Daily Mail Loses Legal Spat with Meghan Markle
BBC News: The Duchess of Sussex has welcomed her High Court privacy victory over the Mail on Sunday, saying the damage the publisher has done "runs deep." Meghan brought the claim against Associated Newspapers over the publication of extracts from a letter to her...
New York Times Yanks Column on N-Word Flap
Daily Beast: A New York Times columnist claims the paper's publisher shelved his opinion column defending Donald McNeil, the journalist who recently left the paper after reports emerged that he said a racial slur while on a trip chaperoning high-school students. New...
Tribune Publishing to Rethink Police Mug Shots
Robert Feder: The Chicago Tribune announced new guidelines "aimed at the restrained and consistent use of mug shots with news stories." They're part of an industrywide reassessment of whether newspapers should continue to publish the photos in an era of clickbait...
Microsoft Eyes Possible Acquisition of Pinterest
Financial Times: Microsoft approached Pinterest in recent months about a potential deal to acquire the $51 billion social media company popular with hobbyists posting home decor, food and wedding collages. The talks are said to be not currently active. Microsoft has...
Google Starts Paying News Publishers in Britain
CNBC: Google has launched its News Showcase product in the UK, meaning the tech giant will now pay for news content in the country for the first time. The Silicon Valley firm has signed a deal with 120 British publications, including the Financial Times and Reuters,...
Facebook at Work on Product to Rival Clubhouse
New York Times: Facebook is building an audio chat product that is similar to the popular young app Clubhouse, as the social network aims to expand into new forms of communication. Clubhouse, a social networking app, has gained buzz for letting people gather in audio...
AT&T Under Pressure to Break Up WarnerMedia
Hollywood Reporter: WarnerMedia, under CEO Jason Kilar, is embarking on an embrace of streaming video and direct-to-consumer strategy, and some on Wall Street now speculate that a potential sale or spinoff of CNN could be an option. Business Insider: AT&T said CNN...
Comcast’s Peacock Sparks Talk of Mega Merger
The Information: NBCUniversal has pitched ViacomCBS, among other companies, about offering their streaming services in a bundle with Peacock at a discounted rate, either in the US or abroad. These efforts raise the prospect that NBCU could pursue a merger with another...
Disney Fires Streaming Star After Online Uproar
Associated Press: Lucasfilm said Gina Carano is no longer a part of "The Mandalorian" cast after many online called for her firing over a social media post that likened the experience of Jews during the Holocaust to the US political climate. A spokesperson with the...
Comcast’s NBC to Air Live Opening of Olympics
Associated Press: US viewers will get to watch the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics live. Since Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of New York, interested US residents will be watching the July 23 ceremonies on NBC at 7 am EDT, 4 am EDT in Los Angeles. The global...
Disney’s ABC to Telecast Oscars as Live Event
Associated Press: The 2021 Academy Awards ceremony will broadcast live from multiple locations on April 25. The news comes as many cities that are important film hubs, including Los Angeles, New York and London, remain under strict coronavirus restrictions. Specific...
Fox Corp Plans News Channel Late-Night Show
Mediaite: Fox News is replacing its 11 pm news show with satirist Greg Gutfeld, whose eponymous program currently airs on Saturdays. Starting in the second quarter of 2021, "The Greg Gutfeld Show" will expand to air weeknights at 11 pm. "People need a reason to...
Disney Veterans to Invest in Digital Fitness Firm
Los Angeles Times: Former prominent Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs are folding their $300-million investment vehicle into Beachbody, an at-home health and fitness company. The two executives are betting that digital apps and streaming platforms have...
Chernin Teams with ESPN Expat on New Studio
Deadline: Former ESPN content chief Connor Schell, who left the Disney-owned sports network last year, is setting up a non-scripted studio with Chernin Entertainment. Schell, an exec producer on "O.J: Made In America" and "The Last Dance," will be CEO of the unnamed...
DAZN Shifts Focus After Service Sputters in US
The Information: DAZN has been forced to retreat from its global ambitions. In key markets like the US and Latin America, DAZN hasn’t found much of an audience for its subscription service, which streams boxing, soccer and other sports matches. It is now focusing on...
