Quibi Officially Goes Dark in Crowded Video Market
Variety: The Quibi app as of Tuesday is no longer operable — marking the quick and quiet end of Jeffrey Katzenberg's ill-fated $1.75 billion quest to carve out a new corner of the subscription streaming-video market. The Quibi app will remain on users' devices until...
Chernin Invests in Surfing Media Company Surfline
Axios: TCG, a venture affiliate of The Chernin Group that invests in media, entertainment and tech businesses, is investing $30 million in Surfline, a media company that focuses on surfing coverage and live wave and weather forecasts for surfers. The business is...
Hearst Drops Magazine Discounts Amid New Surge
Press Gazette: Hearst had to take action to stem losses from discount magazine subscription offers as new subscribers jumped following the start of the pandemic. Hearst ditched its most keenly-priced trials in mid-April and "took a big deep breath and waited to see...
Meredith Hunts for Editor at Entertainment Weekly
New York Post: The top editor at Entertainment Weekly is out and a search for a successor is underway. "A national search is being conducted to fill the role.” EW has fallen on hard times recently. In June 2019, the print edition was cut back to a monthly print...
Axel Springer’s Insider Hires Pulitzer Prize Winner
Talking Biz News: Insider has hired Eric Bates as an editor focusing on stories that answer big topical questions. "They'll come in feature form and shorter. Some will take days to produce, others, months. This is very much an investment in our current and future...
New York Times Raises $4 Million for New Initiative
New York Times PR: The New York Times has raised $4 million to launch Headway, a journalism initiative to investigate global and national challenges. The Ford Foundation, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation will fund the...
Washington Post to Grow Effort in Data Journalism
Washington Post PR: Meghan Hoyer, the data editor of the Associated Press, will join the Washington Post to establish and lead a new department dedicated to data journalism. Seven data journalists will report to her and remain embedded in their current...
Politico Stars Plan Newsletter to Take On Playbook
Axio: Three of Politico's biggest reporting stars plan to launch a competitor to the company’s Politico Playbook franchise. Jake Sherman, Anna Palmer and John Bresnahan will launch a daily newsletter in 2021 as a stand-alone...
FCC Chairman to Step Down from Post in January
Associated Press: Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said he is leaving the telecommunications regulator on Inauguration Day. President-elect Joe Biden will choose a new Democratic head for the agency. A new administration typically picks a...
Facebook to Pay Publishers for UK News Offering
BBC News: Facebook will begin paying UK news publishers for some articles with the launch of Facebook News in January. The feature adds a dedicated news tab to the Facebook app, and has already launched in the United States. Facebook said it will prioritize original...
Google Former CEO to Back New Investment Fund
CNBC: Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, is one of several tech executives backing a new early-stage European venture capital fund. The tech billionaire has invested an undisclosed amount into a $111 million fund that was announced Monday by VC firm Firstminute...
Disney Veterans Begin Hunt for Media, Tech Deals
Deadline: Entertainment finance firm Forest Road and a team of A-list media insiders from Tom Staggs to Kevin Mayer have closed a $300 million IPO of a new SPAC – a special purpose acquisition vehicle they’ll use to buy a private company in media, tech or...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia Hopes ‘Flight’ Lands Viewers
Wall Street Journal: HBO Max new boss Casey Bloys sees shows targeting women and younger viewers as way to stand out in a cluttered video market. "The Flight Attendant" is WarnerMedia's latest hope to attract new viewers to HBO Max. Fox Max, buzz has been sorely...
Disney’s ‘Mandalorian’ Joins Top Streaming Shows
Broadcasting & Cable: As Nielsen added Disney Plus and Hulu to its streaming measurement, "The Mandalorian," a Disney Plus show, joined Nielsen's weekly list of the most watched shows on SVOD platforms. "The Mandalorian" was No. 3, accumulating more than 1 billion...
Comcast Must Face Antitrust Lawsuit in Sports TV
Hollywood Reporter: A federal judge finds it "plausible" that Comcast is refusing to make a good offer to license Altitude, a regional sports network that telecasts most Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche games, so that it can drive this Denver-area RSN out of...
