Brant Folds Interview Magazine Amid Spat with Employees
New York Post: Interview magazine, the culture and arts publication founded by Andy Warhol in 1969, has folded. The glossy periodical owned by billionaire Peter Brant — which lately has been mired in legal spats with former employees, as well as a dispute with its...
New York Times Readies ‘Overlooked’ Female Obits Series
Deadline: The New York Times is partnering with Paramount Television, Anonymous Content and 3dot Productions on "Overlooked," a scripted anthology series that highlights the stories of notable women who did not receive an obituary in the Times....
BuzzFeed Looks to Ramp Up TV, Film by Signing with WME
Hollywood Reporter: BuzzFeed Studios has signed with WME as it looks to ramp up its film and television output. The deal comes days after BuzzFeed announced that it had hired MTV veteran Lauren Dolgen to lead the studio, replacing Matthew Henick, who left for a job at...
Politico Moves Into Asia in Partnership with Alibaba Group
Wall Street Journal: Three years after expanding into Europe, Politico is now setting its sights on Asia. The digital media outlet, known for its blanket coverage of all things politics, is launching a partnership on Tuesday with the South China Morning Post, the...
TheSkimm Raises $12 Million from Mostly Female Investors
MediaPost: theSkimm has raised $12 million in a Series C funding round from a majority of female investors, including TV producer Shonda Rhimes and supermodel and entrepreneur Tyra Banks. theSkimm is known for publishing a free morning newsletter aimed at millennial...
CBS Value to Fall if Moonves Exits in Battle with Redstone
CNBC: If Les Moonves were to leave, CBS stock would decline, according to best-selling author Ken Auletta. "If he's going to leave, he wants to be fired because he gets a couple hundred million dollars in severance, which he wouldn't get if he just...
Viacom: Dismissal Upheld in Lawsuit Over Redstone’s Pay
Associated Press: Delaware’s Supreme Court has upheld the dismissal of a shareholder lawsuit challenging Viacom’s payment of more than $13 million in compensation to company founder and former chairman Sumner...
Comcast Plotting Big Campaign to Snatch Fox from Disney
New York Times: If AT&T wins its fight for Time Warner, Comcast intends to mount a campaign to snatch Fox from Disney, according to two people briefed on the strategy who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private...
Fox’s ‘Deadpool 2’ Slays Disney’s ‘Avengers’ at Box Office
Associated Press: Fox’s “Deadpool 2” brought in $125 million this weekend, giving it the second-highest opening ever for an R-rated movie and ending the three-week reign of Disney’s “Avengers: Infinity War” at the top of the North American box office, according to...
Netflix Subscribers Forecast to Reach 360 Million by 2030
CNBC: Netflix will be able to generate strong membership growth for many years, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The firm reiterated its buy rating for Netflix shares, citing the rising number of broadband internet users in international...
Alphabet’s Google ‘Monopoly’ in Spotlight on ’60 Minutes’
Bloomberg: A “60 Minutes” segment devoted to assertions that Alphabet’s Google wields a destructive monopoly in online search hammered home the notion of the company’s dominance during a time of heightened public concern with technology giants, while not surfacing new...
Amazon Targeted by Trump Over ‘Fake’ Washington Post
MarketWatch: President Trump personally pressured Postmaster General Megan Brennan to double the charges Amazon and other firms pay to ship packages, a new report said. Despite Brennan's arguments, Trump has continued slamming Amazon, whose founder and CEO owns the...
Facebook Leases New Tower in San Francisco Expansion
Bloomberg: Facebook is constantly expanding in its Silicon Valley hometown of Menlo Park. Now it’s making a bigger push into San Francisco. The social media giant reached a deal Friday to take all the office space at the newly constructed Park Tower at Transbay....
Alphabet’s YouTube TV Signs Up Tastemade, Young Turks
TechCrunch: In April, YouTube TV confirmed rumors it was expanding its service by way of digital-only networks by launching two news channels from Cheddar. On Thursday, YouTube TV alerted customers by way of email it had added new channels Tastemade and TYT, along...
Nielsen to Bring Time-Shifted Viewing Metric to TV Stations
MediaPost: After years of pushing to account for time-shifted local TV viewing by TV station execs, Nielsen says it will offer a separate data stream that will include one day of delayed viewing. The company says the metric will first be available via monthly reports,...
