AT&T Wins Upgrade on New Strategy for Streaming
MarketWatch: AT&T has been betting big on HBO Max in a way that could help the stock during 2021, according to one analyst. Raymond James's Frank Louthan upgraded the stock to outperform from market perform, saying "there is more that can go right during the next...
ViacomCBS in Distribution Deal with Disney’s Hulu
New York Post: ViacomCBS has inked a distribution deal with Disney's Hulu, to add Showtime and other popular channels to the live-TV streaming service. The deal gives viewers of Hulu's live TV service access to 14 ViacomCBS channels, including CBS, Showtime, MTV,...
Disney’s ESPN is Tricked Into Publishing Fake Story
New York Post: ESPN issued a correction after it was seemingly tricked into publishing a story that falsely said Miami Dolphins offensive coordinator Chan Gailey had been fired. The misinformation originated from a now-deleted Twitter account posing as ESPN journalist...
Liberty’s SiriusXM Mines Podcast Merch at Stitcher
Wall Street Journal: Podcast merchandise has become a big business, as more listeners want to show their allegiance to their podcast of choice through a T-shirt, mug or hoodie. Stitcher, a podcast conglomerate, said that sales of merch associated with its shows are...
WPP Expat Bullish on US with Agency Acquisitions
Adweek: Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital has started off 2021 with two acquisitions. New York-based creative agency Decoded Advertising will join S4's MediaMonks, while Metric Theory, the San Francisco-based marketing agency, becomes part of S4's ...
New York Times Eyes Life After Third-Party Cookies
Adweek: Advertising remains a minority-interest for New York’s journal of record, but the New York Times still wants to take greater control over its digital offering. All this comes at a time when automated ad trading is preparing for a seismic overhaul as the...
Conde Nast Staffers Edit Archives to Delete Racism
Associated Press: A little corner of the Conde Nast universe is taking on racial and cultural injustices. A small staff at Epicurious, a resource site for home cooks, has been scouring 55 years’ worth of recipes from a variety of Conde Nast magazines in search of...
Meredith Off the Hook in Legal Dispute with Playboy
WWD: Playboy had filed a lawsuit in June against Meredith and others, seeking millions of dollars in damages it allegedly suffered for losses related to a separate subscriber privacy suit. Playboy alleged that subscriber data had been improperly disclosed to third...
Vox Media Taps Conde Nast Editor to Lead The Cut
The Cut: Lindsay Peoples Wagner, editor in chief of Teen Vogue, has been named the next editor in chief of the Cut, the New York magazine site covering style, fashion and culture. Peoples Wagner previously the the Cut's fashion market...
Atlantic Media Spinoff to Buy Publisher City & State
New York Post: A DC-based news agency for politicians and bureaucrats has acquired City & State, a media business covering New York state and local politics for elected officials and government workers. Terms of the acquisition by Government Executive Media Group...
Village Voice’s New Owner Mulls Publishing Models
Los Angeles Times: LA Weekly publisher Brian Calle surprised the media world in December by purchasing the Village Voice. "We've been successful in building out tangential revenue streams to support the journalism work. We create content for a lot of our clients,...
Daily Wire Acquires Movie for New Slate of Films, TV
Deadline: Conservative news website The Daily Wire has made its first movie acquisition with high school-shooting thriller "Run Hide Fight," the first of multiple projects on a new film and TV slate. The film will premiere during a “Daily Wire Backstage event” hosted...
Adweek Eyes Growth with Buy of Social Media Week
Social Media Week: Social Media Week said it will become part of Adweek. Toby Daniels, who founded Social Media Week in 2009, will join Adweek as chief innovation officer, while also overseeing the SMW business. "Joining forces with Adweek represents an opportunity to...
Googlers Announce Union Plans in New York Times
CNBC: More than 200 Google employees have come together to form the Alphabet Workers Union amid increasing disagreements with company executives. News of the union was announced Monday in a New York Times op-ed by two employees, Parul Koul and Chewy Shaw, who serve on...
Facebook Ad Integrity Chief Departs After Ad Furor
Reuters: Facebook's chief of advertising integrity, who handled the company's ad products around sensitive subjects such as politics and coronavirus misinformation, departed last week, according to an internal company post. Rob Leathern's exit had not been previously...
