Facebook Taps Stallone, Rock for First-Ever Ad in Super Bowl
MarketWatch: Facebook will run its first commercial in the Super Bowl, buying time for a 60-second ad featuring Chris Rock and Sylvester Stallone to promote its Groups feature. Fox last month said it had sold out of ad time in the coming Super...
TiVo in $3 Billion Entertainment-Tech Merger Deal with Xperi
Variety: TiVo has scrapped plans to split itself into two separate companies, and instead announced a $3 billion merger with Xperi, a company that sells audio, imaging and computing tech products. The combo will hold 10,000 patents and patent applications....
Cox is Ordered to Pay $1 Billion Over Piracy of 10,000 Songs
CNET: Cox has been ordered to pay $1 billion in damages to Sony Music, Universal Music, Warner Music and EMI after being found liable for song piracy. "The jury's verdict sends a clear message -- ISPs that fail to meet their obligations will be held...
Facebook Seeks Music-Video Rights in Challenge to YouTube
Bloomberg: Facebook is pursuing rights to music videos from major record labels, programming that could boost interest in its Watch video service. The company is in the midst of negotiating new licensing deals with the three largest music...
Hearst Faces Unfair-Labor-Practice Charge from Writers Guild
Intelligencer: Hearst’s union-busting campaign is about to receive fresh scrutiny. On Thursday morning, the Writers Guild of America, East, filed an unfair-labor-practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against Troy...
Meredith, Bonnier Pros Pick Favorite Magazine Covers of 2019
Folio: Some of the top designers from around the industry have offered their feedback on their favorite magazine covers of 2019. Like every year, the picks show a diversity of timely, relevant topics as well as design...
Conde Nast Scion Drops $6 Million on Condo in Miami Beach
Real Deal: Property records show Jonathan Newhouse, chairman of the Condé Nast board and former CEO of Condé Nast International, has closed on unit 1001 at Eighty Seven Park, at 8701 Collins Avenue in Miami...
IAC Plots Moves to Take On Conde Nast, Hearst with Dotdash
Business Insider: Dotdash said it's one of the fastest growing publishers online and is giving established brands a run for their money. It's laid the groundwork to expand into the beauty advertising category and take on Conde Nast and...
Quartz Names Former Barron’s Leader as New Editor in Chief
Adweek: Katherine Bell is Quartz’s new editor in chief, the digital publication announced. She succeeds co-founder Kevin Delaney, who stepped down in October. “Katherine is a brilliant thinker on digital media and an inspirational newsroom...
McClatchy Makes Changes at Miami, Fort Worth Newspapers
Fort Worth Star-Telegram: The Fort Worth Star-Telegram will cease publication next week of several weekly newspapers. Miami Herald: The Miami Herald is replacing the Saturday print edition with expanded Friday and Sunday papers. ...
Journalist Layoff Count Surpasses 3,000 in 2019, Report Says
CJR: Most newsroom losses have occurred at print newspapers. But many newer digital outlets have faltered, too. Medium: In January, over a thousand journalists lost their jobs as layoffs hit Gannett, BuzzFeed, AOL and...
Disney’s New ‘Star Wars’ Film Gets a Lot of Negative Reviews
Bloomberg: “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” is on track to be one of the worst-reviewed films in the nine-picture saga. The latest installment of the series has received positive reviews from 57% of critics tracked by aggregator Rotten...
Fox Opts Not to Air Ads Promoting Scandal Flick ‘Bombshell’
Bloomberg: Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp. has declined to run advertisements for “Bombshell,” a film about the sexual-harassment scandal at Fox News. The Lions Gate movie debuts nationally on Friday. Lions Gate has spent about $7 million marketing the film on...
ViacomCBS’s MTV Turns to YouTube in a Bid for Reinvention
Digiday: While individual video creators and digital video networks like AwesomenessTV were turning YouTube into a TV replacement for younger viewers, MTV was trying to get the platform’s audience to tune into its TV...
Univision Gets Buyout Interest from Former Top Viacom Exec
Wall Street Journal: Several firms have expressed interest in acquiring Univision, a deal that would give the Spanish-language broadcaster’s private-equity owners a long-sought exit. Hemisphere Media and Platinum Equity had both made...
