G/O Media’s Deadspin Editor Predicts New Life for Website
Digiday: "We're going to tackle topics and issues and the big entities the same way that Deadspin always has, which is unapologetically and fearlessly," says new editor Jim Rich. "I've pretty much made my career on being a straight...
Politico Subscription Product to Cost Up to $75,000 a Year
Digiday: Politico is chasing after more subscription revenue by starting on Monday a new business-to-business product covering the Food and Drug Administration called AgencyIQ. The product will include research, analysis and...
ViacomCBS Faces Grammy Scandal Ahead of Big Telecast
Hollywood Reporter: Just how many people will tune in to CBS on Sunday to watch the Grammy Awards? The question carries extra weight thanks to a bombshell complaint filed by Deborah Dugan, the suspended Recording Academy chief. ...
Fox News Emerges as Top Channel to Watch Impeachment
Bloomberg: About 10 million people watched the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump on the six broadcast and cable networks in the first two days, with Fox News drawing the biggest audience, according to...
AT&T to Lean On HBO Max for Media Industry Domination
Business Insider: AT&T has made no secret of its desire to lead the fractured media landscape through its new WarnerMedia assets and Xandr ad-tech division. A WarnerMedia strategy deck shows how much the plan will focus on HBO...
Comcast to Open Streaming Video Studio with NBC News
Variety: After closing down its Peacock Productions non-fiction unit, NBC News is quickly getting back into the documentary business with NBC News Studios. The new division, led by Liz Cole, will produce content for emerging...
Disney Plans Live Programming for ABC News Streaming
Associated Press: ABC News will hire some 50 new journalists, assign correspondents Linsey Davis and Tom Llamas to online leadership roles and increase live programming with the goal of becoming a round-the-clock service within a...
Netflix Numbers Rise After Move to New Viewership Metric
CNET: Netflix has switched to a new viewership metric that inflates its numbers by more than a third compared with its previous standard. Netflix will now count a title as "watched" if you choose to watch it and let it play for two...
Google’s YouTube Hires Humans to Tackle Harmful Videos
Hollywood Reporter: To tackle so-called fake news, Susan Wojcicki, CEO of the Google-owned video streaming giant, said YouTube has worked to reduce borderline content. YouTube is using human moderators to combat harmful video...
Snap Nabs Oprah Network Veteran for Mobile Programming
Variety: Jill Dickerson has left OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network after more than a decade to join Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, as a senior member of the Snap Originals team. Dickerson will help lead development of Snap’s...
PBS’s ‘MacNeil/Lehrer Report’ Newsman Lehrer Dies at 85
USA Today: Jim Lehrer, a longtime anchorman for PBS who appeared on the air for more than 30 years until his retirement in 2011, died Thursday at 85. Lehner died “peacefully in his sleep,” according to PBS. He had suffered a heart attack in...
Vice Media Study Says Gen Z Really Likes Original Content
Billboard: The results of a new study conducted by Vice Media Group for Ontario Creates focus on how Gen Z discovers, consumes and shares culture content, including music, film, television, art, lifestyle, gaming and...
PwC Says M&A to Slow as Media Giants Evaluate Strategy
World Screen: While calling 2019 a “transformative year” in M&A in the media and telco sectors, with several megadeals and a shifting relationship between traditional media and big tech, PwC reports that overall deal activity and value fell last...
Axel Springer Plans Stock Delisting in Hunt for Media Buys
Reuters: German publisher Axel Springer said it planned to delist from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Springer has said that once private, it hopes to gain greater freedom to build its digital portfolio and look for...
News Corp Appoints New Editor at Britain’s Sunday Times
Prolific London: Emma Tucker, deputy editor of the Times, is to be the next editor of the Sunday Times, according to reports. Tucker is to replace Martin Ivens, who has edited the paper since 2013. Tucker started her career at the Financial...
