Chernin’s Barstool Sports Boosts Small Businesses
WFLA: Barstool Sports has raised over $6 million this holiday season for small businesses struggling amidst lockdowns and the pandemic. The company announced on Christmas that its fundraising effort surpassed $6 million from 57,404 donors. Founder Dave Portnoy...
New York Times Predicts Audio ‘Gold Rush’ in 2021
Adweek: The New York Times isn't short on ambition when it comes to audio advertising. "2021 is going to be a gold rush for the New York Times and audio,” said Sebastian Tomich, svp and global head of advertising. "It's a new medium and a new...
Tribune Offers Workers Another Round of Buyouts
Crain's Chicago Business: Tribune Publishing has planned another round of buyouts in the Chicago Tribune newsroom, its second this year. Tribune's largest shareholder, hedge fund Alden Global Capital, is known for making deep cuts to newsrooms. "We're dismayed that...
News Corp Tabloid Urges End to Trump’s ‘Charade’
Mediaite: The New York Post's shocking front page plea to President Trump to "Stop the Insanity" opened eyes throughout the industry on Monday. In a scathing rebuke, the Post's editorial board implored Trump to give up his attempt to overthrow the election: "You're...
Conde Nast ‘Elitist’ Magazines Get Bashed by Trump
Daily Mail: President Trump took time out on Christmas Day to hit out at the nation's glossy magazines for failing to give Melania Trump a cover while she was first lady. Michelle Obama appeared on12 covers during her eight years in the White House while Melania has...
Meredith Leads in New Magazine Launches for 2020
New York Post: The number of new print magazines launched in the US dropped by more than half in 2020 to 60, compared to 139 a year earlier. But in a surprise move, the pace of new launches accelerated in the second half of the year with food, home and fitness titles...
Politico to Buy Energy Trade Publication E&E News
Wall Street Journal: Politico is acquiring E&E News, a high-price subscription trade publication focused on the energy industry and environmental news. The deal will substantially expand Politico's footprint in the energy news space and is part of a bigger move to...
Group Nine Circles Targets for Potential SPAC Deals
Variety: Group Nine Media is open to its SPAC merging with or acquiring businesses in adjacent industries like social media and e-commerce, although it has not named specific targets. Possible targets could include the likes of Bustle Digital Group and...
Newsmax Becomes Fastest Growing News Website
Press Gazette: Controversial US media outlets Newsmax and Gateway Pundit became two of the world's largest news websites last month, new research has found. Newsmax and Gateway Pundit made it into the list thanks to year-on-year growth of 613% and 306%...
Roundup: Many Media Businesses Shuttered in 2020
Digiday: The global pandemic threw an unexpected wrench into the business plans of media companies large and small, and for the unlucky, caused them to shut their doors — or shut down their websites — completely. Among them: Man Repeller, Great Big Story, The...
PR Impresario Howard J Rubenstein Dies at Age 88
New York Times: Howard J. Rubenstein polished the tarnished images of the rich, the famous and the flawed, with clients that included Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch and George Steinbrenner. The founding chairman and president of Rubenstein Associates was sometimes...
Apple, Amazon Likely to Cold-Shoulder Sale of MGM
Los Angeles Times: MGM is exploring a sale a decade after the company exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Apple and Amazon have previously been pegged as potential buyers, but MGM's valuation has long been seen as a sticking...
Google’s Top YouTuber Reveals Viral Video Secrets
Bloomberg: Jimmy Donaldson dropped out of college to try to solve one of the biggest mysteries in media: How exactly does a video go viral on YouTube? He appears to have cracked the code. The 22-year-old became the top creator on YouTube this...
Facebook Offers to Help Start Rival Social Network
Washington Post: Facebook offered to license its powerful code to creating another social network as part of its campaign to battle back US antitrust lawsuits. Investigators rejected the idea, believing it failed to fully address competition...
AT&T’s ‘Wonder Woman’ Preps Controversial Debut
Reuters: Comic book hero Wonder Woman returns to the screen on Christmas Day with a hefty mission: bring holiday cheer to pandemic-weary audiences, provide a boost to struggling movie theaters, and lure new viewers to the HBO Max streaming...
