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...
Conde Nast Denies Report of Ending Vanity Fair’s Summit
New York Post: A Vanity Fair spokesman shot down the report that the New Establishment Summit is officially off. "Not true," he said. "Nothing has been decided about 2020." Some insiders say that if the event is not killed off outright, it could be moved to a...
Penske Media to Invest in B2B Music Business Publication
Rolling Stone: Rolling Stone parent company Penske Media has announced a strategic investment in Music Business Worldwide — a deal that brings the two publications closer than ever before and adds another heavyweight to Penske's family of media...
New Republic to Launch Major Redesign Including Paywall
MediaPost: The New Republic is debuting a new look, coinciding with the launch of a politics-focused podcast and a metered paywall. The redesign will premiere in the March issue, with a new logo, typography, layout, photography and...
Disney Sees ABC Oscars Viewership Drop to All-Time Low
Reuters: The U.S. television audience for the 2020 Oscars fell to an all-time low for a ceremony that brought big wins for South Korean satire "Parasite" but was criticized by reviewers as long and haphazard. Viewership for Sunday's show, broadcast on ABC, dropped...
Facebook, Twitter ‘Killing Off’ Worship of Hollywood Stars
Spectator USA: The internet has killed the Hollywood star. Fame has been disrupted. Instagram, Twitter and Facebook mean we don't have to ogle stars anymore; we are too busy ogling ourselves. The age of celebrity, of mass entertainers mattering as anything other than...
Amazon Hires Sony, Hulu Alum to Oversee Entertainment
MarketWatch: Mike Hopkins, currently chairman of Sony Pictures Television and a former chief executive of the streaming platform Hulu, will join Amazon later this month as a senior vice president in charge of its Prime video platform and its movie and television...
Google’s YouTube Eyes Plan to Offer Video Subscriptions
The Information: YouTube is considering giving people the ability to sign up for a wide range of subscription-streaming services run by entertainment companies. The Google-owned video giant has talked with several entertainment companies about adding their...
Redbox Quietly Tests Ad-Supported Online Video Service
Protocol: Redbox is launching an ad-supported online video service. The DVD kiosk company has been testing the service on its website and in its mobile app with a subset of its audience, a spokesperson confirmed, adding that it would roll it out to additional users...
Fox Corp CEO’s Sister Emerges as Candidate to Run BBC
i News: Elisabeth Murdoch, the daughter of Rupert Murdoch who became a successful television entrepreneur in her own right, has emerged as a surprise candidate to run the BBC. Murdoch, the former head of Shine UK, is seen as an acceptable new director-general by the...
ViacomCBS Inks CBS TV-Digital Deal for Sports Gambling
CBS Sports: CBS Sports and William Hill, a leading sports book operator, have announced a partnership that makes William Hill the official sports book and wagering data provider across all CBS Sports platforms. The deal aims to reimagine fan engagement through sports...
AT&T, Apple, Amazon Set Up in Culver City for Streaming
Bloomberg: A century after the pioneers of Hollywood built their studios in Culver City, a new breed of entertainment company is transforming this California town just east of Santa Monica into a hotbed for content. Apple, Amazon and AT&T's HBO are moving...
Disney CEO Gives Podcast Interview to The Ringer Founder
The Ringer: In a new podcast, Bill Simmons is joined by Disney CEO Bob Iger to discuss his book "The Ride of a Lifetime," his career, lessons in leadership, the rise of streaming, launching Disney+, growing ESPN, unforgettable NBA games, the start of "Jimmy Kimmel...
Google Loses Time Inc Veteran as Human Resources Head
Fortune: Eileen Naughton, the head of human resources at Google, will step down later this year amid rising tensions between the company's top execs and rank and file employees. Naughton has been at the company for 14 years, four of which have been as vp of people...
Verizon Media’s HuffPost Brokers Second Union Contract
WWD: As Hearst Magazines staffers are still awaiting a date to vote for their union, HuffPost is already on its second contract. Following months of negotiations, HuffPost just ratified its second collective bargaining agreement with the Writers Guild of America,...
New York Times’s Mobile App Audience is ‘Most Valuable’
Adweek: Allison Murphy, svp of ad innovation at the New York Times, describes the publication's mobile app audience as its most valuable, given how many articles those users read, which in turn generates data that it can offer to...