AT&T’s WarnerMedia TV Chief to Exit During Transition
Reuters: Veteran television executive Peter Roth will leave his job as chairman of Warner Bros. Television Group in 2021, the AT&T-owned studio said in a statement. Roth "felt that this was the right time to transition in a new leader for the...
WPP Chief Says Ad Giant Looking to Make Acquisitions
Financial Times: WPP has rediscovered its appetite for acquisitions, according to CEO Mark Read, who has sought to repair the advertising group's finances and make it fit for the digital age. WPP was built through two decades of dealmaking under Read's predecessor,...
Comcast’s NBC Deflects Critics with Savannah Guthrie
Associated Press: Savannah Guthrie did more than just display her journalistic chops at NBC News's town hall with President Trump. She changed the subject for her bosses. NBC was reeling heading into event, under widespread criticism for scheduling it at the same time...
ViacomCBS Taps MTV Studio for Election Night on CBS
Associated Press: CBS News is building a new high-tech election night set in the Times Square studio where MTV's "Total Request Live" ruled the music world two decades ago. The set, at the ViacomCBS headquarters on Broadway, highlights modern wizardry like "augmented...
Sinclair Broadcast to Host Trump Town Hall on Local TV
Baltimore Sun: Sinclair Broadcast Group, the TV station owner and operator, will host a Wednesday town hall with President Trump at the White House to be shown on the company's nationwide network of stations. Eric Bolling, a former Fox News host, will...
Fox Corp Exports Global News Streamer to 15 Countries
Media Play News: Fox News Media's international streaming platform expanded its distribution in Europe to include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Sweden. That brings the total number of countries where...
News Corp Insiders Scoff at ‘Flimsy’ Hunter Biden Story
New York: The New York Post’s own journalists say they are skeptical of the newspaper's stories about Hunter Biden, including the man who wrote most of the "smoking gun" story and would not put his name on it. Since Wednesday, the Post has published more than 50...
Gannett Eclipsed by Network of Pay-for-Play News Sites
New York Times: A network of nearly 1,300 websites -- more than twice as many sites as Gannett -- aims to fill a void left by vanishing local US newspapers. But behind the scenes, many of the stories are directed by political groups and corporate PR firms to promote a...
Belo Staffers Win Union Election at Flagship Newspaper
Dallas Morning News: Journalists at the Dallas Morning News and Al Día have won the right to negotiate as a group for a union contract governing their pay and working conditions. The National Relations Labor Board in Fort Worth said newsroom employees voted 84-28 in...
Lee Enterprises Job Cuts Reach Its Largest Newspaper
St Louis Business Journal: Lee Enterprises has been laying off staff for weeks. Now the cutting has reached its largest newspaper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A Post-Dispatch spokeswoman confirmed that the newspaper recently laid off one newsroom...
Conde Nast to Make Masthead Changes After Cost Cuts
WWD: Conde Nast-owned Vogue and Glamour have quietly updated their mastheads recently. The moves come against the backdrop of recent cost cutting at Conde in the midst of the pandemic, which weighed heavily on ad...
Hearst Pitches New Magazine-Branded Products on QVC
MediaPost: Good Housekeeping has teamed up with chef Curtis Stone and his kitchen product company, Foodfight, to create a line of Good Housekeeping Kitchenware, backed by the GH Seal. Shopping network QVC is the exclusive launch...
Time Magazine Readies Special Talk with Harry, Meghan
WWD: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are working with Time Magazine to host a special episode of its Time 100 Talks on Oct. 20. The episode will focus on the topic of “Engineering a Better World,” which is an important element of the couple’s charitable...
Axios Chief Says Consumers Must Avoid ‘Sh— Content’
Press Gazette: Internet users need to take more personal responsibility for the content they consume, says Axios CEO Jim VandeHei. "At the end of the day, I choose whether I smoke. I choose whether I drink. I choose whether I ingest shit content into my mind on a...
Comcast’s NBC Chiefs Explain Decision to Host Trump
Wall Street Journal: "We share in the frustration that our event will initially air alongside the first half of ABC's broadcast with Vice President Biden," says NBCUniversal News Group chairman Cesar Conde. "Our decision is motivated only by fairness, not business...
