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Sinclair Broadcast Group is firing back at Tribune Media over the $1 billion breach of contract suit Tribune filed earlier this month concerning the collapse of a deal in which Sinclair would have acquired 42 TV stations currently owned by Tribune, as well as the national network WGN America. In a countersuit filed on Aug. 29 in Delaware Chancery Court, Sinclair claims that Tribune failed to meet its contractual obligations by not engaging in “reasonable best efforts” to close the deal. Sinclair also says that Tribune is looking to profit from the scuttled deal. “We were extremely disappointed that the Tribune transaction was terminated,” Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley in a statement. “We are likewise disappointed that Tribune, through its meritless lawsuit, is seeking to capitalize on an unfavorable and unexpected reaction from the Federal Communications Commission to capture a windfall for Tribune.”
 Kristen O'Hara |
Snap Inc. has appointed Kristen O’Hara VP-U.S. global business solutions. O’Hara comes to Snap after 16 years at WarnerMedia (the former Time Warner), most recently as chief marketing officer for global media. She succeeds Jeff Lucas, who left the company in February. Before coming to Time Warner, O’Hara was senior partner, account director at WPP agency Young & Rubicam. In her new post, she will be in charge of Snap’s U.S. sales operations, reporting to chief strategy officer Imran Khan. The Wall Street Journal reports that Snap’s estimated share of the global digital ad market currently lags far behind competitors Facebook and Google. Numbers from research firm eMarketer give Snap about 0.5 percent of that market, while Facebook and Google come in at 18 percent and 31 percent respectively. Snap, which launched its self-serve programmatic platform in June, grew revenue by 44 percent to $262 million during the second quarter this year.
 Alex Hardiman |
The Atlantic has hired Facebook head of news products Alex Hardiman as chief business and product officer. Before coming to Facebook, Hardiman was vice president, news products at the New York Times. At Facebook, she led the product and engineering teams for news and oversaw the news experiences for all Facebook users, as well as working to expand the company’s subscriptions product for news organizations and serving as a liaison with publishers as part of The Facebook Journalism Project. She will be responsible for guiding audience experience and product strategy across the brand’s platforms; leading the product, engineering, data and growth teams; and shaping The Atlantic’s initiatives on digital consumer revenue. Bob Cohn, The Atlantic’s president that Hardiman’s stints at Facebook and the Times “give her an unrivaled perspective on digital media, and her audience-first focus will sharpen the appeal of our work.”
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
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