Facebook’s Political Ad Rules Stir Protest from Publishers
USA Today: Major news organizations raised objections Friday to Facebook's plans to treat ads promoting political news coverage the same as political advocacy ads. Under changes Facebook will roll out out aimed at combating the spread of political misinformation, all...
Alphabet’s Google Gives Up Unofficial Motto ‘Don’t Be Evil’
Gizmodo: Google’s unofficial motto has long been the simple phrase “don’t be evil.” But that’s over, according to the code of conduct that Google distributes to its employees. The phrase was removed sometime in late April or early May, archives hosted by the Wayback...
Fox’s National Geographic Mag Prefers Paper Over Plastic
Fast Company: It’s a simple question. “Planet or plastic?” Since it was unveiled, National Geographic‘s new magazine cover of a plastic bag-as-iceberg has stopped many people in their tracks. The provocative cover story is the start of a multi-year campaign to raise...
Hearst Builds Installation to Promote Netflix’s ’13 Reasons’
Ad Age: Hearst has created an installation to promote Netflix's its hit teen show "13 Reasons Why." The publisher is erecting a wall of actual high school-like lockers on both coasts where people can take Polaroids, write confessionals on the snapshots, and post them...
Atlantic’s Quartz Credited for Reinventing Email Newsletter
Fast Company: The business publication Quartz is widely credited with helping to “reinvent” the email newsletter, moving beyond mere collections of links to provide a distinct voice, format, and style crafted specifically for that medium. “There’s a similarity to...
New York Times Fails to Deliver Papers in Printer Outage
New York Post: Hundreds of thousands of New York Times subscribers didn’t get their papers Friday morning, with the company blaming a power outage at its printing plant in Queens. The snafu affected about 200,000 customers — nearly 40 percent of the Times’ circulation...
News Corp Veteran Fondly Recalls Murdoch in New Book
Guardian: Les Hinton used to insist he would never write a memoir. The idea of adding his own title to volumes already devoted to his former boss, Rupert Murdoch, filled him with, if not foreboding exactly, then a certain feeling of futility. “I knew a lot of any such...
Time Inc: Oral History Delves Into Journey to Scrap Heap
New York Times: The New York Times reached out to more than two dozen editors and writers who worked at Time Inc., asking them to reflect on the heyday of this former epicenter of power and influence, as well as its...
CBS Battle with Redstone for Control to Continue in Court
CBS News: Early Thursday, a Delaware court handed Shari Redstone and her family-owned National Amusements an important legal victory in a fight for control of CBS. Just hours later, CBS's board of directors responded with a vote to reduce Redstone's control – but the...
Fox Taps Veteran as First Female Chief Exec of Fox News
MarketWatch: Suzanne Scott, the longtime programming chief of Fox News, has been named CEO of the top-rated cable news channel. The promotion comes as part of changes throughout Fox News-parent 21st Century Fox ahead of the company's proposed sale of the bulk of its...
Sony Lays Off 12 at Crackle Ahead of Cuts in Film, TV Units
Variety: Sony Pictures Entertainment chief Tony Vinciquerra is continuing to streamline the studio with a series of new cost-saving cutbacks and realignments. As part of the overhaul, Sony plans to fold its home entertainment department into its television...
Comcast Aims to Ease Staffer Money Worries with Start-Up
Philadelphia Inquirer: Financial anxiety can also be a big work distraction. Comcast agrees that it’s a big problem. And now Comcast Ventures thinks it has a solution, launching a start-up called Brightside to help people deal with personal...
Viacom’s MTV Suspends ‘Catfish’ After Misconduct Charge
USA Today: Has a "Catfish" host been catfishing viewers? Yaniv "Nev" Schulman of the popular MTV series is being investigated and the show is being suspended following sexual misconduct allegations. “We take these allegations very...
Vice Inks Licensing Deal for Viceland Programming on Hulu
Deadline: Vice Media has signed a big SVOD licensing deal with Hulu. The pact includes 15 critically acclaimed Viceland series. The series will be available for streaming exclusively on Hulu beginning June...
Cannes Film Fest, Hit by Disruption, Finds Fewer Big Sales
MarketWatch: At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, new challenges and disruptive technology loom over the marketplace. Aside from a handful of hot titles, there were relatively few all-night bidding wars and splashy...