Sony Veteran Lynton to Join Warner Music Group as Chairman
Billboard: Former Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton has been elected non-executive chairman of the board of Warner Music Group. Currently the chairman of Snap, Lynton's election brings WMG's board of directors to 11...
MGM Begins Search for Strategic Partner in Cable Channel Epix
The Information: MGM Holdings is looking for a strategic partner for its Epix cable channel, to help grow the business and gain access to more programming and distribution. The search comes less than two years after MGM paid nearly a billion dollars for control of...
Activision Lays Off 800 Workers as Sales Drop for Video Games
Associated Press: Activision Blizzard is laying off nearly 800 workers as the company braces for a steep downturn in revenue following the best year in its history. The cutbacks announced illustrate the boom-and-bust cycles in an industry whose fortunes are tied to...
Vice Media Founder Smith is Vegas ‘High Roller’ During Layoffs
New York Post: Shane Smith, co-founder and executive chairman of Vice Media, is a high roller in Las Vegas who bets $25,000 chips and gives huge tips to dealers, a source says. “While Vice burns,” Smith seems to be “fiddling in...
Disney-ABC Oscars Red-Carpet Live Stream Switches to Twitter
Variety: ABC is moving its Oscars red-carpet preshow from Facebook to Twitter for 2019, marking the first time “Oscars All Access: Red Carpet Live” will be streamed live exclusively on Twitter. The live stream will be available at @TheAcademy account on Oscars...
Twitter CEO Dorsey Learns His Platform Isn’t Ideal for Interviews
Recode: Twitter wants to be the place for the most important public conversations online. It still has some serious work to do. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Recode co-founder Kara Swisher agreed to conduct an interview on Twitter. The only problem? No one could follow...
Apple News Service Likely in March Amid Gripes from Publishers
BuzzFeed News: Apple plans to hold a special event on March 25 at the Steve Jobs Theater on its Apple Park campus. Headlining the gathering: the subscription news service that has been all over the news. Apple reportedly plans to claim half the proceeds of a $10...
Google Set to Employ More People Than US Newspaper Industry
Bloomberg Opinion: With 139,900 payroll employees as of December, U.S. newspapers are still ahead of Alphabet. But if Alphabet’s contractors outnumber its employees, then it may really have 200,000-plus people working at the tech giant, far more than the entire U.S....
Digital First Media Hunts for Newspaper Deals to Sell Real Estate
Washington Post: In a 2018 court case, Alden Global Capital disclosed it has a series of affiliated real estate companies whose business is focused primarily on efficiently buying, selling, leasing and redeveloping newspapers’ offices and printing...
New York Times Sees $100,000 Subscriptions as Real Possibility
Business Insider: New York Times COO Meredith Levien: "We have people paying over $1,000 a year for the New York Times. I think there are probably people in the world who would pay $100,000 for a subscription because they believe so much in it. ... We'll test higher...
News Corp Editors Gather in New York for Confab with Murdoch
Financial Review: News Corp.'s Australian newspapers are being piloted remotely this week, with their editors in New York for their annual team powwow with Rupert Murdoch and his co-chairman...
Meredith to Push Back Sale Deals for Sports Illustrated, Money
WWD: While Meredith initially planned to have the sale of four former Time Inc. titles executed by fall -- a timeline that the sales of Time and Fortune magazines managed to stay in line with -- deals for Sports Illustrated and Money could still be months...
Hearst Sparks Debate on Social Media with Esquire ‘White Teen’
Fox News: Esquire sparked a heated debate on social media Tuesday when it unveiled an upcoming cover story about a white American boy and what’s it’s like to grow up “in the era of social media, school shooting, toxic masculinity, #MeToo, and a divided...
Conde Nast’s Chevy-Ad Cover Confuses Readers of Bon Appétit
@msenese: "I know Conde Nast is having a rough spell but this is NUTS — the cover of the new issue of Bon Appetit that my mom just received is literally a huge Chevy ad. Very sad times in publishing. ... Got a little more info. Looks like this is a glue-on cover,...
American Media Inc is $1 Billion in Debt Amid Financial Losses
Bloomberg: The publisher of the National Enquirer, currently under attack by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has been facing steep financial losses that have left the once-loyal keeper of Donald Trump’s secrets with more than $1 billion in debt and a negative net...
