Twitter Co-Founder Regards Trump as ‘Genius’ in Use of Platform
CNN: President Trump is a "master" of Twitter, according to the company's co-founder Ev Williams. "What Trump has done with Twitter is pretty genius, frankly," Williams said at the Collision tech conference in Toronto on Tuesday. "He's a master of the platform like...
Digital First Media Acquires Bankrupt Reading Eagle Newspaper
Philadelphia Inquirer: MediaNews Group, which eviscerates the staffs and liquidates the property of acquired newspapers, is expected to buy the bankrupt Reading Eagle for $5 million. MediaNews was the lone qualified bidder for last week’s bankruptcy auction for the...
McClatchy Taps Politico Veteran as News VP Across Newspapers
McClatchy: McClatchy has named Kristin Roberts VP of News. She will lead a newly-expanded news group that comprises the company's 30 newsrooms across 14 states, news operations and McClatchy Studios, the company's long-form audio and video documentary production...
Meredith Expat Fortune Magazine Sees Digital Staffers Join Union
WWD: Fortune’s newsroom is now entirely unionized. Despite efforts by the magazine’s management to derail the union, including an immediate rejection of voluntary recognition and direct efforts by CEO Alan Murray, a wide majority of digital staffers at the former Time...
Conde Nast’s Vanity Fair Cannes Party All Wet as Big Stars Pass
Showbiz411: Vanity Fair endured a traumatizing Cannes Film Festival party in drenching rain at the Hotel du Cap. Even though Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio were on the grounds, they didn’t attend. Their big get was Quentin Tarantino, and a bunch of actors who’d...
New York Times Journos Landing Lots of Lucrative Book Deals
Vanity Fair: In the journalism world, one consequence of the supercharged news cycle of the late twenty-teens is the booming economy for extracurricular side-hustles, namely cable-news gigs and books. With books in particular, perhaps no single outlet has seen more...
AT&T Pushes WarnerMedia to Exploit Emotional Ties to Phones
Fortune: At the heart of AT&T's grand plan, says WarnerMedia boss John Stankey, is something the old phone company wouldn’t have known much about -- emotion. Cell phones have become so indispensable that people are emotionally attached to them, and “our ability to...
Disney, AT&T Entrants to Help Bring Shakeout in TV Streaming
Bloomberg Opinion: Media giants such as AT&T know that it’s no longer enough to simply offer their own versions of Netflix. They’re now under pressure to differentiate their streaming-video products. That’s because, at some point, there will be an industry...
CBS, Lions Gate Expect to Continue Talks About Sale of Starz
CNBC: CBS is expected to continue talks in the coming weeks with Lions Gate about buying Starz, the entertainment network Lions Gate owns. No banks have been hired yet, as talks are still early and a deal is far from assured. The consolidation of subscale media assets...
Sony’s Epic ‘Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood’ Shocks Cannes
Los Angeles Times: The day before the Cannes premiere of “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” his hotly anticipated movie set in Los Angeles during the tumultuous events of 1969, Quentin Tarantino published an open letter online. He addressed it to audiences at the...
Disney’s Live-Action ‘Aladdin’ Stirs Controversy Before Release
Screen Rant: The upcoming live-action remake of "Aladdin" has proven to be one of Disney’s most divisive and potentially risky projects. Concerns about an insensitive approach to the material were exacerbated when news broke about how white extras on the film were put...
Comcast Developing a Health Monitoring Device for the Elderly
Gizmodo: Comcast is working on a new in-home device that will monitor your health. The device will primarily be used to detect motion within the homes of elderly people, picking up patterns on how the user moves and trying to spot anomalies that may be related to...
Viacom Brings Back TV Producer in Departure from BuzzFeed
Variety: Lauren Dolgen, after spending a year heading up BuzzFeed Studios, is coming back to cable TV. Paramount Network recruited Dolgen as senior VP, unscripted development and production. It’s a return to Viacom for the veteran TV producer, who previously spent...
Vice Media Hires Former Mic Publisher as Chief Digital Officer
Variety: Vice Media has recruited Cory Haik, former publisher of digital news start-up Mic, as chief digital officer to lead the youth-culture company’s global internet businesses. Haik will be based at Vice’s Brooklyn headquarters and report to CEO Nancy...
Apple, Google Face Lawsuit from ‘Over the Rainbow’ Composer
BBC News: The estate of Harold Arlen, who wrote such American songbook classics as "Over The Rainbow," is suing some of the world's biggest tech firms. Arlen's son, Sam Arlen, says he has found more than 6,000 unauthorized copies of his songs on Apple, Google, Amazon...
