Fox Corp Takes a Hit Amid Chatter of New Trump TV
Hollywood Reporter: Fox Corp's stock took a hit despite broader market gains. "Is the Trump News Network to blame?" Bloomberg Opinion: "If Trump emerges as Fox's first true competitor and he comes for its large base of cable-loving retirees, what...
Twitter, Facebook Struggle to Contain Trump Misinfo
Reuters: As President Trump and his allies flooded social media on Wednesday with false claims of victory and unsupported allegations of voter fraud, social media companies warned users the presidential election had yet to be decided. "We're on the brink here."...
IAC Chief Says Trump Deserves Respect as a ‘Force’
CNBC: Barry Diller says he "hoped for a repudiation" of President Trump but "that has not happened." No matter the outcome of the 2020 election, Trump "is a force," the billionaire media mogul adds. "What he represents is a force. It has to be...
Bloomberg Founder Sees Big Losses on US Election
CNBC: Mike Bloomberg’s more than $100 million investment into three key states fell flat as President Trump appears to have captured all of them. In the months after Bloomberg dropping out of the Democratic primary, the business leader plotted a spending blitz to help...
Sinclair Suffers a Hit from Regional Sports Networks
Bloomberg: Sinclair Broadcast Group wrote down the value of its regional sports networks by $4.23 billion, an admission that it grossly overpaid for cable channels hobbled by cord cutting and shrinking subscriber revenue. Sinclair paid $9.6 billion last year for the...
iHeartMedia Layoffs Continue in Radio Across the US
Digital Music News: Back in April, following a series of personnel cutbacks that preceded the COVID-19 pandemic, iHeartMedia revealed that it planned to trim $250 million in costs this year. Now, the company has parted with several additional employees across...
Conde Nast Offers US Election Updates at Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair: The Hive's 2020 election live blog aimed to break down results as they rolled in and serve up inside chatter from Washington, Wall Street and Silicon Valley. The blog reported that President Trump phoned Rupert Murdoch to "scream about the Arizona...
New York Times: Is It Time to Retire Election Needle?
CJR: The results of election night 2020 were not as conclusive as many anxious Americans had hoped. But one long-running debate was settled for good: It’s time to retire the New York Times needle — the graphic display that shows the likely winner of an election....
Washington Post Signals Launch of New Ad Product
MediaPost: The Washington Post has introduced a contextual ad targeting product called Project Signal. "For an advertiser, targeting alongside content in context with an article is going to be the status quo across publishers on the web," says Post VP Jarrod...
Bustle Digital Plans Virtual Holiday Shopping Bazaar
Digiday: Bustle Digital Group is trying to recreate the holiday shopping experience online this year with its three-week-long Shop Holiday virtual bazaar. Launching on Black Friday and running through Dec. 18, the online market will allow event sponsors to show off...
TMZ Website Traffic Drops as Celebrities Stay Home
Showbiz 411: TMZ's website has dropped in its rankings by almost 200 points over the last 90 days. The pandemic may be doing them in. Celebrities aren’t in airports anymore, and they’re not in restaurants. Video paparazzi can’t stalk them around Hollywood as they once...
Google Yanks Fake US Election Results on YouTube
Bloomberg: Several YouTube accounts livestreamed fake US election results to tens of thousands of viewers hours before any of the polls closed on Tuesday -- and before YouTube took the clips down as spam. "We continue to be vigilant with regards to election-related...
Facebook OKs Victory Declarations for US Election
Wall Street Journal: Facebook has clarified its rules and says it won't flag President Trump or any other individual who declares victory in battleground states before votes are counted. The company says its policy was meant to apply to the overall election results,...
Twitter Flags Trump Tweet About US Election Theft
Mediaite: While votes were still being counted across the country, President Trump took to Twitter to claim: "They are trying to STEAL the Election." It's unclear what set off the tweet, but it came amid outrage from the president's camp about Fox News calling Arizona...
Fox Corp Arouses Trump Wrath After Call for Biden
New York Post: President Trump's campaign is heavily disputing Fox News's decision to flip the swing state of Arizona to Joe Biden and has called on the network to retract the call. "Can't believe Fox was so anxious to pull the trigger here after taking so long to...
