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The Atlantic, bucking the media cutback wave, has announced plans for a major expansion across the company. The number of staffers will rise by as much as 100 over the next 12 to 18 months, according to a memo to staff from Atlantic president Bob Cohn. That's a 30 percent boost in talent. The expansion will add engineering, design, data, consumer marketing and sales team employess. There will be greater coverage of entertainment, business and technology. The company’s branded content studio and consultancy as well as its flagship conference, Washington Ideas, are also expected to grow. Emerson Collective, the non-profit foundation started up by Laurene Powell Jobs, acquired a majority stake in the company last July. The memo said that the company has been “profitable and consistently expanding over the last several years.”
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Dish Network’s Q4 2017 financials show that consumer flight from cable and satellite TV providers to streaming services is continuing. The company says that SlingTV, its internet-delivered TV service, grew by 47 percent in the fourth quarter vs. the previous year and now has 2.2 million customers, placing it ahead of such “virtual Pay-TV” providers as Hulu’s live TV service and AT&T’s DirecTV Now. Things were far less bullish for DishTV, the company's satellite service. A report in the New York Post places the number of subscribers the service lost in the fourth quarter at 121,000. However, that leaves it with 11.03 million customers, still generating most of the company’s revenue. “DISH TV is really the engine that's funding our future,” said Dish president and CEO W. Erik Carlson at a Thursday earnings call.
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The Publicity Club of New York’s Feb. 13 lunch with six top personal finance/money editors and reporters can now be seen on its website. “Your Money & Personal Finance” featured Suzanne Woolley of Bloomberg News. Jill Schlesinger from CBS News, CNBC Digital’s Rick Levinson, CNNMoney’s Katie Lobosco, Lauren Young from Reuters and Yahoo! Finance’s Lisa Scherzer. Members of PCNY can view the video of the event for free at https://publicityclub.org/pcny-presents-your-money-personal-finance/. For non-members, there is a $19.95 charge. PCNY’s next media luncheon will take place on April 17.
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
Boston Globe Media acquires InstaTrac, a company that provides subscription-based services aimed at making government information easier to find, track, and understand... AARP names former New Republic CEO and publisher Michael Caruso as its SVP and chief content officer, unifying the organization's portfolio of media, live events and digital platforms... The Fund for American Studies, an educational nonprofit, awards its inaugural Journalism Excellence Fellowships.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
