ViacomCBS Ups Security for Lesley Stahl After Threat
TMZ: CBS has begun providing "60 Minutes" journalist Lesley Stahl with around-the-clock security due to a death threat made to the home of one of her immediate family members. The threat came shortly after the news that President Trump had walked out of an interview...
Conde Nast: Former Longtime New Yorker Editor Dies
Associated Press: Daniel Menaker, an award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction and a longtime editor at The New Yorker and Random House who worked with Alice Munro, Salman Rushdie, Colum McCann and many others, has died at age...
Penske Elevates Veteran Exec to President of Variety
Variety: Michelle Sobrino-Stearns has been promoted to president and group publisher of Variety. In her new role, Sobrino-Stearns assumes oversight of all editorial and business operations globally, including strategic planning and financial...
A360 Media Faces Lawsuit Over ‘All-Boy Club’ Culture
Law360: The publisher behind Us Weekly and other celebrity tabloids maintains a "sexist, all boy club culture," commerce writer Brittany Romano alleged in a new lawsuit accusing the company of firing her for filing a sex bias...
Group Nine Sees Staff Unionize at Video Site NowThis
New York Post: NowThis, a leading producer of video news for mobile use, says it has unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. The parent company, Ben Lerer’s Group Nine, agreed to recognize the union as the bargaining agent for the 90-person editorial...
Vox Media Staffs Up After Slashing Jobs at SB Nation
Awful Announcing: Vox Media sports property SB Nation has taken a rather interesting approach this year. In April, they were one of the Vox properties specifically targeted to bear the brunt of unpaid three-month furloughs as part of a “cost reduction” strategy around...
Salt Lake City’s Newspapers to End Daily Publication
Associated Press: Salt Lake City will go from two daily printed newspapers to none after both of its major publications cut print days to once a week in unusual moves for a large city that could portend more struggles for the country’s newspaper...
Alphabet Readies Opening of Googleplex in Manhattan
New York Yimby: Construction is nearing topping out at 550 Washington Street, Google's 1.3 million-square-foot office in Hudson Square. The facility will join two other nearby structures at 315 Hudson Street and 345 Hudson Street to form a 1.7 million-square-foot...
Twitter Plans ‘Pre-Bunks’ for Debunking Misinformation
NBC News: Twitter will begin placing messages at the top of user feeds to pre-emptively debunk false information about voting by mail and election results, an escalation of the tech company's battle against misinformation. Twitter is calling the messages a "pre-bunk,"...
Fox Corp’s Murdochs Avoid Scrutiny on Misinformation
The Intercept: The Murdoch family attracts far less attention than their hired hands, the journalists and shouting heads who have downplayed Covid-19 and created the content that helped catapult Donald Trump to the White House. "It's fair to regard the Murdochs as...
ViacomCBS Plots Division for Kids with Global Content
Kid Screen: ViacomCBS International Studios has launched a kids division and tapped Nickelodeon International SVP of production and development Nina Hahn to oversee the initiative. VIS Kids will aim to broaden its global kids content pipeline to include short and...
Comcast Finds ‘Shepard Smith’ Disappointing at CNBC
Mediaite: Shepard Smith, once a star anchor at Fox News, made headlines last year when he abruptly left the network. Now, his highly anticipated — and heavily promoted — new show at CNBC is falling behind repeats of Fox Business show "Lou Dobbs...
Oprah Winfrey Picks Out Books for Challenging Times
Associated Press: Oprah Winfrey is setting aside her usual book club recommendations and instead citing seven personal favorites. Winfrey is calling her choices “The Books That Help Me Through,” works she values for “their ability to comfort, inspire, and...
Fox Corp Reveals Covid at News Channel; Staffer Dies
Daily Beast: Web video producer Rob Brown, who had been with Fox News since 1999, has died. Brown — who had not been in the Fox News offices since March — died from complications of Covid-19. Fox News has revealed that some staffers have tested positive for the...
News Corp Endorses Trump in Op-Ed at New York Post
The Hill: The New York Post has endorsed President Trump for reelection in an editorial on Monday, saying it would result in "explosive job creation, rising wages and general prosperity" and would "really tick off...
