New York Times, Washington Post: So Long, Trump
Axios: The New York Times and the Washington Post have very different strategies for building the subscription news company of the future. The Post is nearing 3 million digital subscribers, more than three times the number of digital-only subscribers it had in...
BuzzFeed: HuffPost Editions Shuttered in Sale Deal
TechCrunch: HuffPost is becoming part of BuzzFeed, but HuffPost India and HuffPost Brazil will not be making the transition — both sites are shutting down. "Today is @huffpostIndia's last day," tweeted the team's editor in chief Aman...
Fox Corp Mulls $100 Million Media Deal for Trump
Vanity Fair: Rupert Murdoch is said to be considering a plan to offer Donald Trump a $100 million package that would include HarperCollins publishing Trump's post-presidential memoir and Fox News giving Trump a contributor deal or his own show. "Rupert is going to...
AT&T, Comcast Need a Media Merger, Analyst Says
Hollywood Reporter: "It is time for both AT&T and Comcast to abandon the fool's gold of vertical integration of content and distribution and merge NBCUniversal with WarnerMedia," according to LightShedPartners analyst Richard...
Disney TV Business Operations Chief to Step Down
Deadline: Ravi Ahuja, president of business operations and chief financial officer at Walt Disney Television, is stepping down. Ahuja, who was formerly CFO of Fox Networks Group, took the position after Disney's acquisition of...
Comcast Expands Internet Data Cap Across the US
Ars Technica: Comcast's unpopular monthly data cap is coming to 12 more states starting January 2021. The policy was already enforced in most of its 39-state US territory over the past few years. The expansion will bring the cap to every Comcast...
Disney to Push Mobile App in New TV Ad for ESPN
Mobile Marketer: ESPN has unveiled a campaign to highlight the features of its app as more fans use mobile devices to find news, information, highlights and livestreamed games. The "One App, One Tap" campaign debuted with a 60-second commercial on...
ViacomCBS Turns to TikTok Stars for Reality TV Hit
Business Insider: AwesomenessTV has released its new TikTok reality show "AwesomenessTV's Next Influencer." To cast the show, the AwesomenessTV team recruited talent from the TikTok collective Project 305 and hired TikToker Alex Warren as its host....
AT&T’s WarnerMedia Streamer Gets More Bingeable
Deadline: The remaining episodes of HBO freshman drama "Industry" will be released on HBO Max this Friday, making the entire season available to binge over the holiday weekend. This is the first time fresh episodes of an HBO series will premiere on HBO...
Netflix Unveils Plan for $1 Billion US Production Hub
Associated Press: Netflix plans to establish one of the largest production hubs in North America with an expansion of its existing studio complex in New Mexico and a commitment to an additional $1 billion in production...
Amazon’s Ousted Studios Head Denies Accusations
Los Angeles Times: In the wake of his ouster from Amazon, Roy Price decamped to Asia in a self-imposed exile. After nearly three years of grappling with the implosion of his career at Amazon, Price is talking publicly for the first...
Snap Pays Creators to Try New Competitor to TikTok
CNBC: Snap has announced the launch of Spotlight, a Snapchat feature that functions like TikTok. Snap will motivate users to submit clips for Spotlight by offering a daily pool of more than $1 million to users who create entertaining...
Conde Nast Magazine Slams US ‘White Supremacy’
Mediaite: Kandist Mallett highlighted the injustices Black people have faced throughout American history in an op-ed for Teen Vogue, condemning American values and stressing the country's dependence on "white supremacy and...
Meredith Magazine Takes Pledge to Boost Diversity
WWD: InStyle magazine has signed on as a media partner for the 15 Percent Pledge, aiming for greater representation of the Black community in its pages. The title plans to highlight the work of Black creatives via photography, writing, styling and artistic...
Time Magazine Plans ‘Person of the Year’ TV Special
MediaPost: Time is partnering with NBC for a "Time Person of the Year" broadcast special -- the third major network broadcast partnership for Time this year. The special will feature exclusive coverage of the 2020 Person of the Year, a franchise begun in...
