Tag Archives: media

The Hill reports: Eric Spinato, a top producer for Fox News and the Fox Business Network, died of the coronavirus over the weekend. In a memo to Fox News staffers obtained by the Hill, company leadership called Spinato’s work “instrumental to the growth and entrepreneurial success” of the network, saying his contributions to the company during two stints over a …

CBS News reports: President Biden will hold his first press conference as president on March 25, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. The news comes after questions from reporters and urging from critics that he do so. By this point in their presidencies, former Presidents Trump and Obama had held some form of a press conference. When Mr. …

Deadline reports: CNN will cease its Airport Network, which provided news feeds to airport monitors across the country. CNN President Jeff Zucker wrote in a memo that the network would cease as of March 31. “The steep decline in airport traffic because of COVID-19, coupled with all the new ways that people are consuming content on their personal devices, has …

The Hill reports: Outgoing New York Times CEO Mark Thompson said he would be “surprised” in the newspaper still offered a print edition in 20 years, adding that he’s skeptical if advertising will ever return at pre-pandemic levels. “I believe the Times will definitely be printed for another 10 years and quite possibly another 15 years — maybe even slightly …

The New York Times reports: To stay away from bad news, advertisers often turn to a method known as blacklisting. It allows airlines to avoid running ads near plane-crash coverage, and companies with wholesome images to keep away from articles containing words like “murder” or “sex.” In a time of political polarization, frequently blacklisted terms include “Russia,” “impeach” and, among …

Axios reports: Facebook says it is spending $100 million to support news outlets around the world that have been impacted by the coronavirus, the company said Monday. Whatever Facebook’s motivation, this is a much-needed cash infusion at a critical time for the local news industry. While $25 million will be given to local news organizations in the U.S. as grants, …

CNN reports: The top editor at the Washington Examiner, a leading conservative news organization, instructed staff in recent months to refrain from writing negative stories about Fox News, according to two people familiar with the matter. The people who spoke to CNN Business said that they believed the Examiner’s editor in chief, Hugo Gurdon, handed down the order because he …

Pew Research reports: Most Americans feel worn out by the amount of news there is these days – a feeling that has persisted for several years now. Around two-thirds of Americans feel worn out by the news, about the same share as in 2018. About two-thirds of Americans (66%) feel worn out by the amount of news there is, while …

The Daily Beast reports: ThinkProgress, the influential news site that rose to prominence in the shadow of the Bush administration and helped define progressivism during the Obama years, is shutting down. The outlet, which served as an editorially independent project of the Democratic Party think tank Center for American Progress, will stop current operations on Friday and be converted into …

Deadline reports: CBS and Viacom have agreed to a price for their long-awaited merger and plan to formalize the deal with an announcement after the close of trading today, sources tell Deadline. The “exchange ratio” — how many shares of each company will be traded in the all-stock translation — had been a major consideration in negotiations over recent days. …

Axios reports: Top news executives tell Axios that a real “Trump slump” is hitting digital, cable and more. The shock factor around President Trump’s unplanned announcements, staff departures, taunting tweets and erratic behavior is wearing off, and media companies are scrambling to find their next big moneymaker. Executives tell Axios that Trump fatigue is very real: Interest in political coverage …

Axios reports: Google is launching the Local Experiments Project, an effort to fund dozens of new local news websites around the country and eventually around the world. The tech giant says it will have no editorial control over the sites, which will be built by partners it selects with local news expertise. Big tech companies like Google and Facebook are …

The Washington Post reports: A conservative commentator who was lauded by President Trump this week as “wonderful” and who has argued that past sexual indiscretions should have no bearing on Trump’s presidency was fired from Arizona State University four years ago for making sexually explicit comments and gestures toward women, according to documents and a university official. An internal investigation …

CBS News reports: Tribune Media is withdrawing from its $3.9 billion buyout by Sinclair and it’s filing a lawsuit against it, citing breach of contract. Tribune Media would be on the hook for a $135 million breakup fee, according to the agreement reached last year. Sinclair Broadcast Group had offered to buy the Chicago company’s 42 TV stations and had …

Heavy reports: On Thursday afternoon during a White House briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders refused to respond when reporters asked if “the press was the enemy of the people.” According to Aaron Blake, senior political reporter for The Washington Post, Sanders was asked three separate times if she thought the press was the enemy of the people, and …

The Los Angeles Times reports: Time Warner Inc. is no more. Late Thursday, AT&T Inc. announced that it completed its $85-billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc., just two days after a federal judge in Washington gave the deal the green light. AT&T wasted little time consolidating its hard-fought prize — a blockbuster purchase that instantly transforms the phone company into …

The New York Times reports: A federal judge on Tuesday approved the blockbuster merger between AT&T and Time Warner, rebuffing the government’s effort to block the $85.4 billion deal, in a decision that is expected to unleash a wave of takeovers in corporate America. The merger would create a media and telecommunications powerhouse, reshaping the landscape of those industries. The …

The Hill reports: The Daily Beast is “going to hit pause” on Joy Reid’s columns while its reporters investigate the MSNBC host’s claims around hacking of her old blog, which included homophobic comments that she says were “fabricated.” “Reid claims that she was hacked, that new blog posts aren’t really hers,” said Noah Shachtman, the publication’s executive editor, in a …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump’s attacks on the mainstream media may be rooted in statistical reality: An extensive review of subscription data and election results shows that Trump outperformed the previous Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, in counties with the lowest numbers of news subscribers, but didn’t do nearly as well in areas with heavier circulation. POLITICO’s findings — which put …

Bloomberg Law reports: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to monitor hundreds of thousands of news sources around the world and compile a database of journalists, editors, foreign correspondents, and bloggers to identify top “media influencers.” It’s seeking a contractor that can help it monitor traditional news sources as well as social media and identify “any and all” coverage …