Fox Corp CEO Biography Due by Former Murdoch Journo
Books + Publishing: Black Inc. has acquired worldwide rights to a new unauthorized biography of Lachlan Murdoch by author and journalist Paddy Manning. The publisher said the book will investigate the Fox Corp. CEO — the eldest son of Rupert Murdoch — and where he...
Warner Music Files for IPO in Signal of Industry Comeback
Los Angeles Times: When billionaire Len Blavatnik bought Warner Music Group for $3.3 billion in 2011, the major labels were still reeling from the digital revolution. Since then, the recorded music industry has gained significant ground thanks to the rise of...
Verizon-Hearst Finds a Franchise in Complex’s ‘Hot Ones’
National Post: Since its premiere on YouTube in 2015, "Hot Ones" has ably demonstrated the curious appeal of the chicken-and-luminary format — and as it enters its 11th season in February, after 174 episodes, it continues to demonstrate that the appeal is strangely...
Twitter Nabs $1 Billion in Quarterly Revenue for First Time
Reuters: Twitter pulled in $1 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time on Thursday, beating expectations as efforts to make its platform more user-friendly brought in more people. Twitter recorded most of its revenue growth in the United States, a major market...
Reddit Offers Tool to Help TV Broadcasters Use Its Content
The Drum: Reddit is becoming more TV-friendly. A new tool has made it easier for broadcasters to share and credit content from its communities. Reddit has partnered with interactive storytelling firm Tagboard to integrate the blogging community's content with live...
Fox News Memo Accuses Own Pundits of ‘Disinformation’
Daily Beast: Fox News's own research team has warned colleagues not to trust some of the network's top commentators' claims about Ukraine. An internal Fox News research briefing book openly questions Fox News contributor John Solomon's...
New York Times Seeks Subscribers in TV Ad at the Oscars
Nieman Lab: On Sunday, during the Academy Awards on ABC, the New York Times will kick off a national ad campaign with a commercial highlighting The 1619 Project, its stories marking the 400th anniversary of the first documented enslaved Africans to reach the British...
Tribune’s New CEO Swiftly Cuts Senior Execs in Bloodbath
New York Post: New Tribune boss Terry Jimenez has executed a series of cuts that wiped out at least a half-dozen execs with the rank of VP or higher. The cuts, which followed an all-hands meeting in Chicago, are believed to be the result of pressure from Alden Global...
Thomson Reuters Expats Bashed for Fake News Websites
BuzzFeed News: A network of roughly 100 sites has been plagiarizing stories from major news organizations, masquerading as local news and financial outlets, and manipulating Google News and search results to earn money through ads and email...
Hearst Execs Use Offices Closer to Staff Amid Union Push
New York Post: A couple of Hearst Magazines bigwigs are spending more time on a floor near their staff, which has tongues wagging following a unionization push that caught the publishing empire’s C-Suite by complete...
Meredith Claims ‘Strongest Position’ After Time Inc Merger
Folio: CEO Tom Harty opened Meredith's quarterly earnings call Thursday morning by declaring the integration of the now two-year-old Time Inc. acquisition "largely complete," leaving the company in "the strongest competitive position in its...
Vox Media Shines as Finalist in National Magazine Awards
Ad Age: A magazine published by a newspaper has garnered the most finalist nods in the 2020 National Magazine Awards. The New York Times Magazine leads with 10 nominations. Coming close, New York Magazine (acquired by Vox Media in September) snagged...
G/O Media: No Plans to Sell Off Any More of Our Websites
Adweek: Following the sale of the satire website ClickHole, a spokesman for G/O Media said there are no additional plans to sell off any other of its sites. But new media partners have been formed in New York Media and Vox Media, Vice Media and Refinery29, and...
BuzzFeed News Plots Membership Growth, But No Paywall
CNN: BuzzFeed executive editor Samantha Henig said she wants to grow the membership program, which offers exclusive emails for $5 per month and additional perks for $100 per year. But her plans do not involve a...
Media Star Says Thanks to Professionals in Media Industry
Media Star wishes to thank the many people who have stepped forward to help support this service. Industry professionals say (and tweet) that Media Star helps them keep up on all the latest in media and tech news. Does Media Star help you? Please help Media Star with...