Bloomberg News Worker Exits to Start Own Newsletter
Talking Biz News: Bloomberg News tech reporter Eric Newcomer has left the news organization to start an independent newsletter called Newcomer. "I quit my job at Bloomberg — where I’ve scooped IPO news, acquisitions and financing rounds and written about startups...
Tribune Appointment Leads Women to Outnumber Men
Robert Feder: Michelle Lopez, manager of editorial operations for Tribune Publishing, has been named director of content for the Chicago Tribune. Women now outnumber men on the Tribune's masthead, including managing editor ChrissyTaylor and editorial page editor...
News Corp Hires McKinsey for Help with Digital Growth
Consultancy.com: News Corp Australia has brought consultants from McKinsey & Company on board to advise on new growth opportunities. The company has over the past year ceased the printing of 112 newspapers, McKinsey's work down under is part of a broader revamp...
Conde Nast Expat to Expand Cooking Show on YouTube
Associated Press: Leaving Bon Appetit for an independent YouTube channel could be considered risky, but the payoffs were noticeable almost immediately for Sohla El-Waylly. The three months it took to create her new series was about how long it would take to produce...
Hearst Mag Veteran in Racial Flap Over Instagram Post
New York Post: A former executive fashion director at Hearst’s Elle magazine stepped into a social-media storm when he Instagrammed, “Stop firing employees because they are white, especially men.” Kyle Anderson's message was posted over an image of an article about...
Meredith Staffers Get Laundry Advice from Facebooker
People: Equality starts at home — especially the laundry room, according to Sheryl Sandberg. The Facebook chief operating officer was speaking at the virtual launch event for #StraightTalk, a new interview series organized by the employee resource group Women @...
Playgirl Magazine Returns as Publication for Feminists
WWD: Playgirl Magazine has relaunched in print, looking very different from its last issue in 2015. This time, the cover star is not a man, but a pregnant Chloë Sevigny, expertly shot by Mario Sorrenti against a backdrop of lush mint green hues, with the caption...
Vox Media Offers ‘I Voted’ New York Magazine Stickers
Daily Front Row: This week's issue of New York Magazine sees 48 artists putting their own spin on the "I Voted" sticker. The project is divided into four covers. Each cover will show an image of 12 stickers, with a corresponding sheet of usable stickers...
Bongino Political Site Finds Popularity in Social Media
MediaPost: The Facebook page and website owned by the conservative, pro-President Trump commentator Dan Bongino have recently hit record engagement. Posts from Bongino’s Facebook page dominated a list of the top 10-most engaged links in the US on the...
BuzzFeed Likely to Break Even After $30 Million in Cuts
Wall Street Journal: BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti aims to offset the company's ad decline with around $30 million in cost cuts, through a mix of furloughs, pay reductions, layoffs and other changes meant to stabilize the company’s finances through the...
Apple, Netflix Eye New James Bond Film for Streaming
Bloomberg: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has held discussions with Apple and Netflix about taking its new James Bond film directly to streaming, but the studio says it's committed to a theatrical release. The film, "No Time to Die," could fetch hundreds of millions of dollars...
Facebook Attempts to Block Research on Ad Targeting
Wall Street Journal: Facebook has demanded that a New York University research project cease collecting data about its political-ad-targeting practices, setting up a fight with academics seeking to study the platform without the company’s permission. The dispute...
Disney Mulls Future of ESPN Amid Business Disruption
Hollywood Reporter: ESPN, once Disney's cash cow, has found itself caught between two business models: the direct-to-consumer future and the pay TV past. "They have this really, really expensive machine built around a certain model. They are really kind of...
Analysis: Media Giants Admit Decline of Pay-TV Model
CNBC: A quiet consensus has emerged in the hallways and boardrooms of American media companies. They expect about 25 million US households to cancel their pay-TV subscriptions over the next five years. This is on top of the 25 million homes that have already cut the...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia Overhaul Blindsides Head of CNN
Wall Street Journal: CNN's Jeff Zucker felt blindsided by a recent restructuring carried out by parent WarnerMedia, and has had friction with its CEO, Jason Kilar. The 55-year-old's contract expires next year and he hasn’t committed to extending his deal in meetings...