Nexstar Broadcast Chief Plans to Retire in June
Broadcasting & Cable: Timothy Busch, Nexstar's president for broadcasting, will retire June 1, and the company will begin a search for his successor. Busch has been in the broadcast industry for 36 years. "Tim leaves us well positioned to continue our growth as we...
New York Times in Another Uproar Over N-Word
New York Post: Racial tensions continue to simmer inside the New York Times, with some current and former staffers outraged anew over a recent Facebook poll seeking to define an "appropriate" use of the N-word. The poll was created by Matt Wald, a retired Times energy...
McClatchy Staffers Unionize in Four Newsrooms
Olympian: Journalists at four McClatchy-owned news organizations in Washington plan to form a union, and management has agreed to recognize that effort. Eligible journalists at the News Tribune, the Olympian, the Bellingham Herald and the Tri-City Herald have...
Washington Post Bashes Biden Over Khashoggi
Mediaite: The Washington Post editorial board has called out President Biden for failing to sanction Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, the architect of the murder of former columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The Post published an op-ed calling out the new president for...
Conde Nast is Accused of Colonization in China
Business of Fashion: Conde Nast's new global structure places its magazines in other countries under layers of Anglo-American leadership, running the risk of homogenizing content and diluting the local appeal of these editions. Anna Wintour is said to have hand-picked...
Time Magazine to Publish Business Issue in April
Mr Magazine: Time magazine plans to launch Time Business with a special print issue in April. "We've hired a terrific editor from the Wall Street Journal," said Time CEO Edward Felsenthal. "It's going to be a vertical area of focus for us. We'll launch it with a...
Ebony Magazine to Return as Digital-Only Brand
Chicago Tribune: Ebony, the magazine that served as the voice of Black America for more than 75 years, is set for a digital rebirth Monday under new owners. Bought out of bankruptcy for $14 million in December by Bridgeman Sports and Media, Ebony will relaunch with a...
Crain’s Ad Age Chief Exits for New Opportunities
Ad Age: Josh Golden is departing as president and publisher of Ad Age to pursue new opportunities, he announced Friday. "I feel an overwhelming sense of pride in the work that I've done over the last five years with the amazing team at Ad Age. It's a fabulous brand...
The Wrap Accepts Donation from Golden Globes
Showbiz411: The Hollywood trade publications are going light on coverage of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the group's machinations. The Wrap, incidentally, received a $5,000 donation from the Hollywood group for its Wrap Women Foundation, established by...
AT&T Enters Deal to Spin Off Declining DirecTV
Dallas Morning News: AT&T will spin off its DirecTV business into a new company in a deal with private equity firm TPG that will net the telecom giant about $7.8 billion to pay down debt. The transaction values the new business at about $16 billion, a fraction of...
Disney Gets Punched by Mike Tyson Over Hulu
Associated Press: Hulu has ordered a limited series dramatizing the life of boxing great Mike Tyson, who quickly slammed the production as "cultural misappropriation." Tyson, who is not involved in the project, criticized Hulu on social media, saying the series...
ViacomCBS: US Audiences Want Pay Streamers
CNBC: The most important slide in ViacomCBS's Paramount+ presentation was one that suggested it won't be long before US households subscribe to five or more streaming services. But there's no certainty households are actually going to sign up for five or more...
Comcast’s NBC Ready for Hybrid Golden Globes
USA Today: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will return to host the Golden Globes, hosting for the fourth time, which strikes a return-to-normal feeling. But even their appearances will be on separate stages – in Los Angeles and New York – for the hybrid format in which most...
Vice Media, BuzzFeed Models Slammed by Rival
Press Gazette: Companies like BuzzFeed and Vice "have much bigger ambition," said Insider CEO Henry Blodget, a former financial analyst. "BuzzFeed was modeling itself as an entertainment company with a news division. Whereas we want to be a journalism company. We're...
iHeartMedia Revamp Splits Up Radio, Podcasts
Radio Ink: iHeartMedia has announced a new operating structure under which its digital audio business, which includes its iHeartRadio digital service as well as its podcasting business, will publicly report its financials separately from its multiplatform business,...