Gannett’s USA Today Wins Kudos for Yanking Comments
Editor & Publisher: Readers liked the removal of the comment option for stories in the recent redesign of USA Today's website, according to consumer products chief Jason Jedlinski. "This was a daunting challenge for me and some of my team...
New York Times at Work on February Makeover of Opinion
Vanity Fair: In many ways, the New York Times’s planned makeover of Opinion, which is scheduled to take effect sometime in February, has everything to do with the department’s structure and org-chart. At its core, however, is a notable departure from the way things...
Hearst Labor-Board Loss Sets the Stage for Union Election
Business Insider: The National Labor Relations Board just ruled against Hearst Magazines in its fight against a union. Hearst had argued that many of the proposed union members were actually supervisors and not eligible for the...
Conde Nast ‘Lifer’ to Modernize Architectural Digest at 100
Ad Age: Amy Astley, a lifer at Conde Nast, is modernizing a premium media brand that had grown a little dusty, as editor in chief of Architectural Digest. In her time at AD, the magazine has seen its audience grow 63 percent across print and...
Meredith’s People Editor Readies Print Spinoffs, TV Series
WWD: Dan Wakeford is nine months into the top job as editor in chief of People magazine. "We’ve elevated the design of the magazine. I wanted to make it a lot more sophisticated. I really want to provide what you can’t get on the...
Outside Magazine Dominates as a Media Brand, Chief Says
Mr Magazine: Larry Burke, chairman and editor in chief of Outside: "We happen to dominate in a very active lifestyle marketplace as a media brand. And it has given us a lot of opportunities. Of course, there are a lot of...
G/O Media Taps Daily News Veteran as Leader of Deadspin
Wall Street Journal: G/O Media has turned to Jim Rich, the former top editor of the New York Daily News, to lead Deadspin, the sports website that has been rudderless since its entire staff resigned last fall to protest company CEO Jim...
Group Nine Names Exec as General Manager of PopSugar
MediaPost: Women’s lifestyle brand PopSugar is tasking Angelica Marden with leading both its editorial operations and business efforts as its new general manager. Marden had served as the brand’s SVP of content...
ViacomCBS Remakes Exec Ranks with Job Cuts to Come
Hollywood Reporter: When ViacomCBS was formed Dec. 4, some insiders predicted that CBS chief Joe Ianniello, who was suddenly second fiddle to CEO Bob Bakish, wouldn't be long for the gig. Last week, those prognostications became more...
Comcast Plans Summer Launch for NBC Sky World News
Variety: NBCUniversal and Sky, both owned by Comcast, will this summer launch NBC Sky World News, a news service aimed at English-speaking audiences around the globe. The company intends to recruit new talent as well as 100...
Liberty Global Preps Bid for Spanish-Language Univision
Bloomberg: Liberty Global’s investment arm is working with Hemisphere Media on a bid for Spanish-language media giant Univision. Private equity firm Platinum Equity is also interested, as well as former Viacom CFO Wade...
Disney Sells Off FoxNext Video Game Development Studio
Los Angeles Times: Disney is selling video game studio FoxNext in the latest example of the entertainment company trimming assets it acquired from 21st Century Fox. Disney is selling FoxNext to Culver City game maker...
Tegna TV Stations Under Investor Pressure to Sell, Merge
Reuters: Another large investor in Tegna wants the U.S. regional TV station operator to pursue a merger or sale, arguing a tie-up could be very valuable at a time the industry is facing a wave of...
Hallmark Media CEO Departs After Same-Sex Ad Backlash
Associated Press: Bill Abbott, the head of Hallmark’s media business, is leaving the company after 11 years, just a month after its flagship Hallmark Channel faced an outcry over a decision to pull an ad with a lesbian couple...
ViacomCBS Book Unit Sees ‘Gatsby’ Enter Public Domain
Associated Press: The copyright for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” is set to expire at the end of 2020, meaning that anyone will be allowed to publish the book, adapt it to a movie, make it into an opera or stage a Broadway...