AMC Networks Taps Conde Nast Veteran for New Ad Position
The Drum: AMC Networks has hired Evan Adlman for the newly created role of senior vice-president of advanced advertising and digital partnerships. Adlman will work with both the AMC Networks ad sales and programming...
Facebook to Acquire Spanish Cloud Video Gaming Company
CNBC: Facebook is pushing further into the video gaming market with the acquisition of PlayGiga, a Madrid-based company that specializes in cloud gaming. Facebook has been expanding its efforts in gaming in recent years as it looks to grow outside of online...
Apple, Amazon, Google to Huddle Up on Smart Home Devices
Reuters: Amazon, Apple and Google are partnering to lay the groundwork for better compatibility among their smart home products. The rare partnership comes against the backdrop of an intensified competition among tech companies to dominate the market for smart...
Quibi, Lionsgate, Team on Animated Black Superhero Series
World Screen: Quibi and Lionsgate are teaming up for "Trill League," an animated black superhero series executive produced by Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Anthony Piper, "Trill League" combines the worlds of superheroes,...
Playboy Founder’s Son Halts Plan to Launch Media Company
Fox News: Hugh Hefner's son has left behind his entrepreneurial aspirations in order to serve the country instead. Cooper Hefner, 28, officially joined the United States Air Force this week, months after stepping down from his role at...
Hearst Staffers’ Union Push Faces Possible Delay by Months
WWD: The National Labor Relations Board is understood to be looking into claims that there is already an existing union representing Hearst magazine staffers and the probe could potentially delay the attempts by employees to unionize by...
Conde Nast’s Wired Unveils Debut Print Issue for Middle East
MediaPost: Wired has published its debut print issue for the Middle East. It will be available on newsstands in the Gulf Cooperation Council, consisting of the six Gulf monarchy nations, and the wider Middle East. Wired launched a bilingual website for the Middle...
Trusted Media Brands CEO: Reader’s Digest Will Last Forever
Mr Magazine: Bonnie Kintzer, CEO and president of Trusted Media Brands: "Reader’s Digest will be here forever. When you look at the renewal rates, circulation and economics, I never worry about Reader’s Digest. I read letters from our readers and you can see that...
Tribune Bosses Seek to Rally Staff Amid Growing Challenges
Robert Feder: Despite ominous warnings about what’s ahead under new corporate owners Alden Global Capital, the Chicago Tribune is closing out the year on an upbeat note from its top editors. Said publisher and editor Bruce Dold: “Through uncertain times, this...
Benioffs’ Time Magazine Plans $20,000 Membership Program
Digiday: Time thinks it can build membership revenue by going ultra-expensive and ultra-affordable at the same time. Early next year, the legacy magazine publisher will begin inviting people to join a tiered membership program affiliated with Time...
Valence Media to Buy Nielsen Music for Tie-In with Billboard
Billboard: Billboard parent company Valence Media is acquiring the Nielsen Music insights and product suite that fuel its charts data. The deal reunites Billboard with a leading music consumption analytics platform after a decade-long...
Group Nine Media Opens Content Agency with Horizon Media
MediaPost: Horizon Media is joining forces with Group Nine Media to launch a content creation agency, Blue Hour Studios. “We believe the agility of the new model will generate much more relevant content, much more quickly at scale for...
Vox Media: Hundreds of Fired Freelancers Can Work for Free
SF Gate: According to an email from SB Nation chief John Ness, hundreds of California contractors will be angling for what appear to be just six full-time positions. And if they don't land one of those jobs, according to Ness, they'll be able to work for ......
BuzzFeed, Vice, Vox Find Some Safety in Unsafe Media Times
Vanity Fair: Things appear to have stabilized somewhat for the Holy Trinity of new-media unicorns -- BuzzFeed, Vice and Vox -- which, by the looks of it, have been streamlining and strategizing and acquiring their way to relative...
AT&T, Verizon, Netflix Among Decade’s Kingmakers in Media
CNBC: In 1996, Bill Gates said “content is king,” and his words became a truism in media. But over the last 10 years, it turned out that content distributors — AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Netflix — were the kingmakers, spending billions on programming and leaving...