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...
New York Times in Legal Battle with Time Magazine
Bloomberg Law: The publisher of Time Magazine's Time100 Talks infringe the New York Times's Times Talks trademark covering similar conversation events between journalists and leading thinkers, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan federal...
Conde Nast Hires Engineers Amid Digital Transition
Financial Times: CEO Roger Lynch is moving forward with an overhaul of Conde Nast, investing about 10 percent of the company's revenues into technology and content to boost online subscriptions and ecommerce, while pushing into movie and TV...
Hearst, Conde Nast Ramp Up Diversity in Magazines
Poynter: Blackness exploded on the covers of magazines during the middle months of 2020. But is it hypocrisy? A performative act so that those magazines can profit from the pain of Black people, as one editor said? Or is it a genuine...
New York Times Nabs Star of Digital News Site Vox
Daily Beast: The New York Times announced that Ezra Klein, who left the Washington Post in 2014 to launch Vox, will join the paper as an opinion columnist and podcast host. "Ezra will be able to help our readers and listeners navigate the political...
Vox Media Seeks New Leaders as Top Execs Depart
Axios: Ezra Klein, co-founder and editor-at-large of Vox, the political news website owned by Vox Media, and Lauren Williams, editor-in-chief and SVP of Vox, are leaving the company. The changes mark a new era for Vox, the news brand, and Vox...
G/O Media ‘Erases’ Websites in Back-End Overhaul
@timmarchman: "G/O Media's destruction of their archives has wiped out specialprojectsdesk ... They knocked out all the independent Kinja sites, due to the way things were structured, anything published independently to the Special Projects site, which mainly hosted...
Axios CEO Sees Media Filter Bubble Getting Worse
Axios: "The media remains fairly clueless about the America that exists outside of the big cities, where most political writers and editors live. The coverage missed badly the surge in Trump voters in places obvious (rural America) and less obvious (Hispanic-heavy...
BuzzFeed, HuffPost Brace for Layoffs After Big Sale
Business Insider: News that BuzzFeed is acquiring fellow digital media outlet HuffPost has insiders speculating about layoffs and worrying about the future of both newsrooms. "The first reaction was shock," said a BuzzFeed editorial...
Google Ignores Creators in Ad Update for YouTube
CNBC: YouTube said in an update to its terms of service that it has the "right to monetize" all content on its platform. As such, it will start putting ads on videos from channels not in its YouTube Partner Program, which shares ad revenue with...
Netflix Inks Nine-Figure Film-TV Deal with Producer
Hollywood Reporter: Filmmaker Shawn Levy, who this week started production on Netflix's action-adventure feature "The Adam Project," has signed a five-year, first-look film and TV deal with the streaming giant. The deal is said to be in the nine-figure...
Disney Mulls Snub of Movie Theaters for New Films
Deadline: Disney is looking at launching a number of its upcoming tentpole family films on Disney+ instead of the theatrical release bows that were envisioned when the films were developed and green...
Discovery Slates Big Unveil for Streaming Strategy
Hollywood Reporter: Discovery will unveil details of its much-anticipated global streaming service and the broader strategy behind it during an investor event on Dec. 2. CEO David Zaslav recently said the company was working on "finishing...
ViacomCBS Insiders Stir Chatter About CBS News
Business Insider: Susan Zirinsky is dropping some big hints that she is unhappy with aspects of her role as head of CBS News, leading to speculation that there may be changes at the top. "She's been noisy about being...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia is Mum After Scandal at CNN
Fox News: CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin was fired from his job as a staff writer at the New Yorker magazine more than a week ago following an investigation into an incident in which he was caught masturbating on a Zoom call with...
Liberty CEO in Hunt for Opportunities in Pandemic
CNBC: The economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis will be uneven across sectors, potentially creating investment opportunities, said Liberty Media's Greg Maffei. "The pandemic, in our view, will linger. This isn't going to be a switch turned off or...
Fuse CEO Leads Management Buy of Media Outfit
World Screen: Miguel "Mike" Roggero, CEO of Fuse Media, has led a management buyout of the cross-platform entertainment brand focused on delivering English-language content for Latino, multicultural millennial and Gen Z...
iHeartMedia, Celebs to Salute ‘Heroes of New York’
Associated Press: Robin Hood and iHeartRadio announced a collaboration to present "Heroes of New York," which will air Dec. 1 on television and radio stations in New York. The one-hour show will share inspirational stories of...
Spotify Podcaster Influx Sparks Flap at The Ringer
New York Times: Celebrity podcast talent being brought on as contractors has raised concerns among full-time employees at The Ringer, who say it may close off their opportunities for advancement and weaken the company's...
Google Agrees to Pact with Newspapers in France
Reuters: Google has signed copyright agreements with six French newspapers and magazines, including national dailies Le Monde and Le Figaro. The move follows months of bargaining between Google, French publishers and news...