Netflix Promo Ties In with Coca-Cola on Re-Release of New Coke
CNBC: New Coke is one of those product flops that often is used as a case study on marketing failures, but Coca-Cola is hoping to turn that around in a promotion with Netflix show “Stranger Things.” The third season will take place in 1985 — the same year that the...
Hulu, Spotify Look to Nab Bigger Share of Political Ad Spending
The Information: As the 2020 election cycle shifts into high gear, streaming video and audio companies such as Hulu and Spotify are looking to capture a bigger part of the expanding digital political advertising market, which Facebook and Google...
Twitter’s New ‘Experiment’ Shows Some Users Many More Ads
Bloomberg: If you feel like you’ve been seeing more Twitter ads lately, it’s not just your imagination. A Twitter spokeswoman said that the company is experimenting with ad load, the industry term used to describe the frequency that users see...
Meredith, Hearst Magazines Plan New Offerings for Apple News+
Cult of Mac: Apple has “hundreds” of people working to make Apple News+ the best place to read magazines. The company has received “great feedback” from many of its publishing partners, it revealed. And some of them have special offerings planned for upcoming issues...
Conde Nast’s Self Touts Success After Shuttering Print Edition
Folio: When Conde Nast announced in 2017 that the January/February 2018 issue of Self would be the last print run, editor-in-chief Carolyn Kylstra knew that the transition would be a challenge. A year and a half later, the brand achieved profitability ahead of...
Hearst’s Esquire Helps Readers Buy Brad Pitt’s Cannes Eyewear
Esquire: Brad Pitt walked the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday wearing Garrett Leight’s Calabar sunglasses. At $340, the Calabar isn't exactly cheap. But good eyewear is worth the investment. You're wearing it on your face, after all. Don't you want...
American Media Inc Investor May Join Deal for National Enquirer
New York Post: Leon Cooperman, the investor who heads Omega Advisors and owns about 10% of American Media Inc., may join the investment team that is backing Hudson News chief Jimmy Cohen’s $100 million deal to buy the National Enquirer and two other...
Refinery29 Unveils French Edition from Global Hub in Germany
WWD: Refinery29 will now be offering content en français. The digital publisher has announced the launch of Refinery29 France, three years after the introduction of its German edition. Refinery29’s fashion, beauty, lifestyle, wellness and culture content will be...
New York Times Editor Predicts Death of Most Local Newspapers
Fast Company: New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet has a bleak forecast for the future of print media: "The greatest crisis in American journalism is the death of local news. Their economic model is gone. I think most local newspapers in America are going to...
AT&T Fears HBO Cancellations After End of ‘Game of Thrones’
NBC News: “Game of Thrones” viewers have pledged — or threatened — to to cancel HBO, departing the cable channel roughly around the same time as its most popular series. The potential wave of HBO cancellations puts the spotlight on what’s known in the industry as...
Netflix Again Bests HBO as Top Pick for Originals, Survey Says
Variety: Netflix continues to wear the crown as having the “best original programming” among premium TV and over-the-top subscription services, according to new research from Morgan Stanley. About 40% of consumers surveyed said the streamer is the No. 1 outlet on this...
Amazon Studios Returns Rights to ‘Rainy Day’ to Woody Allen
Variety: Amazon Studios has returned the domestic rights to indie film “A Rainy Day in New York” back to its director and producer, Woody Allen. The film had been stuck in the mire of litigation with his former creative partners at Amazon, but Allen is now free to...
Comcast Tower in Philly Screens Exclusive Short by Spielberg
Philadelphia Inquirer: The Universal Sphere inside the new Comcast Tower is a cross between virtual reality and a planetarium, the creation of CEO Brian Roberts and filmmaker Steven Spielberg. Inside the spherical theater, Comcast shows a six- to seven-minute film...
Viacom’s Pluto TV Adds Young Turks Channel Ahead of 2020
MediaPost: Pluto TV, the free ad-supported streaming video service, is continuing to expand its news offerings ahead of the 2020 election cycle. On Monday, Pluto launched a channel for The Young Turks, a progressive news and talk...
Disney CEO Credits ESPN Recovery to Sports Channel’s Boss
Los Angeles Times: Although challenges remain, analysts credit president Jimmy Pitaro for bringing stability to ESPN and finding new ways to reach out to younger audiences. So far, Disney CEO Bob Iger is happy with Pitaro’s progress, crediting him with dialing down...