Meredith Sees Tentative Signs of Advertising Return
WWD: People and InStyle owner Meredith is beginning to see tentative signs of recovery in its ad business, with growth in digital advertising and political spot revenues partially offsetting adverse Covid-19-related impacts. "We are encouraged by the...
Conde Nast Former Editor Faces Imposter on Twitter
New York Post: An imposter pretending to be disgraced Bon Appétit editor Adam Rapoport opened a new account on Twitter. The account, which featured Rapoport's picture and a biography, started Nov. 1 and was deleted Thursday. Rapoport resigned from Conde Nast in...
BuzzFeed Claims Profitability After ‘Dire’ Conditions
MediaPost: BuzzFeed will be profitable this year, driven by a profitable third and fourth quarter, CEO Jonah Peretti says. "If current trends continue, we will drive flat year-over-year revenue for 2020, which is remarkable given the circumstances, and there's a real...
Vox Helps Fans Buy Khakis Like MSNBC Journalist’s
New York: MSNBC viewers know that Steve Kornacki often wears khakis on election night, but where can you buy your own version of the news host's prime-time uniform? The Gap calls the color of Kornacki's 2020 election pants "palomino brown," and that color comes in two...
Amazon, Facebook CEOs Enjoy Gains After Election
Bloomberg: Despite lingering uncertainty over the US election, the country's ultra-rich already have plenty to celebrate. Across the board, the 167 US billionaires gained $57.4 billion on Wednesday as investors bid up stocks. Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg led the...
Netflix CEO Joins Tech Titans in Election Donations
CNBC: Tech executives were among the top political donors in the 2020 cycle. Of current CEOs at large-cap tech companies, Netflix's Reed Hastings opened his wallet the widest. Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, donated more than $5...
Facebook CEO Gets Paparazzi’d While Surfboarding
Daily Mail: Mark Zuckerberg was spotted letting loose as he fooled around on his hydrofoil surfboard just days before the US presidential election. The 36-year-old was all smiles as he was photographed catching some waves on his water toy, even wiping out at one...
Google Won’t Pull ‘Trump Wins’ Video from YouTube
CNBC: YouTube says it won't remove a video that claims Democrats are committing voter fraud against Republican ballots, despite admitting the video undermines confidence in elections. The video, titled "Trump won," was posted by right-leaning media outlet One American...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia Issues Apology Over ‘Witches’
NBC News: Warner Bros. apologized after "The Witches" was criticized for its portrayal of physical disabilities in the new adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic novel. Many disability advocates criticized the film after photos of Anne Hathaway's character surfaced...
ViacomCBS Faces Fight Over ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’
Hollywood Reporter: The right to do a prequel or sequel to "Breakfast at Tiffany's," or even a television series inspired by the 1961 film classic, is the subject of a new lawsuit against Paramount Pictures. Truman Capote's charity has been engaging with producers...
Disney Braces for Another Round of Layoffs at ESPN
Sports Business Daily: ESPN is "expected to announce layoffs this week, possibly as soon as Thursday," according to sources. Remote production is "expected to be hit significantly while some of the cost savings will come from talent contracts not being...
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...