DAZN Sells Sporting News to British Holding Group
Sportico: Sports streaming service DAZN has sold Sporting News, one of America's oldest sports publications, to British family office PAX Holdings. The sale continues DAZN's push to centralize its core business around live streaming. Terms of the deal were not...
News Corp Yanks Story in UK Tabloid After US Flap
TheWrap: On Monday, the Sun, a UK-based tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, pulled its version of a controversial story about a New York City paramedic with an OnlyFans account. The story originally ran on Saturday in the New York Post, also a News Corp...
New York Times Taps Magazine Veteran for Opinion
Talking Biz News: Siddhartha Mahanta has joined New York Times' Opinion as vertical editor for business, economics and technology. Most recently, Mahanta was managing editor of Rest of World, a digital magazine that covers tech, business and culture. He began his...
Los Angeles Times Top Editor Departs Amid Search
Los Angeles Times: The Los Angeles Times' leadership transition has accelerated with the departure of Norman Pearlstine, who served as executive editor for 2½ years. Pearlstine announced in October that he planned to retire, but the timetable for his exit had been...
Group Nine Media Eyes Acquisitions in Digital Media
Wall Street Journal: Group Nine Media, owner of websites such as The Dodo and NowThis, is considering using a blank-check company to acquire some of its competitors, as the digital-media sector continues to consolidate. It isn't clear which company or companies Group...
Vox Media Hints of Ambitious Multi-Platform Plans
Digiday: Vox Media publisher Melissa Bell: "We are going to produce simultaneously podcasts and TV shows when we know the idea is super strong. We're going to be starting to look into the OTT streaming platforms. So you'll see a lot of growth...
Apple Says Staff Won’t Return to Offices Until June
Bloomberg: Tim Cook has shared new details on Apple's plan to return to the office during a virtual town hall meeting with employees. The CEO said it "seems likely" that the majority of teams won’t be back before June 2021. Cook implied that the company’s success...
Facebook Says Staff Won’t Need Vaccine for Office
Daily Beast: Mark Zuckerberg has told tens of thousands of Facebook employees that they will not be required to get a coronavirus vaccine before returning to work in their offices. The issue came up during a company meeting when an employee asked about how the vaccine...
Microsoft Begins Testing Ads in LinkedIn ‘Stories’
Wall Street Journal: LinkedIn has begun testing advertisements within its fledgling "stories" format in the US and Canada as the Microsoft -owned professional networking platform seeks to boost ad revenue. Stories are ephemeral full-screen vertical videos, photos and...
Netflix Marketing Boss to Publish Memoir in 2022
Ad Age: Bozoma Saint John will publish a memoir in 2022. Titled "The Urgent Life," the Netflix chief marketing officer will tell the story of the photos of her husband that she took in his last few weeks and how loss taught her how to live life with urgency. The book...
Disney Enters League of Tech Giants on Streaming
Fast Company: MoffettNathanson said Disney stock should be seen as being in the same league as tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, or Alphabet. "Given the meaningful opportunity ahead for Disney's streaming business, we believe the stock should be...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia Chief Becomes Movie Villain
New York Times: Jason Kilar's decision to release 2021 movies simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max has angered many in the industry, including some of the star filmmakers his company relies on. Deadline: "Treat us with kindness," said Timothée Chalamet. "Every...
Comcast Mulls $5-a-Month Paywall for ‘The Office’
Bloomberg: When NBCUniversal brings "The Office" to Peacock next month, it could be a major test of whether users are willing to pay for the ad-supported streaming service. The company is considering putting most seasons of the sitcom behind a paywall, a bet that the...
Apple CEO Kills Streaming TV Show About Gawker
New York Times: Tim Cook was surprised to learn that Apple was making a streaming show about Gawker, which had humiliated the company at various times and famously outed him, back in 2008, as gay. Cook expressed a distinctly negative view toward...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia Boss Says CNN Isn’t for Sale
Wall Street Journal: Jeff Zucker's contract negotiations are happening at the same time that CNN has become a target of takeover interest in the private-equity world. Recently, Zucker was made aware of investor interest in taking the network private. In one scenario,...