Crain Names New CEO at Business Media Publisher
Ad Age: KC Crain has been named CEO of Crain Communications, the Detroit-based, family-owned media company that is the parent for Crain's Detroit Business, Automotive News, Ad Age and nearly 20 other trade and business...
McClatchy’s Shuttered Presses Face Dismal Future
Poynter: The glass, eight-story "pavilion" for the Kansas City Star newspaper, built in 2006 for $200 million, faces possible bulldozing for a new baseball stadium. Or maybe the press "can stay put and be repurposed for printing paper bags or other...
New York Times Scoops Up Journalists from Digital
Adweek: The New York Times is on a roll: It has 7 million subscribers and a digital presence that's more profitable than its newsprint. And it hasn't been shy about poaching top talent from the most prestigious digital media...
BuzzFeed, HuffPost Hope for Profitability Next Year
Digiday: "There's a huge need for trusted news brands that are not behind paywalls that can distribute quality information across all platforms. And I think HuffPost and BuzzFeed News are both iconic brands that deserve to be standalone...
Roundup: US Digital Publishers Wary Ahead of 2021
Adweek: While a number of digital publishers are enjoying a plentiful end to the year, the shortened sales cycle, market instability and nervous clients pushing for cancellation clauses mean there is much less in the pipeline for early next...
Facebook Plots Charm Offensive to Win Over Biden
Financial Times: Facebook executives are planning a major push to encourage users to take a coronavirus vaccine, as well as incentivizing people to share content related to the Paris climate agreement, which Joe Biden has promised to...
Google Preps Massive Office Campus in Manhattan
New York Yimby: "As New York City comes back, it'll be tech that leads the way," said mayor Bill de Blasio. "Google has doubled down on their big bet on New York City because they know we have advantages that are unmatched across the...
Fox Corp Delays Return to Offices by Three Months
Hollywood Reporter: Fox Corp is delaying its plan to have most staffers return to work in offices until at least April 2021, as state and local officials across the United States report rises in Covid-19 cases in the days ahead of the Thanksgiving...
ViacomCBS New York Offices Take a Hit from Covid
Washington Post: ViacomCBS has seemingly been hit harder than almost any other major media conglomerate during the pandemic. In November, 15 people who were in the CBS Broadcast Center have tested positive, according to emails sent to employees....
AT&T-WarnerMedia Veterans Survive Media Layoffs
Fast Company: "If you work long enough in today's dynamic media and entertainment industry, chances are you will get fired. We've all seen or heard of leaders' unfortunate departures in this business. But there are also examples of elegant...
Comcast Brings ‘Steals and Deals’ to New Streamer
WWD: A two-hour special, "Peacock Presents: Holiday Steals and Deals" — an extended version of the "Today" show's Steals and Deals franchise — airs Monday. "It's an interesting way in the pandemic for people to cross off everyone on their...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia Expects CNN Chief to Depart
Vanity Fair: Jeff Zucker is expected to leave CNN in the first quarter of 2021. Still, "a final decision has not been made," and Zucker has more than a year left on his current contract. His exit would bring the curtain down on an exhilarating eight-year...
Amazon to Pull HBO in Concession to WarnerMedia
CNBC: In a victory for AT&T's WarnerMedia, HBO will no longer be available as an Amazon Channel after their current placement deal expires next year. Today, HBO's presence in the Amazon Channels store lets users watch regular HBO...
Google to Pull Back Benefit to Publisher News Sites
The Markup: Four years after offering special placement in a "top stories carousel" in search results to entice publishers to use a format it created for mobile pages, Google announced that it will end that preferential treatment in the...
News Corp Under Attack from Two Prime Ministers
Guardian: Two former Australian prime ministers are at the vanguard of a campaign to redress the balance of power in media. It is a movement that Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull hope will go on to undermine all of Rupert Murdoch's...