Fox Corp Sees Best Ratings in News Since Trump Election
Associated Press: The week President Trump was acquitted in his impeachment trial was Fox News Channel's best in the ratings since the weeks he was elected and inaugurated. Nielsen said Fox News averaged 4.27 million viewers in prime time last...
Amazon CEO Bests Fox Corp CEO’s Record New-Home Buy
Wall Street Journal: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has purchased the Warner Estate from media mogul David Geffen for $165 million. The deal marks a record for the Los Angeles area. The previous residential record was set last year, when Lachlan Murdoch paid $150 million for...
Lupa Systems, Under Murdoch, Readies Green Investments
New York Times: James Murdoch, now divorced from the day-to-day operations of News Corp., plans to announce investments in sustainable packaging and a venture organized by BlackRock. "Any business has to be about more than just capital," Murdoch said in an...
Chernin Among New Investors in Meditation App Headspace
TechCrunch: Headspace, the Los Angeles-based mindfulness and meditation company locked in a bitter competitive struggle with Calm for leadership in the mental wellness world, has raised new capital to try to take the pole position. The company just closed on $93...
Facebook, Instagram Enter Fact-Checking Deal with Reuters
Reuters: Facebook said it has reached an agreement with news agency Reuters to fact-check content posted on the social media platform and its photo-sharing app Instagram. Under pressure to remove fake news, Facebook started a pilot program in December to detect...
Snap Tests Breaking News Headlines for Redo of Snapchat
The Verge: Snap is working on two significant tests that could reshape its flagship app in a critical year. Tipsters have provided screenshots of two ongoing tests that have rolled out to a small percentage of Snapchat’s user base. One is a test of breaking news...
iHeartMedia to Roll Out New Ad Marketplace for Podcasts
Adweek: Chasing industry trends, iHeartMedia is about to become the latest audio company to release a custom ad network. Execs say iHeartPodcast AdSuite will tempt brands and potential partners — and set the company apart from its competitors — with a unique array of...
Conde Nast to Open Five Studios Branded After Magazines
Wall Street Journal: Magazine giant Conde Nast is doubling down on its Hollywood ambitions, part of a growing effort by publishers to convert print stories into documentaries, movies or TV shows. Conde Nast Entertainment is launching five branded studios built around...
Hearst Unveils New Look for Esquire Under New-ish Editor
Ad Age: Michael Sebastian was named editor-in-chief of Esquire last June — and has appeared atop the masthead from the September 2019 issue onward — but the upcoming March issue is the first to fully represent his vision for the Hearst men’s...
New York Times to Add Coverage of Suburbs, Rural Issues
Mediaite: The New York Times is broadening its domestic coverage with the addition of three new beats devoted, respectively, to the suburbs, rural issues and religion — a continuation of an initiative to feature more reporting from areas of the country that the paper...
News Corp’s Page Six Still Relevant Despite Digital Rivals
Esquire: Somehow, Page Six — a column in a newspaper that is printed on paper — has managed to grow. Yes, it has a website and a Twitter feed. But mostly, it’s still something you flip to rather than something you click on. To the people who run the world, or certain...
Conde Nast’s New Vogue.com Editor Still Learning Digital
Daily Front Row: Stuart Emmrich spent 16 years at the New York Times, then decamped to L.A. to reinvent the local paper’s lifestyle section. Next stop? Editor of Vogue.com. "Once I understood that the digital reading experience was much different than the print one,...
Berkshire Chief Says US Newspapers ‘Are All Going to Die’
Bloomberg: Charles Munger, who's a newspaper company executive as well as a Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, said U.S. newspapers have no future. "Technological change is destroying the daily newspapers in America. The revenue goes away and the expenses remain and...
Ad Age: Digital Media Employment Reaches All-Time High
What's New in Publishing: Ad Age’s Marketing Fact Pack 2020 projects that US online ad spending will rise to about 60% of all advertising outlay by 2022. A rising tide lifts all boats, and this growth in digital also marks an all-time high in the US internet media...
Conde Nast Memoirs Reveal a Big Mess Behind the Gloss
New York Times: The memoirs of onetime Details editor Dan Peres and other ex-employees of Conde Nast expose the bloated pride before the fall. Editors in chief of glossy magazines once held a certain status because their products seemed important. Magazines are now...
