...
iHeartMedia Sits Out Industry Effort for Podcasting Awards
Radio Ink: Wondery CEO Hernan Lopez last week announced a new a new not-for-profit organization of independent podcasters called the Podcast Academy. Notably not in the group that made the announcement with Lopez were iHeartMedia, Entercom or any other commercial...
Kantar Media Chief Ousted in Power Play by Private Equity
Financial Times: Eric Salama has been abruptly ousted as CEO of Kantar, the market-data business he helped build, after Bain Capital decided to cut short his remaining time at the company. Salama had already announced plans to step down this summer after recovering...
Redbox Unveils Free Online Streaming Service with Live TV
USA Today: Cord-cutters have another website they can visit to catch up on TV shows for free. Redbox, the company best-known for its DVD kiosks, has launched a basic online streaming service, entering a crowded field of ad-supported live entertainment offerings on...
Conde Nast to Embed New Studio Chiefs at Magazine Titles
Digiday: Conde Nast Entertainment will appoint heads for each of its five new studios and assemble teams to work under them. The studio heads will have "a dotted line" to the editors at the corresponding publications to identify potential projects. They will be...