Fox Corp Debunks On-Air Hosts on Own News Channel
New York Times: Voting machine companies have threatened "highly dangerous" defamation lawsuits against Fox News, Newsmax and One America News for airing conspiracy theories about the US election. "There's so much falsity that is being spread on certain...
Sinclair Joins Media Eyeing Growth in Sports Betting
Washington Post: Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley said that gambling will transform a sports industry that is reeling from the pandemic, watching advertising and cable bundle fees shrink. "It's a third revenue stream to maintain the growth of the...
New York Times Admits Its Podcast Fell for a Hoaxer
Associated Press: The New York Times admitted that it could not verify the claims of a Canadian man whose account of committing atrocities for the Islamic State in Syria was a central part of its 2018 podcast "Caliphate." The series had won a Peabody Award, but...
McClatchy Apologies for Racist News in Kansas City
NBC News: One of the Midwest's most influential newspapers apologized for what its top editor described as decades of racist coverage of Kansas City, Missouri. In a letter to readers, Mike Fannin wrote that the newspaper "disenfranchised, ignored and scorned...
Hearst Magazines Chief Says 2020 is Toughest Year
Mr Magazine: Debi Chirichella, president of Hearst Magazines: "Obviously 2020 has been a very challenging year and honestly, I’ve been in this industry for a while, it’s probably been one of the toughest years that I’ve ever experienced. Covid-19 exacerbated the...
Bloomberg Journalist Gives Up Job for ‘Pharma Bro’
Daily Beast: A former Bloomberg News reporter quit her job, divorced her husband, and froze her eggs for imprisoned former CEO Martin Shkreli, known as the "Pharma Bro," who now refuses to talk to her. Christie Smythe first broke the news of Shkreli's arrest on fraud...
Meredith, Hearst Find Big Sales in Korean Pop Band
CNN: The Korean pop band BTS, a global music phenomenon, has had an outsized influence on magazine sales. Esquire is just one US magazine that ended up going back to the presses to print more of the edition that featured BTS on the...
Conde Nast Use of Global Data Helps Elevate Vogue
Digiday: Conde Nast has identified key similarities in the global audiences of Vogue's 26 international editions. Since May, Vogue's global editions have seen a notable shift in readers looking for "escapism' content. American Vogue reported similar traffic...
BuzzFeed, Axios Ready for Digital Media Deal Frenzy
Wall Street Journal: BuzzFeed and Group Nine Media, two of the largest venture-backed outfits, are exploring deals to buy competitors or go public through special-purpose acquisition companies. Among relatively smaller players, short-form publisher Axios is exploring...
Report: News Outlets Shuttering Amid the Pandemic
Washington Post: Despite flickers of good news, journalism remains in a state of emergency. Fifty-five news outlets have closed for good since the pandemic began — and that's on top of more than 2,000 newspapers that have folded since 2004. Thousands of local...
Hollywood Sees Covid Accelerate Digital Disruption
Los Angeles Times: The economic shock waves of the Covid-19 pandemic rocked the film and television industry. While there was a lot of disruption in a short amount of time, it showed the industry is adapting. Many of the changes were expected to happen anyway — just...
AT&T’s ‘Fanboy’ WarnerMedia CEO Riles Hollywood
Business Insider: Jason Kilar is eight months into his new job running WarnerMedia and he's already replicating a decade-old playbook from his days at Hulu. That playbook might best be described as burning down the house so that the consumer can get access to as much...
Comcast’s NBCU CEO Laments ‘Bad Dream’ of 2020
Deadline: NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell didn't mince words about the "bad dream" that was 2020, but touted the success of Peacock and laid out a string of streaming stats in a holiday-season memo to employees. Covid-19 "extremely impacted" every part of NBCU, Shell...
CAA Reaches Deal with Writers Guild After Standoff
New York Post: CAA has ended a 20-month standoff with the Writers Guild of America that will enable it to once again represent screenwriters. Both sides said they have dropped legal claims that stemmed from the WGA's directive to thousands of Hollywood scribes to fire...
Roku Torments Media Giants Amid Streaming Wars
Wall Street Journal: Roku was long viewed as the scrappy startup that invented the streaming-media player. Now, it is a $40 billion juggernaut increasingly comfortable throwing around its weight. The leading distributor of streaming-video apps in the US, Roku has...