Fox Corp: Tubi Ad Revenues to Surpass Broadcast
MediaPost: Revenues for free, ad-supported, video streaming service Tubi have doubled since Fox Corp acquired it earlier this year. Its ad sales are growing so fast that Fox's top financial executive predicted it will soon surpass the company's broadcast network...
Reddit to Buy TikTok Short-Video Rival Dubsmash
TechCrunch: Reddit announced that it has acquired short video platform Dubsmash. The deal's terms were undisclosed. Dubsmash will retain its own platform and brand, and Reddit will integrate its video creation tools. Its co-founders, Suchit Dash, Jonas Drüppel and Tim...
News Corp’s WSJ in Flap Over Op-Ed on Jill Biden
New York Times: The editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal accused strategists for President-elect Joe Biden of instigating a coordinated response to an op-ed article that called on Jill Biden to refrain from referring to herself as "Dr. Biden" because she...
Forbes Unveils Global Luxury Real-Estate Platform
Yahoo Finance: Forbes and real-estate veterans are launching a new Zillow-like platform for luxury properties. The listing site will feature homes around the globe from $2 million to $160 million. The partnership with Forbes is designed to draw on Forbes' readership...
Conde Nast Global Editors, Execs Depart in Shakeup
Business of Fashion: The fusion of Conde Nast’s US and international divisions has been more of a takeover than a merger of equals. Last week, the company announced the exit of several of its highest-level editors and executives in key European markets, including...
W Media Hires Hearst Veteran for Digital Redesign
WWD: W editor in chief Sara Moonves aims to beef up the title's digital arm, a goal that has become even more important to the brand during the pandemic. And to help her in her mission she has hired Elle's Katie Connor as executive digital director, a new...
Vox Media Chief Eyes Disney for Business Strategy
Vanity Fair: Jim Bankoff has lately been likening Vox Media not to anyone from its peer group — whether you'd consider that BuzzFeed or Vice or even, say, Conde Nast — but rather to a titan in another league altogether: Disney. "Disney makes money by bringing its...
Axios Readies Business to Help with ‘Smart Brevity’
Digiday: This coming February, Axios's first software-as-a-service product, AxiosHQ, will hit the market. The publisher hopes its strategy to target companies looking to more effectively communicate will differentiate it from other publishers that have built...
Prediction: News Subscriptions to Join Mega Bundles
Nieman Lab: "My prediction: Credit card companies will add a news subscription to their mega-bundles. If American Express can offer their users a one-year subscription to the Calm app, why not a one-year subscription to the Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, or...
Big Media Forecast to Seek More Streaming Deals
Hollywood Reporter: Deal activity in media for the past 12 months was roughly on par with the activity for all of 2019 despite the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers. "Covid-19 forced companies to be more introspective and...
Media Conglom Veterans in the Hunt for New Jobs
The Information: A lot of executive talent in entertainment is currently between gigs. And most are midway through their careers. One of the big questions facing the industry is whether the cuts reflect a permanent shrinkage. Will this crop of free agents stay in...
Disney Top Management Ready for a Big Shake-Up
Business Insider: Disney movie chief Alan Horn, 77, is the center of speculation that he is about to depart. Horn and Disney executive chairman Bob Iger are expected to leave around the same time. General counsel Alan Braverman, who is in his early 70s, may also be...
Comcast Exec Eyes Job with Biden Administration
Philadelphia Inquirer: Comcast executive and longtime Philadelphia political power player David L. Cohen is hoping to join President-elect Joe Biden's administration as either commerce secretary or a high-profile ambassador, according to former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed...
ViacomCBS Names Veteran for International Chief
World Screen: Raffaele Annecchino has been appointed president and CEO of ViacomCBS Networks International, effective immediately, succeeding David Lynn, who will depart the company following a transition period. Annecchino has held a number of positions at the...
AT&T’s Movie Plan is ‘Unacceptable’ to CAA, DGA
Deadline: CAA is the latest to blast WarnerMedia on its decision to place its entire 17-film slate on HBO Max at the same time the films are released in US theaters in 2021. Deadline: The DGA also has told WarnerMedia that its 2021 movie distribution plan is...