Sony: We’re Benefiting from AT&T Bet on HBO Max
TheVerge: Sony Pictures saw a "bit of a boom" in interest from Hollywood creatives who want to work with a studio committed to theatrical releases, according to CEO Tony Vinciquerra. Sony is betting on theaters, and talent, to drive its...
Disney Spinoff of ESPN Among Predictions for 2021
Reuters Breakingviews: An ESPN spinoff would keep Disney ahead of the game. It would be a bold play to make Disney more agile in its battle with Netflix. Also: Netflix and Amazon to buy cinema chains? Bundling subscriptions with theater access might serve as a key...
Fox Corp’s News CEO Airbrushes Ailes from History
Daily Beast: Fox News boss Suzanne Scott has yet to face accountability for her role in enforcing Roger Ailes' legacy of paranoia and sexism, current and former staffers say. "Scott was definitely part of the Ailes club. She carried out all of his directives of...
Discovery Increases Stake in Oprah Winfrey Network
New York Post: Oprah Winfrey has swapped most of her interest in OWN for a small ownership in Discovery. Winfrey nabbed a stake worth less than 1 percent of the $35 million-plus Discovery, as part of a deal that boosted the company's holding in OWN from 73% to...
AT&T Buzz Says HBO Max to Revive ‘Sex and the City’
New York Post: "Sex and the City" is buzzed to be returning to HBO Max starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon -- but not Kim Cattrall. "I wouldn't call it a reboot," Parker said. "I would call it a...
IAC to Spin Off Vimeo After Growth During Pandemic
TheVerge: Vimeo is being spun off into a standalone public company as the video streaming site sees rapid growth brought on by the pandemic. Since shortly after its founding, Vimeo has been owned by IAC, the enormous tech and media holding...
Report: Video Games Become Giant Global Business
MarketWatch: Video games have become a bigger industry than sports and movies combined, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Global video game revenue is expected to surge 20% to $179.7 billion in 2020, according to data from...
News Corp Seeks to Block Sale of Simon & Schuster
Financial Times: Robert Thomson, the CEO of News Corp, whose publishing house HarperCollins lost out in the auction of Simon & Schuster, alleged the sale deal with Bertelsmann would create a competition-crushing "book...
Gannett to Pay $30 Million to End Management Deal
USA Today: Gannett said it will pay an affiliate of investment firm Fortress Investment Group a one-time fee of $30.375 million to end its management deal at the end of this year. The deal had previously been set to expire at the end of...
New York Times Picks Winner of Article Bidding War
Hollywood Reporter: Blumhouse, the production company run by Jason Blum, has won the screen rights to the New York Times piece "She Stalked Her Daughter's Killers Across Mexico, One by One," a gripping story that personalizes the kidnapping epidemic in...
Washington Post Insiders Talk of Editor Succession
Vanity Fair: Marty Baron has indicated to colleagues he doesn't plan on stepping down before his staff can return to the newsroom. On that note, the Post's remote-work setup is "unlikely" to end before June 1, according to an update last month from publisher Fred...
Hearst Magazines Expat Jumps Into World of SPACs
New York Post: Joanna Coles, who once ran Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire, has reinvented herself following her departure from Hearst. Coles has joined the male-dominated world of buying companies using special-acquisition purpose vehicles, or...
Conde Nast, Meredith Glossies Downplay Mastheads
WWD: Readers have noticed that the masthead — a traditional component of many monthly glossy print magazines — has quietly disappeared from the pages of many US titles. Appearing on the masthead was widely viewed as "a badge of...
Village Voice Returns as Quarterly Under New Owner
New York Times: The Village Voice, the storied New York alt-weekly that shut down in 2018 after a 63-year run, will live again. Brian Calle, the chief executive of Street Media, the owner of LA Weekly, said othat he had acquired the publication from publisher Peter D....
Apple Plans to Produce a Self-Driving Car by 2024
Reuters: Apple is moving forward with self-driving car technology and is targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own breakthrough battery technology. Central to Apple's strategy is a new battery design that could "radically" reduce the...