Verizon Media’s TechCrunch to Introduce Subscription Product
TechCrunch: TechCrunch is launching a subscription product called, appropriately and deliciously, Extra Crunch. The new service is an additional layer of content, coverage, product and events-based offerings for TechCrunch's most regular and engaged...
Medium Acquires Culture Magazine Bold Italic to Bolster Paywall
TechCrunch: Medium is seeking to juice up its premium subscription content in its home market with the acquisition of The Bold Italic. The 10-year-old online culture magazine will go behind the $5 per month Medium membership...
BuzzFeed Journalists Vote to Unionize in Wake of Mass Layoffs
Bloomberg: BuzzFeed’s U.S. journalists agreed to unionize, saying they would seek better benefits and fair pay after seeing some colleagues lose their jobs last month. An overwhelming majority of workers were in favor of the decision to join...
CBS Offers Employee Buyouts at Local TV Stations Across US
New Times: CBS is said to be making buyout offers to hundreds of employees in cities across the country. Some longtime staffers of CBS-owned-and-operated TV stations reportedly received offers last week. “Zero explanation has been given,” said one employee. A CBS...
Viacom Unveils Internal Summit with Eye on Corporate Culture
Variety: Viacom will roll out an ambitious internal corporate initiative dubbed Spark that aims to engage and energize the company’s 10,000 employees with an expansive slate of conference-style programming. Viacom president-CEO Bob Bakish calls Spark “a multi-market...
AT&T’s HBO Will Be ‘Core’ of New Streamer from WarnerMedia
Variety: HBO will be “core” to the new WarnerMedia streaming service, emphasized TBS and TNT president Kevin Reilly at the Television Critics Association press tour on Monday. WarnerMedia’s upcoming platform, which will compete with subscription video-on-demand...
Disney’s Marvel Preps Four Animated Superhero Series for Hulu
Associated Press: Hulu is teaming with Marvel to make four separate animated series based on comic book characters like Howard the Duck. Director Kevin Smith and comics Chelsea Handler and Patton Oswalt are among the people who have signed deals with the streaming...
Cox Nears $3 Billion Deal to Sell 14 Local TV Stations to Apollo
Reuters: Apollo Global Management is nearing a roughly $3 billion agreement to acquire Cox Enterprises’s 14 regional TV stations, the biggest in a series of deals the private equity firm is lining up to become a force in U.S. broadcasting. Cox has been seeking to exit...
Fox Reminds Madison Avenue ‘America is Watching’ Fox News
Variety: Whether or not they watch Fox News Channel regularly, a lot of people talk about its primetime hosts: Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson. Now execs at the network hope to spark new conversation about its news anchors, like Martha MacCallum, Bret...
Viacom’s ‘Hurtful’ BET Tweet Moves Minaj to Cancel Appearance
Associated Press: Nicki Minaj says she’s canceling her appearance at the BET Experience Concert after the network tweeted about her and fellow rapper Cardi B. Minaj said that she won’t perform at the concert or BET Awards. It comes after BET tweeted that Minaj was...
CBS-Viacom’s Redstone Sees More Growth Ahead for Podcasts
Bloomberg: When Shari Redstone gets home, she doesn’t sit down in front of the television. The media mogul, whose family made billions of dollars in TV, prefers to catch up on “CBS Evening News” via podcast. Redstone has a new fondness for audio as more waking hours...
iHeartMedia Podcast with Ron Burgundy Features ‘Unsafe’ Ads
The Drum: Will Ferrell has reprised his role as "Anchorman’s" Ron Burgundy in an exclusive podcast for iHeartMedia. Burgundy’s stream of consciousness clearly won't be particularly brand-safe but the reprisal of this titular character is likely to attract...
Disney’s ABC Oscars Show Drops Awards to Shorten Broadcast
Showbiz411: There will be four fewer categories announced live on the Oscars this year. The awards for cinematography, film editing, live action short and the category of makeup and hairstyling will now all be given off camera and announced at some point on the...
Viacom’s MTV Readies Reboot of ‘The Real World’ for Facebook
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: MTV’s “The Real World,” now transplanted on Facebook Watch, is going to base its cast in Atlanta for the first time in the show’s 27-year history. The reboot produced by MTV Studios and original production company Bunim/Murray is...
Google’s YouTube No Longer Recommends Conspiracy Videos
NBC News: YouTube has announced that it will no longer recommend videos that "come close to" violating its community guidelines, such as conspiracy or medically inaccurate videos. A former engineer for Google, YouTube's parent company, hailed the move as a "historic...