Amazon Jumps Into Podcasts with Buy of Wondery
Associated Press: Amazon has announced a deal to acquire Wondery, a 4-year-old producer of popular true crime podcasts such as "Dr. Death" and "Dirty John," which was later turned into a TV series. An explosion of new podcasts has led to a number of acquisitions as...
Netflix’s Success Likely to Spur Media M&A in 2021
Deadline: Another wave of M&A and consolidation could well result from the race to catch up with Netflix. Streaming has already prompted massive deals like AT&T-Time Warner and Disney-Fox and Comcast-Sky. "There will be M&A activity between companies that...
Sony’s ‘Bad Boys’ Tops Disastrous 2020 Box Office
Associated Press: As the sun sets on the 2020 film box office, it'll be difficult to look at the numbers as anything but disastrous. After five consecutive years of North American revenues exceeding $11 billion, this year they're expected to cap out at an almost...
Disney, ViacomCBS Delay Shoots as Covid Looms
Bloomberg: Hollywood has been grappling with tough choices because of the devastating rise in Covid cases in the entertainment capital: whether to restart film and TV production following a holiday break. "Covid-19 has been a clear factor in decision...
ViacomCBS Chief Under Fire in Big Merger Lawsuit
Reuters: A Delaware judge has ruled that former Viacom shareholders may pursue a lawsuit accusing Shari Redstone of engineering a "patently unfair" merger that created ViacomCBS so she could become a media magnate like her late father, Sumner...
Fox Corp Boosts Covid Screenings at Headquarters
Daily Beast: In recent weeks, Fox News strengthened its Covid-19 screening process for staffers working at the New York City offices following a slew of positive tests for on-air personalities. Employees who work more than three days a week at the News Corp building...
Discovery Kicks Off 2021 with US Streaming Debut
New York Times: Discovery+, which goes live on Monday, has been built on cooking, nature and home improvement shows from HGTV, the Food Network, TLC, ID, Animal Planet and the company's flagship, Discovery. The service is a late entrant to a crowded...
Roku Nears Deal to Buy Content Catalog from Quibi
Wall Street Journal: Quibi is said to be in advanced talks to sell its content catalog to Roku, as the short-form streaming service winds down its operations following an unsuccessful run. Quibi, which was founded by the movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, had raised...
Charter Ousts Five Female Reporters in Spat at NY1
Showbiz411: After 28 years, a raft of awards and colon cancer, Roma Torre is out at NY1. Also out is Kristen Shaughnessy, there for 25 years, and three other female reporters. The women sued NY1 for sex discrimination, claiming they were paid vastly less than their...
Tribune Forms Team to Review Alden Takeover Bid
Wall Street Journal: Tribune Publishing has appointed a special committee to review a buyout bid proposed by its largest shareholder, New York hedge fund Alden Global Capital. Alden, which already owns a 32% stake, said it was interested in acquiring the rest of the...
New York Times: We Survived by Not Standing Still
@cliffordlevy: New York Times chief Arthur Sulzberger Jr., in his retirement memo to employees: "I remember well the resistance I faced when pushing to modernize our culture, diversify our staff, embrace the web and reimagine our business model. Today, the Times is...
Hearst’s Esquire Wins Praise for Pioneering Profile
Air Mail: An Esquire 1966 cover story, "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold," has become known as the most famous celebrity profile in American magazine history, despite the fact that author Gay Talese never once sat down with the singer...
Conde Nast: Legendary Magazine Editor Dies at 91
New York Times: Paige Rense, the former influential editor of Architectural Digest, died on Friday at her home in West Palm Beach, Fla. The cause was reported to be a heart-related issue. Rense made Architectural Digest the most popular publication in the shelter...
Washington Post Faces Backlash from Staff Bonus
@jdelreal: A tweet about Washington Post staffers receiving a $2,021 year-end bonus ignited a firestorm across Twitter. Some people expressed anger after the Post published an op-ed opposing $2,000 stimulus checks. "I deleted a tweet about WaPo bonuses because some of...
Politico Veterans Launch Their Own News Venture
New York Times: Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer and John Bresnahan have launched a political news start-up called Punchbowl, named after the Secret Service's moniker for the US Capitol. The Politico veterans promise a scoop-driven, just-the-facts-ma'am...