Fox Corp Settles Lawsuit with Family of Slain DNCer
Associated Press: Fox News has reached a settlement with slain Democratic National Committee employee Seth Rich's parents, who alleged in a lawsuit that the cable news company exploited their son's death in stories and commentary. Both sides confirmed the...
Disney ‘Leaked Video’ Hints at Future of Streaming
Bloomberg Opinion: Disney+ has a few problems, and a so-called leaked video making its way around social media has provided solutions to them all. The video purports to be a leaked trailer for new content and features coming to Disney's main streaming...
ViacomCBS Reveals Hybrid Post-Covid Work Model
Variety: ViacomCBS is looking ahead to a post-coronavirus world, one in which approximately 70% of its 20,000+ employees will work at least partly from home, according to an internal memo from CEO Bob Bakish. A part-remote work environment will help "reduce our real...
Fox Corp Mum on News Channel Anchor with Covid
Daily Beast: "Fox & Friends First" co-anchor Todd Piro, who recently tested positive for Covid-19, highlights a potentially dangerous contradiction between the network's stated safety policies and the allegedly cavalier way that management is carrying them out,...
Bertelsmann Leads Race to Buy Simon & Schuster
Financial Times: Bertelsmann is in pole position to buy Simon & Schuster, outbidding Rupert Murdoch's News Corp to strengthen its position as the world's biggest book publisher. The German owner of Penguin Random House was the highest bidder in a fiercely fought...
Conde Nast Opens Online Store for The New Yorker
WWD: Now you can buy more than a desk calendar from The New Yorker. The magazine's new online store offers coffee mugs, pencils, notebooks, T-shirts, a hoodie, a beanie, and even a new baby onesie. But one thing you won’t find is a tote...
Hearst Turns to E-Commerce to Grow Cosmopolitan
Digiday: Cosmopolitan's strategy for growing its audience of young women is growing its e-commerce business, according to editor-in-chief Jessica Pels. "This year for us has been [about] building additional new experiences that feel like promising areas of growth for...
Meredith Sees a Surprising Rebound at Newsstands
MediaPost: One of the biggest surprises during the pandemic for Meredith magazine boss Doug Olson has been the rebound in newsstand sales despite the 10% decline in shopping trips that help drive impulse purchases at grocery checkouts. "Our numbers are...
Conde Nast Staffs Up for Media Desk at Vanity Fair
TalkingBizNews: BuzzFeed News veteran Miriam Elder has been hired as executive editor of Vanity Fair's media, business and technology sub-section The Hive. "It's an incredible team and an incredible moment to shape coverage of our brave new world," she wrote on...
Meredith’s People in Podcast Deal with iHeartMedia
WWD: While much of media has long jumped on the podcast bandwagon, Meredith-owned People magazine has only dipped its toe in the water once before with a one-off true crime series in 2018. People is now gearing up to compete in the market once...
Hearst Veteran Acquires Social Network for Women
New York Post: TheLi.st — an oddly named, 10-year-old social network that has been linking successful women with up and comers — has been sold to New Power Media, headed by Ann Shoket, the author and one-time Seventeen magazine editor in...
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...