AT&T, Fox Corp News Channels Diverge on Election
Reuters: Fox News leads US TV networks in projecting the 2020 presidential election results, even as it and other news networks urged caution in interpreting early results. TV networks are facing heightened pressure to report election results accurately and without...
Disney, Comcast in Faceoff Over Holiday Streaming
Bloomberg: Like everything in the Covid-19 era, the battle for the holiday movie fan will play out at home this year. Comcast's Universal Pictures plans a Dec. 18 online release for its animated film "The Croods: A New Age." Days later, Disney releases its own...
Comcast in Talks with Walmart to Develop Smart TV
Wall Street Journal: Comcast is in talks with Walmart to develop and distribute smart TVs, as the cable giant looks to become a dominant hub for streaming apps, not just TV channels. Walmart would promote TV sets running Comcast software, and would get a share of...
AT&T to Consider Sale of Minority Stake in DirecTV
CNBC: AT&T is in discussions with private-equity firms, including Apollo Management, to sell a significant minority stake in its DirecTV, AT&T Now and U-Verse pay-TV businesses in a complicated transaction that would shift legacy assets off the wireless...
Comcast Hit with Lawsuit from Teleprompter Staffer
Law360: NBCUniversal has been hit with a race bias lawsuit in New York federal court by a teleprompter operator who says she was given the boot during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic because she is Asian. Amy Sinavsky's five-year tenure with the company...
News Corp Faces Media Inquiry Petition in Australia
Guardian: A former Australian prime minister’s petition calling for a royal commission into the Murdoch media has reached a historic high of almost half a million signatures. The ex-Labor leader behind the campaign, Kevin Rudd, has been supported by a fellow prime...
Thomson Reuters Hints of New Acquisition by 2021
Reuters: Thomson Reuters says third quarter revenue rose on gains in its legal and corporate divisions and cost cuts helped lift its 2020 free cash flow outlook. CFO Michael Eastwood says Thomson Reuters is evaluating acquisition targets and could announce a deal this...
Gannett to Lean On Digital Subscriptions, Cost Cuts
USA Today: Nearly a year after completing a major media merger, USA Today owner Gannett is betting on paid digital subscriptions to deliver revenue growth while using cost cuts to offset its declining print business and the effects of the coronavirus...
McClatchy Recognizes Fort Worth Newspaper Union
Fort Worth Business: Fort Worth Star-Telegram owner McClatchy has recognized Fort Worth NewsGuild as a unit of the NewsGuild-CWA. The Star-Telegram becomes the third McClatchy newspaper to recognize a union this year. Recognizing the union allows contract negotiations...
New York Times Deletes Tweet About US Election
Fox News: The New York Times corrected a tweet on Tuesday after the newspaper initially claimed that “the role of declaring the winner” in the presidential election "falls to the news media." The Times eventually deleted the tweet and issued a...
Philadelphia Inquirer Closes Printer, Cuts 528 Jobs
New York Post: The Philadelphia Inquirer says it will lay off 528 people when it shuts down the printing plant where the paper and the Philadelphia Daily News have been printed since 1992. The grisly headcount is slightly higher than 500 layoffs that were...
Alphabet Talks Trump Election Ad Buy on YouTube
CNBC: President Trump may dominate YouTube's home page on Election Day. But that slot won't be available for advertisers to buy in the same way again, according to a policy update. Google says the policy change affects all advertisers, and is not connected "in any...
Facebook, Twitter Face Election Day ‘Judgment Day’
USA Today: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are pulling on their battle fatigues. They will be on high alert Tuesday and in coming days for any effort to destabilize the election or delegitimize the results. This heightened state is the result of the 2016 presidential...
Apple Readies Online Unveiling of ‘One More Thing’
CNET News: Apple has announced a new online-only event planned for Tuesday, Nov. 10, a week after the US presidential election. The event will be streamed live via the company's website. Apple is expected to announced its next-generation Mac...
US Media Giants Forecast to Seek Big M&A in 2021
Forbes: With government antitrust focus on the digital giants, is more deal-making in store for traditional media? Would Comcast spin off NBCUniversal? Will AT&T sell off part or even all of WarnerMedia? Will ViacomCBS find a big...