Spotify Pauses Podcast Citing a ‘Toxic Dynamic’
Associated Press: The popular "Reply All" podcast has been put on hiatus and is canceling two remaining episodes of a series that explored allegations of structural racism and a problematic work culture at food magazine Bon Appetit. The reason? Former employees at...
Twitter to Test New ‘Super Follow’ Subscriptions
CNBC: Twitter has announced a number of new test features, including Super Follow subscriptions, which will let users pay to see tweets from their favorite accounts. A screenshot of the feature shows that Super Follows could provide subscribers with exclusive content,...
Facebook Offers Tour of Offices in New York City
Wall Street Journal: Despite the tech industry’s broad shift to remote work, Facebook is doubling down on physical office space in New York. It signed a major deal during the pandemic making it one of the city’s largest corporate tenants. The Wall Street Journal has...
Lupa, from Murdoch, to Invest in Video Learning
TechCrunch: Doubtnut, an Indian startup that helps students learn using short videos, has raised $31 million in a new financing round. The three-year-old startup said SIG and James Murdoch's Lupa Systems led the Series B funding round. Existing investors Sequoia...
News Corp Gets a Video Send-Up from Australia
The Wrap: Australia's new media law appears to exist primarily to protect large scale media companies like Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, according to a humorous new video from the political comedy outfit The Juice Media. "Instead of trying to fix what people don't like...
Tribune to Lure Bidder for New York Daily News?
New York Post: Panicked supporters of the New York Daily News are desperately searching for a billionaire to save the 101-year-old tabloid from the clutches of Alden Global Capital. Supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis, the owner of the Gristedes supermarkets, seemed...
Gannett: Digital Subscription Push is Paying Off
USA Today: Gannett has been grappling with a decline in print newspaper revenue for years but has recently enjoyed success with an increased focus on paid digital subscriptions, which are viewed as crucial to the success of media companies as newspaper dollars...
Washington Post Editor Gets Big-Name Farewell
Vanity Fair: Jeff Bezos and Steven Spielberg appeared in a tribute video to Marty Baron, whose last day as the Washington Post's executive editor is Sunday. On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of Post employees logged on to a video call for a pandemic-safe virtual...
Los Angeles Times is Losing Candidates for Editor
New York Post: Anne Kornblut, a former Washington Post Pulitzer Prize winner who now works for Facebook, is the latest candidate to pull out of the race for the top job at the Los Angeles Times. Kornblut withdrew her name from the running following a Feb. 19 report in...
New York Times Names New Editor for ‘The Daily’
WWD: The New York Times has made another change to its audio team. Deputy managing editor Cliff Levy, who was parachuted in to overhaul the division after the "Caliphate" podcast fallout, has named Lisa Chow, a veteran audio journalist, editor of the popular "The...
Axel Springer’s Insider Raises Minimum Salaries
Axios: Insider will boost its minimum salary to $60,000 annually for US employees, while increasing its minimum severance package to eight weeks, according to a memo from company executives. Insider has been able to dodge many of the financial headwinds from the...
Conde Nast’s Showbiz Clout Fades at Vanity Fair
Showbiz411: Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue used to be a big deal. Who's on the cover? It was the insider's cool almanac of the year. But that was back in the era of Graydon Carter. Now we have the PC era of Vanity Fair, a ho hum affair. It's also the era of Vanity Fair...
Google, News Corp Stir Fears of ‘Unholy Alliance’
Press Gazette: Lord Rothermere, the chairman of publishing giant DMGT, has accused Google and Facebook of "blackmail" in Australia. In a letter to the Financial Times, Rothermere also suggested News Corp has entered into an “unholy alliance” with Google after the...
Facebook to Pay $1 Billion to Help News Industry
Associated Press: Facebook said it plans to invest $1 billion to “support the news industry” over the next three years. The social networking giant has been tussling with Australia over a law that would make social platforms pay news organizations. Google said in...
Netflix Readies $500 Million Budget to Crack Asia
Bloomberg: Netflix plans to spend $500 million on original movies and TV shows in South Korea this year, boosting investment in content that's been key to the streaming giant's success in one of its fastest-growing markets. Since entering the country in 2016, the US...