Tribune’s Cross-Town Chicago Rival Worries About Alden
Chicago Sun-Times: The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times were once fierce rivals. "The Sun-Times took pride that our always scrappy, eternally strapped skeleton crew could whup the lofty Tribune. ... Yet the prospect of Alden sinking the place still...
Cox Enterprises Buys Back Ohio Newspapers from Apollo
Dayton Daily News: Cox Enterprises has agreed to repurchase the Dayton Daily News, Springfield News-Sun and Journal-News from Apollo Global Management. The decision ensures the papers can continue seven-day a week publication, which was at risk. "This is the best...
McClatchy Likely to Sell Newspapers as Pressures Mount
24/7 Wall St: Shares of McClatchy, one of the largest newspaper chains, trade as if the company will declare Chapter 11. At some point, if it has not already happened, McClatchy and its debt holders must have a plan to sell its largest papers. The odds that...
Hearst Magazines Chief Adds Post with Interactive Group
MediaPost: Troy Young, the president of Hearst Magazines, was named chairman of IAB's board of directors at the organization's annual leadership meeting in California. Young was previously the board's vice chairman, a position he has held since February...
Conde Nast Hits Pause on Vanity Fair’s New Establishment
@DylanByers: Conde Nast has decided to suspend the annual Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit this year, according to sources. The intimate conference, which used to feature notable media and tech execs, "was a money pit." Vanity Fair "had trouble selling tickets...
Tina Brown Says Magazine Business is No Longer Any Fun
New York Times Magazine: All of the fun has gone out of magazine publishing, according to Tina Brown, the former editor in chief of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Editors, she says, now spend most of their time "having boring meetings about distribution and...
Netflix Faces Defeat as Big Oscar Wins Go to Sony, Disney
CNBC: Netflix may have had the most nominations heading into the 92nd Academy Awards, but it didn't take home the most prizes. That honor was a three-way tie between Disney, Sony and South Korea’s CJ Entertainment — each taking home four...
Disney’s ABC Sells Out of Oscars Ad Time Amid Price Hike
Adweek: After a rocky lead-up to the 2019 Academy Awards ceremony, things have been progressing much more according to plan this time around for ABC, with none of the pre-telecast controversies that marred last year's event. It's also smooth sailing on the business...
AT&T CEO Refuses to Comment on His Role Beyond 2020
CNBC: Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of AT&T, told CNBC on Friday that he will remain chief executive officer through the end of this year. But beyond that, he refused to say whether he would stay or leave. 'I'm not giving any indication beyond...
ViacomCBS Siblings Gayle King, Snoop Dogg in Brouhaha
New York Post: Snoop Dogg isn't looking for a fight with Gayle King. The rapper took to Instagram on Saturday to make that clear after calling out the CBS correspondent for mentioning late basketball star Kobe Bryant’s 2003 rape case. "I'm a non-violent person,"...
Comcast, Amazon Mull Acquiring Streaming Rights to WWE
Wrestling News: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is said to have expressed interest in purchasing WWE streaming rights for major events. The other rumored streaming platform that is said to be interested is the Peacock network being launched by NBCUniversal in a couple of...
Quibi Runs Five Ads During Oscarcast to Explain What It Is
The Verge: Quibi's 30-second commercial during last week's Super Bowl left many people asking: "What the hell is Quibi?" Sunday's series of ads at the Oscars was Quibi's best try to answer that question. There were five ads in total, and all took place in bizarre...
Facebook, Twitter Snub Pelosi Request to Pull Trump Video
CNBC: A fierce behind-the-scenes dispute between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and Facebook erupted into public view Friday, as the speaker’s office demanded that Facebook remove a doctored video of Pelosi ripping up Trump's speech posted online by President...
Apple Leans on Apple News in Hosting of Democratic Debate
Gizmodo: Apple co-hosted last week's Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire and even solicited questions from the public through Apple News. It was the first time that Apple has hosted a debate, joining the ranks of previous co-hosts like...
Vice Media Brings Back ‘Vice News’ Show in Quiet Rebrand
Adweek: "Vice News Tonight," the nightly news program from Vice Media, will return to television on March 4 at 8 p.m. as an hour-long live news series, but the show won’t air on Viceland. Instead, it will be broadcast on Vice TV, the newly rebranded version of the...
