 Milo Yiannopoulos |
Milo Entertainment Inc., the company operated by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, has reportedly laid off all its staff. The move follows the April 16 death of cryptocurrency billionaire Matthew Mellon, allegedly from a drug overdose. Mellon had been expected to provide Milo Entertainment with a cash infusion that would have kept it in business. Formerly bankrolled by Robert and Rebekah Mercer, whose other beneficiaries have included Breitbart News, Sen. Ted Cruz and President Trump, Milo Entertainment has hit hard times since the Mercers pulled their funding last year. The company has downscaled its “The Milo Show” from a video program to one only available in an audio version. However, dangerous.com, the company website where browsers have to shell out $47.50 for an annual membership, is still up and running.
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Gothamist, the New York City-centric news site that closed in November along with its sister site DNAinfo, was back up online as of Thursday. Led by Jen Chung and Jake Dobkin, its original co-founders, the site has brought back editor-in-chief John Del Signore and editorial director Jen Carlson, among others. Gothamist staffers have been posting stories since early this month, but Thursday was the official return. WNYC purchased Gothamist in February, and the site now features links to pieces from the station. While DNAinfo’s archives will now be hosted by WNYC, the site is not going back up at present. The November closure by former owner Joe Ricketts, who is also the founder of TD Ameritrade, came just a week after employees at Gothamist and DNAinfo had voted to unionize. In September, Ricketts posted an entry titled “Why I’m Against Unions at Businesses I Create” on his blog, and the Writers Guild of America, East accused him of threatening workers during the organizing drive.
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YouTube, owned by Google, deleted millions of videos from its platform for content policy violations in last year’s fourth quarter before viewers saw them, it said in a report highlighting its response to requests that it better monitor its online community. Artificial intelligence flagged almost all of the allegedly offensive or harmful videos removed from the site, the company said. YouTube says it receives 400 hours of new video uploaded every minute, which prompted the company to automate its monitoring system. That system has failed to stop the posting of extreme and abusive content, resulting in a loss of business from advertisers who claim that their ads have been played before such videos. YouTube says that more human curators will working in collaboration with advanced computer systems to remove the worst videos before they become viral.
 Steph Curry |
Steph Curry, who has been sidelined from the NBA playoffs because of an MCL sprain, has signed a multi-year development and production deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment, according to a report in The Wrap. Curry has also formed a production company, Unanimous Media, that will produce film and TV projects that focus on family, faith and sports. Its headquarters will be located on the Sony Pictures studio lot in Culver City, California. “[Curry is] tapping into his drive and creative energy on the court to expand to horizons off the court and we’re honored to be a part of it,” added Chris Parnell, co-president Sony Pictures Television.
Underscore Media, a new creator-led media venture dedicated to New York sports, is built around three established New York sports personalities, Sal Licata, Jimmy Traina, and John Jastremski.
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost. 
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.