Fox Corp’s CEO Talks of Success at Super Bowl, Fox News
Dow Jones: Fox Corp. took in about $600 million in advertising revenue for its coverage of Super Bowl LIV and the pregame and postgame content, said CEO Lachlan Murdoch. Fox's chief exec spent much of his call with analysts talking about the strength of Fox...
AT&T Plans WarnerMedia Studio to Make Streaming Films
Los Angeles Times: Movie studio Warner Bros. and HBO Max are launching a new division that will specialize in making movies specifically for streaming. The unit is designed to produce films for HBO Max, the upcoming streaming service owned by the studio's parent...
Disney Readies Global Rollout of Streamers Hulu, Disney+
World Screen: In a conference call with analysts, Disney CEO Bob Iger weighed in on the international rollout of Disney+, including the upcoming debut in India, and noted that global expansion of Hulu is likely to follow beginning in...
Netflix Brushes Off Disney Streaming Results as Low Risk
Bloomberg: Disney reported strong subscriber numbers for its Disney+ streaming service, but it's not the competitive risk that it may appear for Netflix. The "positive outweighs the negative," wrote BofA analyst Nat Schindler. Even with the competition, "Netflix...
Microsoft Taps New CEO for Professional Network LinkedIn
Associated Press: LinkedIn is getting a new CEO. Jeff Weiner will become executive chairman after 11 years as chief of the Microsoft-owned business. Ryan Roslansky, senior vice president of product, will become CEO as of June 1. Weiner said the timing felt right...
Quibi to Exploit Mobile Features by Ignoring Traditional TV
Protocol: By focusing exclusively on mobile, Quibi can try the kind of novel interactivity that other video rivals can't. Future Quibi shows could make use of a phone's gyroscope, location or camera. Launching on TV as well as mobile wouldn't allow show creators to...
Spotify Makes Fourth Podcast Buy with Simmons’s Ringer
Recode: Spotify is making yet another big-budget purchase aimed at getting a lead in the growing podcast industry: The streaming music company has agreed to a deal to purchase The Ringer, the podcast-centric media company run and owned by Bill...
Axel Springer Unveils Mexican Edition of Business Insider
Nieman Lab: The New York Times, BuzzFeed, HuffPost, El País, and others have all retrenched from Mexico in various ways recently. But Business Insider sees potential in reaching younger, upwardly mobile Mexicans. It starts off with a staff of...
Tribune Staffers Vow a ‘Fight to the End’ to Fend Off Alden
Vanity Fair: The campaign by Tribune Publishing staffers to fend off Alden Global Capital, the "grim reaper of US newspapers," is probably a long shot, they admit. "We still have hope that somebody, or a group of people, can step in. We're willing to go to the wall...
Conde Nast Lures Few Stars to Vanity Fair Pre-Oscar Party
Showbiz 411: What if you gave a party and no one's heard of the people who showed up? Seems like that's what happened last night in Hollywood when Vanity Fair threw a pre-Oscar opening at the Wallis Annenberg Center. But only three actual stars showed...
AMI’s Us Weekly Chief Sees Magazines as an ‘Indulgence’
Mr Magazine: Vicci Rose, chief revenue officer of Us Weekly, says she believes that magazines today are more of an "indulgence" than a "luxury" product. "The term luxury; what does that mean? Is it a small luxury? Perhaps. I would say that we're talking about...
Valence Media Lays Off Employees at Hollywood Reporter
WWD: The Hollywood Reporter is making some staff cuts. The industry publication has just laid off around a dozen staffers in total, a third of which are in editorial. The cuts are said to affect its web team, styles coverage and international...
Crain’s New York Media-Biz Reporter Exits After 16 Years
Crain's New York Business: "I came to Crain's 16 years ago to write about the media business," writes Matthew Flamm. "Over time, I ended up writing about everything else — from Uber and taxis, to cannabis laws, natural gas pipelines, and how New Yorkers can't...
BuzzFeed Eyes New Model to Power Growth in Commerce
Digiday: BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti believes that BuzzFeed and other media companies aren't receiving enough credit for the role they play in their audience's purchases. He hopes a new sponsorship program will help prove how much value BuzzFeed delivers....
Politico Publisher Unveils Tech News Site Called Protocol
Adweek: After Robert Allbritton, publisher of politics-centric news organization Politico, saw the need to cover an aggressively changing tech industry, he landed on a concept that borrowed from the political site’s model: niche reporting that would draw loyal...