ViacomCBS Forms Management Team to Chart New Future
The Information: Shari Redstone and her CEO, Bob Bakish, have assembled a management team composed of top execs from both sides of the newly merged Viacom and CBS. The challenge now is reviving growth at the company. There are close to 140 top people running...
Comcast’s Universal Readies Film on Killing ‘Deplorables’
Fox News: Universal Pictures will move forward with a March 13 release of its controversial film "The Hunt," after it was pulled from theaters last year. The dark comedy revolves around conservative Americans who are hunted for sport by pompous elitists — often while...
Netflix’s Biggest Rival Isn’t Hulu or Amazon – It’s YouTube
Bloomberg: In the fight for America's attention, Netflix's closest streaming competitor is YouTube. That's according to a report from Nielsen, which found that consumers spent 19% of their TV viewing time on a streaming service in the fourth quarter of 2019. That's...
Amazon, Apple Among Tech Giants Facing US Deal Probes
CNBC: The Federal Trade Commission announced it will examine prior acquisitions by Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft. The commission voted 5-0 to issue special orders to review the past mergers. The FTC will require the companies to provide information...
Apple Taps Warner Music Exec to Oversee Music Initiatives
Reuters: Warner Music Group veteran Jeff Bronikowski has joined Apple as global head of strategic music initiatives. Bronikowski, who shared the news in a LinkedIn post on Monday, did not immediately return a request for comment. Apple declined to comment...
Google’s YouTube to Fund News Course from Young Turks
Axios: The Young Turks (TYT), one of the largest progressive digital publishers on YouTube, is receiving funding from Google-owned YouTube to launch an online course called TYT Academy that focuses on the creation of digital-first local news. The investment is in the...
SiriusXM to Take $75 Million Minority Stake in SoundCloud
TechCrunch: SoundCloud, the music streaming company that has been described as the "YouTube of audio" because of its profusion of user-generated content, has some big, strategic investment news. The company has raised $75 million in funding from satellite radio giant...
Spotify Said to Pay $250 Million for Ringer in Podcast Push
Bloomberg: Spotify is paying close to $200 million upfront for the Ringer, the growing online sports and pop-culture outlet, as part of its push into podcasting. The previously undisclosed price of 180 million euros will be followed by more than $50 million...
Vice Media Faces Nearly $400 Million in Investor Payments
Wall Street Journal: Vice Media saw problems ahead for its business in 2017 when the new-media company set out to raise more money. The priority for then-CEO Shane Smith was to secure an eye-popping valuation. He got his wish when private-equity firm TPG invested...
Hearst’s Quibi Show Hires Model to Join Drag Queen Host
WWD: Model Denise Bidot is joining as co-host of the upcoming Quibi show "Fashion's a Drag," produced by Hearst Originals, the production arm of Hearst Magazines. Bidot will be hosting the show with Willam Belli, a well-known drag...
News Corp Exec Warns Media Must Personalize to Survive
Press Gazette: The publisher of the Wall Street Journal has warned that "great media brands might not survive" if they do not embrace greater personalization of news for their readers. William Lewis described how News Corp. is "proactively responding" to the...
Tribune Newsrooms ‘Feisty’ as Journalists Accept Buyouts
WTTW: More than a dozen Tribune Publishing journalists in the Chicago area have left the Chicago Tribune, the Daily Southtown and other news outlets owned by the media company. "Somebody asked me, 'What's the spirit like in the newsroom?' and my (answer) was,...
New York Times Former Publisher Quietly Files for Divorce
New York Post: Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr. is divorcing his wife, Gabrielle Greene, after 5 ¹/₂ years of marriage. Sulzberger, the 68-year-old retired publisher of the Times who was married once before, quietly filed for a divorce from Greene, a 59-year-old...
Bonnier Explores Potential Sale Amid Decline of Magazines
Wall Street Journal: Bonnier has been meeting with bankers to explore its options, including the possible sale of the unit that holds most of its magazines. The decision to explore a potential sale comes as print advertising and newsstand sales have been declining...
Hearst Eyes Woman’s Day as Snubs Greet Harper’s Bazaar
New York Post: Meaghan Murphy, an executive editor at Good Housekeeping, has been tapped to be the content director of Woman's Day. Meanwhile, the higher-profile search to replace Glenda Bailey at Harper's Bazaar drags on. Several editors on the short list have...