AT&T WarnerMedia CNN Boss to Sell Home Amid Divorce
New York Post: Jeff Zucker is selling his New York City apartment on the Upper East Side for $17.5 million. The 54-year-old CNN head and his wife, Caryn Nathanson, purchased the 11-room apartment in 2007 for $12.3 million from the late actress Kitty Carlisle...
Comcast’s NBC Blankets the Internet with ‘Zoey’s Playlist’
Vulture: In early January, NBC premiered the first episode of its quirky new musical-drama "Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist." On Sunday night, the network will finally air the show's next episode. This is not how things usually work in TV — but there is a purpose...
Netflix Aims to Fend Off New Rivals in Deal with Samsung
TechCrunch: Netflix is hoping a new partnership with Samsung will help it fend off rivals. At Samsung’s Unpacked event this week, the mobile device maker announced a deal with Netflix that will bring to its Galaxy smartphones special bonus content associated with...
Amazon’s Audible Enters Deal for Memoir with Kaepernick
New York Post: Quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick will collaborate with Audible on the audiobook of his forthcoming memoir and other projects. The deal will let Audible exclusively release the audio version of the book — described as "part political...
Microsoft’s LinkedIn to Grow Editorial Team in News Push
The Drum: LinkedIn has become very serious about news. It has grown its editorial team to 65, serving 17 markets in nine languages. The audience, potentially, is vast: there are 675 million members globally. The task of the LinkedIn newsroom is to keep those members...
Forecast: US Digital Political Ad Spending to Top $1 Billion
CBS News: Spending on U.S. digital political advertising in the current electoral cycle will likely top $1 billion for the first time, according to a new report from eMarketer. Spending on digital political ads this election cycle amounts to more than three times the...
McClatchy to Seek Digital Do-Over in Filing for Bankruptcy
McClatchy DC: McClatchy filed for bankruptcy Thursday, a move that will end family control of America's second largest local news company. Under a plan outlined in its bankruptcy filing, about 55 percent of McClatchy's debt would be eliminated as the news...
Clarity Media Ousts Senior Editors at Washington Examiner
Mediaite: Bloodletting at the Washington Examiner continued this week with the dramatic ouster of managing editor Toby Harnden, days after the conservative publication fired breaking news editor Jon Nicosia for sharing a lewd video. Harnden exited after being accused...
News Corp’s Storyful Unveils Video Licensing Marketplace
MediaPost: Storyful has launched a video licensing marketplace, called Storyful Video, that will allow media outlets and production houses to buy content directly from its archive of user-generated videos for broadcast or digital publication. Storyful has nearly...
Hearst Nabs Bonnier Editor to Oversee Automobile Group
Folio: Hearst Magazines has hired Joe Brown as group editorial director of its Hearst Autos division, which includes Car and Driver, Road & Track and Autoweek, among other titles, starting March 2. Brown moves to Hearst Autos from Bonnier, where he served as...
Conde Nast Expat Admits Doctoring Quotes, Fake Bylines
The Wrap: The former editor of Conde Nast's Details magazine admitted to years of chaotic leadership that included hiding an addiction to opioids, publishing articles with doctored quotations, and at least one instance of a column with a faked byline, in a new memoir...
Bauer, Hearst UK Magazines Suffer Big Circulation Losses
Campaign: Cosmopolitan UK failed to revive its fortunes, suffering the greatest circulation loss among the top 50 titles with a nosedive of 23% in actively purchased copies. Hearst said it continues "to evolve across a multitude of platforms including print, digital,...
ViacomCBS Plans Two Rounds of Layoffs in Coming Weeks
Variety: ViacomCBS is preparing for the first of two rounds of layoffs. The first round of cuts, which would affect around 100 people, could take place as early as Feb. 26 — six days after the company issues its quarterly earning report. A second set of cuts is...
AT&T Sets Up Sibling Rivalry with Warner Bros, Streaming
Hollywood Reporter: As WarnerMedia's new streamer HBO Max prepares for a launch in May, a newly announced film division will become a direct pipeline and could spark awkward internal politics. Industry veterans fear that another legacy studio — Warner Bros. — is...
Comcast Faces Call to Review Sexual Harassment ‘Failures’
Philadelphia Inquirer: An activist investor has called on Comcast to conduct an independent investigation into the company's "failures to prevent workplace sexual harassment." Arjuna Capital cites NBC's 2017 firing of former "Today" show host Matt Lauer over sexual...
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...