Disney Eyes Female Viewers with NFL on Freeform
Bloomberg: Disney is airing an NFL wild-card game in January on five of its TV networks, including its female-focused Freeform channel, as part of an effort to broaden football viewership. The move helps Disney get more yardage out of its contract with the National...
Spotify Woos Music Labels with Digital Age ‘Payola’
Financial Times: A new Spotify initiative lets music labels promote tracks in the music streamer's algorithm, which creates personalized radio feeds for 320 million monthly users. The quid pro quo for higher streaming volumes: reduced royalties when the song is...
iHeartMedia in Deal to Translate Global Podcasts
Radio World: Extending its investment in podcasting, iHeartMedia announced a partnership with European podcast platform Podimo to translate and adapt podcasts across the globe in multiple languages. First up is the true-crime podcast "Forgotten: Women of...
News Corp Cuts More Newsroom Jobs in Australia
Guardian: News Corp Australia has made another round of job cuts, losing 25 editorial staff at the end of a brutal year that has seen Murdoch outlets alone shed 200 journalists and photographers. "We're making a limited number of our staff redundant as we move to a...
Gannett Job Cuts, Asset Sales Take a Toll in Boston
Boston Business Journal: Gannett's aggressive cost-cutting measures have taken a toll on its papers in the Boston area, with more than a dozen journalists at four of its local dailies taking buyouts in the past month, several more leaving for other reasons and an...
Meredith Says Editor to Exit Entertainment Weekly
New York Times: Meredith has parted ways with J.D. Heyman, the editor in chief of Entertainment Weekly magazine. A Meredith spokeswoman said that the end of the editor's tenure at the publication would go into effect "immediately." The reason was not...
Conde Nast: Harry Styles Vogue Issue is a Big Hit
New York Post: Harry Styles' Vogue cover has been such a sellout, the magazine has had to order a rush job on more editions. The British pop star, 26, appears in a gown on the cover, to some controversy, but the issue has been such a hit that fans are on waitlists at...
Hearst Publishes a ‘Love Letter’ to New York City
Daily Front Row: Town & Country's December/January issue is celebrating New York City's rough year with a love letter from some of the town's most iconic residents. Sarah Jessica Parker, Rosie Perez, and Branford and Wynton Marsalis share three different covers...
Forbes ’30 Under 30’ Franchise Rakes In Revenue
Digiday: Forbes' tenth 30 Under 30 list goes live today and in less than a decade since its inception in 2011, the franchise associated with North America's top young entrepreneurs has grown to be one of Forbes' largest sources of...
Monocle Offers Spinoff Magazine Aimed at Women
WWD: Monocle is adding Konfekt — a quarterly publication covering fashion, travel, design, dining and culture — to its portfolio. Based in Zürich, it will be published in English and German, and cater to Monocle's existing female readership and "underserved...
Financial Times Finds Success in New Consultancy
Adweek: The Financial Times is selling its subscription-building prowess to publishers and other companies. These efforts have turned into a multimillion-dollar business after its first year. Called FT Strategies, the separate business division has autonomy from the...
US Media Layoffs on Track to Record High in 2020
Variety: So far, the US media sector has lost an estimated 28,637 jobs over the past year, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That total is rapidly approaching the previous record-breaking year of 2008, when there were 28,803 cuts in the...
Disney to Lay Off 4,000 More Workers Citing Covid
Associated Press: Disney announced plans to lay off 4,000 more employees largely due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company said that 32,000 employees at the parks, experiences and products division will be terminated in the first half of fiscal year...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia Attracts Buzz for ‘The Undoing’
Guardian: Do we love or hate Nicole Kidman's green coat? And who foresaw this thrilling third act of Hugh Grant's career? These and more are important questions raised by HBO's new hit miniseries, "The Undoing." It's on course to be watched by 10 million people in the...
Comcast is Sorry for ‘Disgusting’ Jokes on Peacock
Fox News: Selena Gomez fans were not impressed with jokes about the singer that were written in Peacock's reboot of "Saved by the Bell." In the first season’s sixth episode, characters are seen debating who donated a kidney to Gomez. Appalled fans circulated clips...