Fox Corp’s Murdoch Predicts a Landslide Win for Biden
Daily Beast: President Trump's influential supporter Rupert Murdoch is telling close associates he believes Joe Biden will win the election in a landslide. The Australian-born billionaire is disgusted by Trump's handling of Covid-19, remarking that the president is...
News Corp Eyes Big Names for ‘Fleet Street’ Video Push
Financial Times: Piers Morgan and Alan Sugar are among the high-profile broadcasters being courted by the Murdoch media empire for its new small screen venture in Britain. News UK has been developing several current affairs and entertainment programs, which would be...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia to Shutter Movie Channels in India
Mint: WarnerMedia has announced the shutdown of the HBO linear movie channels in India and Pakistan, as well as the WB linear movie channel in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Maldives. "This was a difficult decision to make. The pay-TV industry landscape and the...
Disney Slaps Content Warnings on ‘Dumbo,’ ‘Peter Pan’
KTLA: Disney has added a new advisory that displays before films on Disney+ that have been identified as including stereotypes and negative depictions of people or cultures. The advisory includes a statement that displays on the screen for approximately 10 to 12...
Comcast to Pay $295,000 in Discrimination Settlement
Philadelphia Inquirer: Comcast has agreed to pay $295,000 to 45 Black and Hispanic workers at its Philadelphia headquarters and raised some salaries to settle allegations of pay discrimination from the US Department of Labor. Comcast denies the allegations but says it...
AT&T’s WarnerMedia Seeks Sports Betting, Black Voices
Los Angeles Times: Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors has signed a production deal with Warner Bros Television Group to create original programming. CNBC: DraftKings has agreed to a partnership with Turner Sports to install it as an exclusive sportsbook...
Alphabet Promises to Start Muzzling QAnon at YouTube
Reuters: YouTube, the video service of Google parent Alphabet, says it will ban content that targets an individual or a group using conspiracy theories such as QAnon or pizzagate that have "been used to justify real-world violence." The company says it will begin...
Facebook, Twitter Chiefs Sought by Senate Over Article
Bloomberg: Senate Republicans are demanding to hear from the CEOs of Facebook and Twitter to discuss alleged censorship of political news, a sign of escalating tension over treatment of a New York Post article concerning Hunter Biden. Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican...
Twitter Updates Policy After Dispute with New York Post
CNBC: Twitter has changed its policy on hacked materials on the heels of its controversial decision to block links to a New York Post story about Joe Biden's son. Twitter will no longer remove hacked content unless it is directly shared by hackers. It will also label...
Snap, Pinterest See Gains from Ad Boycott at Facebook
The Information: When Facebook reports third-quarter earnings later this month, the results are expected to show that the summer advertiser boycott had little discernible impact on its advertising revenues. But what was likely crumbs falling from the table for...
Bloomberg Looks to Challenge Davos with Virtual Event
Axios: Bloomberg's New Economy Forum, going virtual this year for the first time, is on track to challenge the likes of the World Economic Forum, the Aspen Ideas Festival and others. The forum will be the first major global convening of business ad political leaders...
Altice Slashes Jobs at Millennial-News Network Cheddar
Business Insider: Cheddar, the millennial-news network sold to cable company Altice USA for $200 million last year, has laid off staffers during the pandemic and consolidated its two channels. Sources estimated that Cheddar's staff was slashed by 30% or more, which...
Gannett Prepares Another Round of Newsroom Buyouts
Poynter: Gannett, the nation's largest newspaper company with more than 250 daily titles, will begin offering another round of newsroom buyouts next week. It has not yet said how many. The changes were announced by CEO Mike Reed during a companywide virtual town hall...
Hearst, Conde Celebrate Blackness on Magazine Covers
Poynter: In the 90 days following the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police, mainstream magazines celebrated Blackness on their covers about three times more than in the previous 90 years combined. Every one of the 126 covers published in...
New York Times Faces Possible Danger if Trump Loses
Financial Times: "The impressive digital subscription engine built by the New York Times would not be enough to protect it from a ‘Trump slump.’ The hunger for news and analysis would reduce with a conventional president and relative normalcy returning to US...