Black News Channel to Launch After Decade in Development
Fox Business: The nation's first news channel that focuses on the black community is scheduled to launch Monday. Black News Channel will offer original programming "created by people of color for people of color." BNC is spearheaded by J.C. Watts, a former Republican...
Hearst’s TV Station in New Hampshire Rakes In Political Ads
Los Angeles Times: Manchester, N.H.-based WMUR is the only commercial TV station in New Hampshire. Presidential aspirants descending on the state in the early pivotal contest fill hours of time on its local newscasts and public affairs programs — and spend millions...
Conde Nast Offers Live Stream of Vanity Fair’s Oscar Party
Vanity Fair: Couldn't make it to Beverly Hills on Sunday night? Readers were invited to attend the Vanity Fair Oscar Party from the comfort of their own homes. Immediately after the awards show wrapped up, hosts welcomed viewers to the party's official...
News Corp Trounces New York Times in Digital Subscribers
Fox Business: Bucking the trend of the larger newspaper industry, News Corp is trouncing rivals including the New York Times. The Wall Street Journal topped 2 million digital subscriptions for the first time, while its sister news service, Dow Jones set a new record...
New York Times Sees Podcasting as Pipeline to Millennials
Inside Radio: For a newspaper that was founded in 1851, it’s not surprising that the New York Times thinks long-term. It's one of the reasons the company is embracing podcasting, according to CEO Mark Thompson. "The Daily" podcast has given the paper a pipeline to...
Tribune Taps Daily News Editor to Run Another Newspaper
New York Post: The editor-in-chief of the New York Daily News has been given his old job back — and he didn't even ask for it. Robert York, who joined the Big Apple tabloid from The Morning Call of Allentown, Pennsylvania, in July 2018, will oversee his old paper in...
Hearst Newspapers Invests in Marketing Agency in Buffalo
Buffalo Business First: One of the region's largest marketing firms has received an undisclosed cash injection from Hearst Newspapers to support its growth. The Martin Group now has a major strategic investor to fuel plans to offer marking solutions across more...
Group Nine Media Hopes to Take Ad Dollars Away from TV
AdExchanger: Fresh off the acquisition of PopSugar last October, Group Nine Media vowed to turn a profit in 2020 – putting revenue chief Geoff Schiller, a PopSugar transplant, in charge of finding the advertising dollars that will bring the media organization into...
The Information Tech-News Site Finds Payday from Paywall
New York Times: The Information achieved profitability in 2016, said founder Jessica Lessin, three years after she left the Wall Street Journal to start it. She added that she expected $20 million in sales by the end of 2020, and for her staff of two dozen reporters...
AT&T’s Warner Bros is Favored to Beat Netflix at the Oscars
Reuters: Netflix will storm into Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony boasting more nominations than any other movie distributor. However, the experts surveyed by awards website Gold Derby favored a best-picture win for Warner Bros.' "1917," giving it 11-2 odds, while...
ViacomCBS at Work to Develop Another Streaming Service
CNBC: Newly combined ViacomCBS is working on combining media assets for a new streaming service. The media giant is considering creating a service with advertisements that will combine CBS All Access with Viacom assets including Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, Comedy Central...
AT&T Wants a ‘Friends’ Reunion for WarnerMedia Streamer
MarketWatch: WarnerMedia's HBO Max is finalizing agreements with the cast of "Friends" for a reunion special that will likely be used to launch the streaming service this spring. Under the terms being discussed, each of the six "Friends" stars would receive between...
Comcast, Fox, Disney Back Off from Digital Media Startups
Recode: Two big, splashy digital media acquisitions in the last week tell us something about the future of media: The old predictions that the Big TV guys were eventually going to own all the upstarts were wrong. A few years ago, investors were excited to throw money...
ViacomCBS to Mull Options for CNET After Buyer Interest
Bloomberg: ViacomCBS is weighing options for CNET after receiving takeover interest in the product review website. A number of potential suitors contacted ViacomCBS about the unit after CEO Bob Bakish said he’s looking to offload non-core assets following the merger...
Disney CEO Apologizes After Fine for School’s ‘Lion King’
Fox Business: Disney CEO Bob Iger apologized after the company fined an elementary school in California for screening "The Lion King" remake in November. Emerson Elementary screened the remake during a parent-teacher association event, designed to fund supplies and...