TikTok’s Sale to Oracle, Walmart is Put on Hold
Wall Street Journal: A US plan to force the sale of TikTok's American operations to a group including Oracle and Walmart has been shelved indefinitely, as President Biden undertakes a broad review of his predecessor's efforts to address potential security risks from...
Hustler Magazine Founder Larry Flynt Dies at 78
Associated Press: Larry Flynt, who built Hustler magazine into an adult entertainment juggernaut that included casinos, films, websites and other enterprises as he relentlessly championed First Amendment rights, has died at age 78. Flynt, who had been in declining...
News Corp Execs Hang Out with Prime Minister
Press Gazette: Rupert Murdoch and top News Corp executives in the UK and US met Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other high-level government politicians seven times between them in seven weeks last summer. Murdoch met with Johnson, paid for lunch with Chancellor Rishi...
New York Times Defends Journo After Doxxing
New York Post: The New York Times is defending the creator of its controversial 1619 Project after she doxxed another reporter — and then wiped her entire Twitter history, including messages she had first been challenged over. Nikole Hannah-Jones tweeted out...
Gannett Newsrooms Team to Form Joint Union
Poynter: Three Gannett-owned newsrooms in New Jersey announced Wednesday morning they are jointly unionizing. The Bergen Record, the Daily Record and the NJ Herald will come together to form The Record Guild, which will be part of the NewsGuild of New York. In an...
Craigslist Founder Pledges to Help Fight Hunger
Cheddar: Craig Newmark, the founder of classifieds website Craigslist, has announced a commitment to donate $15 million to snuffing out hunger in the US. This is in addition to the $10 million that the Craig Newmark Philanthropies organization pledged in October....
Fox Corp Regards Tubi as Billion-Dollar Business
Broadcasting & Cable: Tubi, the streaming service acquired last year by Fox for $440 million, will grow to be a billion-dollar business, according to Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch. Speaking on Fox's fiscal second-quarter earnings call, Murdoch called Tubi "an exciting...
Disney to Slash 450 Jobs in Animator Shutdown
TheStreet: Disney is shuttering Blue Sky Studios, the animation studio it acquired as part of its purchase of the majority of Fox's assets two years ago. Disney's decision, unveiled on Tuesday, will eliminate about 450 jobs. Blue Sky Studios, which Fox bought in 1999...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia Readies New ‘Wizard of Oz’
Reuters: Hollywood is preparing to take another trip down the yellow brick road with a remake of classic movie "The Wizard of Oz," one of the most celebrated films of all time. New Line Cinema, a unit of AT&T's Warner Bros studio, said on Tuesday it was developing...
ViacomCBS Spotlights Streaming of Super Bowl
Ad Age: Super Bowl television ratings took a hit, marking the lowest viewership for the game since 2007. Just 96.4 million total viewers tuned in to CBS’s Sunday night broadcast. However, there's a silver lining that may signal the future of the game's broadcast: the...
iHeartMedia Star Host Ails Along with Talk Radio
Washington Post: Rush Limbaugh, the most successful talk-radio host in history, is ailing. And so is the medium he helped revolutionize over the past 30 years. Faced with aging and shrinking audiences, competition from newer technologies and financial problems for the...
Twitter CEO: Trump Ban Didn’t Hurt Our Platform
Adweek: Jack Dorsey on Tuesday called 2020 "an extraordinary year," which sells the absurdity of the year a bit short. But early 2021 brought one momentous change: The forcible removal of Donald Trump from the platform — something still not entirely accounted for in...
Fox Corp Targets News Channel to ‘Center-Right’
Reuters: Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch said that Fox News head Suzanne Scott has extended her term with the company. As the US enters a new political era, Murdoch endorsed a strategy that has led Fox News to dominate cable news for 19 years. "We believe where we're...
Bloomberg Media Plots Big Haul in Subscriptions
Axios: Bloomberg Media is expecting to bring in at least $100 million in consumer subscription revenue in 2021, according to an internal memo sent to staff from CEO Justin Smith. Prior to the launch of its consumer digital subscription business three years ago,...
Gannett Sees USA Today Future in Subscriptions
Local News Initiative: Mayur Gupta, a former executive with Spotify and Freshly, joined the Gannett USA Today Network in September as chief marketing and strategy officer. "We want to put customer value at the forefront of our business," said Gupta. "We want to shift...