AT&T’s CNN Media Guy Updates Fox News Book
Associated Press: Brian Stelter thought more than a quick update was necessary in preparing for the paperback edition of his book from last summer, "Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth." In effect, he's writing a substantially different...
Discovery-Backed British TV News Vows No Bias
Press Gazette: GB News, the biggest news TV channel to launch in the UK since Sky News, has been defended amid a campaign to get advertisers to boycott the channel. CB News chairman Andrew Neil, who will present a nightly news program on the channel, said it "will not...
New York Times Prints Front-Page ‘Wall of Grief’
New York Times: From afar, the graphic on the front page of Sunday’s New York Times looks like a blur of gray, a cloudy gradient that slowly descends into a block of solid ink. Up close, it shows something much darker: close to 500,000 individual dots, each...
Gannett-McClatchy Ad Offering Shows Potential
Digiday: In combining their local print and digital advertising networks, Gannett and McClatchy aim to compete with the likes of Amazon, Facebook and Google for national advertising dollars. Agency executives see reason to believe the two largest US local newspaper...
Hearst’s Cosmo Livestreams Shopping ‘Hauliday’
WWD: For the second "Hauliday" virtual shopping event, livestreaming has been added to make the experience more immersive. Cosmopolitan magazine and Klarna, the payment and shopping platform, launched Hauliday last year for Gen Z and Millennials in the US. This year,...
Conde Nast Veteran Fights Eviction in New York
New York Post: Vogue legend Andre Leon Talley is being dragged out of his $1 million New York home by the former CEO of Manolo Blahnik USA who alleges the former editor is $500,000 behind in rent. Talley has dramatically fallen out with his former close friend,...
G/O Media Veterans Inspire Hope at New Startup
Washington Post: At less than six months old, Defector is financially self-sustaining and entirely owned by its staff. It just expanded with a couple of high-profile hires, including Laura Wagner from Vice News and Kalyn Kahler, who had worked at Sports Illustrated....
Los Angeles Times Owner Refutes Report of Sale
Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong has reaffirmed his commitment to the news organization. Soon-Shiong made the statement shortly after the Wall Street Journal published an article saying Soon-Shiong was exploring a sale of the Los...
Hollywood Reporter Alum Abandons Editor Race
New York Post: Janice Min, who has been in the running to replace Norm Pearlstine as the editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times, has officially pulled out of the race. The move came after the Wall Street Journal reported that Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is...
Google, Facebook, Twitter CEOs to Testify Again
CNBC: Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey will appear before members of the US House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 25. Committee leaders pointed to false claims about the Covid-19 vaccine and supposed election fraud that has proliferated on social...
Facebook Ban Sends Publishers’ Traffic Tumbling
Nieman Lab: What happens when a tech company turns off the traffic tap? When Facebook traffic dropped off, overall Australian traffic did not shift to other platforms. This drop has been seen most dramatically in traffic to Australian sites from readers outside of...
Netflix, Amazon Are ‘Winners’ of Streaming Wars
CNBC: It's possible the streaming wars may be over before they begin, with the winners being Netflix, Prime Video and Disney, and everyone else playing a losing hand. "This only works if you have a phenomenal monetization model. I think we already know who the winners...
Google’s YouTube Pulls Video Attacking Channel
Bloomberg: YouTube has removed a video posted by popular creator PewDiePie that criticized Cocomelon, the most-watched children's channel on the site, stepping in to protect one of its biggest names from harassment by the fans of another top channel. The video, titled...
Spotify Podcast Host on Leave After Toxic Charge
Bloomberg: PJ Vogt will step down from his job hosting the podcast "Reply All," one of Spotify's most popular series, following allegations of a toxic work environment. Vogt is taking a leave of absence and could return, and Sruthi Pinnamaneni, a senior reporter for...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia Axes Agencies to Cut Costs
Insider: WarnerMedia has slashed the number of ad agencies it uses around the world from more than 3,000 to a few dozen and started pushing its properties like HBO Max and DC Comics to use those agencies to save money. The company previously worked with agencies such...