Google Faces Another Antitrust Lawsuit from States
CNBC: Google now faces its third government antitrust lawsuit in less than two months, this time from a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general. A group of 38 states and territories took part in the lawsuit, which claims Google illegally maintained a monopoly...
Comcast’s Ad-Tech Arm FreeWheel to Buy Beeswax
Adweek: Comcast's ad-tech division FreeWheel plans to acquire Beeswax, a buy-side startup headed by influential programmatic personality Ari Paparo. Beeswax offers media buyers a "bidder-as-a-service" programmatic buying model, where clients are charged a standardized...
WPP to Seek Tech Acquisitions for Revenue Growth
Financial Times: WPP has set out a more aggressive shift towards e-commerce and technology as it seeks to return to steady growth in the wake of the pandemic. The London-based company said it expected to spend £200 million to £400 million a year on acquisitions in...
Chernin to Invest in Online Education Outfit Sketchy
Deadline: Andrew Sugerman, a former high-level executive at Disney, has been named president of online education specialist Sketchy, and the company has also received a $30 million investment from The Chernin Group. Founded in 2013, Sketchy uses the "memory palace"...
Vice Media to Launch on Creator Platform OnlyFans
Axios: Vice's food vertical, Munchies, is launching a verified channel on the breakout creator platform OnlyFans, a subscription site in which fans can pay creators directly for exclusive content. It's the first verified media publisher to launch on OnlyFans, which is...
ByteDance’s TikTok Goes ‘Shoppable’ with Walmart
Ad Age: Walmart will hold its first "shoppable" US livestream on TikTok in a move that gives the giant retailer — which has a pending deal to acquire a piece of the platform — a temporary edge over rivals in e-commerce integration. The "Holiday Shop-a-Long...
Disney: ESPN Anchor Tests Positive for Coronavirus
USA Today: ESPN's "SportsCenter" with Scott Van Pelt will look a little bit different during the upcoming days after the anchor revealed that he had tested positive for coronavirus. "Won't be doing shows for a bit after a positive Covid-19 test," Van Pelt tweeted....
Charter Dispute with Anchorwomen Heats Up at NY1
Daily News: A talent agent for NY1 personalities like Pat Kiernan badmouthed five anchorwomen who sued the network for gender discrimination: "Pat's the star. At any other shop in town they would have dropped those b-----s so fast it would make your head...
Tribune in Deal to Sell BestReviews for $160 Million
Chicago Tribune: Tribune Publishing and BR Holding will sell the BestReviews website to TV-station owner Nexstar Media Group for $160 million, the companies announced. Tribune bought a 60% stake in BestReviews for $66 million in February 2018, with its founder, BR...
Meredith Chief Sees Survival of Fittest in Magazines
Mr Magazine: Catherine Levene, president, Meredith National Media Group: "The magazines that matter survive, the magazines that are able to adapt to consumers' needs, that provide quality content and a different experience. And also to be able to extend those brands,...
Conde Nast Parts with Team Behind Vogue Podcast
WWD: Conde Nast Entertainment has parted ways with the team behind a Vogue podcast, with conflicting views as to what happened. The five-strong team was notified that their assignment was coming to an end after producing the first season of "In Vogue: The...
New York Times Article in Hollywood Bidding War
Hollywood Reporter: Almost 20 Hollywood companies are seeking the screen rights to the New York Times article "She Stalked Her Daughter's Killers Across Mexico, One by One," a gripping and devastating story that personalizes the kidnapping epidemic in...
Los Angeles Times Circles Janice Min for Top Editor
New York Post: Janice Min is one of three external candidates topping the list as a possible replacement for Norm Pearlstine, who has stepped down as executive editor of the Los Angeles Times. All three candidates are minorities in keeping with the paper's promises to...
Washington Post to Add 150 Newsroom Jobs in 2021
The Hill: The Washington Post plans to add more than 150 jobs to its newsroom next year, bringing its total staff to a record high of more than 1,000, the newspaper confirmed. The expansion of the Post comes as many other news outlets have struggled to keep...
Financial Times Adviser Ends in Print, Moves Online
TalkingBizNews: "FTAdviser is being expanded with even more ways of delivering in-depth news, analysis, features and comment. There are print aficionados, of course; people who for reasons of preference want to hold a physical edition in their hands. But the way in...