Fox Corp’s Murdoch is Advised to Sell, Go Private
Financial Times: The moment may have come to sell parts of Fox Corp, or to take the whole of it private. Even if that does not manage to defuse the looming battle between Rupert Murdoch's children over his corporate legacy, it would unlock some value, and help...
Disney Former Execs Unveil Plans for New SPAC
Reuters: Kevin Mayer and Thomas Staggs plan to raise $300 million in an initial public offering for a new special purpose acquisition company. The duo’s first SPAC, Forest Road Acquisition Corp, agreed a three-way merger last week with fitness companies Beachbody and...
ZMC Private Equity Group Acquires Second City
New York Times: Second City, the storied comedy theater, which for more than half a century has helped define American humor, has been sold to a private equity group. The group, ZMC, run by Strauss Zelnick, invests in media entities; Zelnick is also the chief...
Al Jazeera to License News from New York Times
Axios: Al Jazeera is creating an editorial platform for business news called "Reyada" that will include licensed business content from the New York Times. The platform is meant to serve as a hub for reporting on the Middle East's economic diversification. The product...
New York Times Tests App of Story Suggestions
Nieman Lab: The New York Times has launched a Slack app designed to help foster conversations about Times stories where people already are — that is, in their existing Slack workspace. The Slack app is part of the Times's larger exploration into reaching new...
News Corp Says Prince Harry Lawsuit is Too Late
Newsweek: Prince Harry's phone was hacked by the defunct British tabloid News of the World, but lawyers for the newspaper's publisher claim he is too late to sue. "These were first published over six years prior to the issue of these proceedings and this claim is...
Meredith in Bookazine Brawl with Time Magazine
New York Post: Meredith has fired off a "cease and desist" letter to Time magazine editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal, claiming that pulling the highly profitable specials business from the nation's biggest publisher is a violation of the contract. Meredith is...
Hearst Cooks Up Quarterly Print Titles for Delish
MediaPost: As Saveur magazine ends its print edition, Hearst's Delish is going in the opposite direction: It is producing quarterly print editions, each tapping into a consumer food obsession. The first, Breakfast + Brunch will appear on March 2. They will be offered...
Conde Nast to Clear Up Confusion Over Contest
Youngstown Business Journal: A contest that pits chefs against each other has nothing to do with Bon Appetit magazine, even though many initially thought it did. The magazine, in fact, has asked the contest administrators to make that clear. "Bon Appétit's name is...
BuzzFeed Boards SXSW Pandemic Comedy Film
Deadline: BuzzFeed Studios has signed on to executive produce the pandemic comedy "The End of Us," which is set to make its world premiere in competition next month at the SXSW Film Festival. Directed by Henry Loevner and Steven Kanter, the film stars Ben Coleman and...
Craigslist Founder Concerned About Journalists
Press Gazette: "I'm very concerned about jobs for journalists, and the future of local journalism, and had always guessed that Craigslist might have an effect," said Craig Newmark. "In the last two or three years, industry analysts have pointed out that when you take...
Google Unlikely to Begin Paying for News in US
New York Times: Google's move to pay for news in Australia could be followed by similar actions in other countries — but probably not in the US. In America, journalism seems to have fewer friends in the halls of power. In the US, regulatory momentum has been moving in...
Facebook to Block Users from News in Australia
Sydney Morning Herald: Facebook has made a stunning move to ban publishers and users in Australia from sharing or viewing any news articles on its platform in response to the government's proposed media bargaining laws. Facebook said that it had carried through on the...
Apple in Film, TV Deal with SkyDance Animation
Los Angeles Times: Apple has made a deal to release movies produced by Skydance Animation, run by former Pixar and Disney Animation head John Lasseter. As part of "an expansive multi-year partnership" with Skydance Animation, Apple will release upcoming movies "Luck"...
Amazon Grabs Donald Glover Away from Disney
Hollywood Reporter: Donald Glover has exited his pact with Disney-owned FX for a multiple-year, eight-figure overall deal with Amazon. The deal is believed to include a content channel of sorts that will spotlight Glover's work and other curated content on Amazon's...