Academy

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' PR branch is changing its name, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The new name, the Marketing and Public Relations Branch, recognizes the marketing professionals who have long been a part of the branch alongside publicists. The 455 active members of the branch represent about six percent of the Academy’s membership of 7,902. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who served as president of the Academy from 2013 to 2017, comes from the marketing side of the business, as did Sid Ganis, who was the Academy’s president from 2005 to 2009. The decision about the new name must be reviewed by the Membership and Administration Committee, but according to the Reporter, many regard that as little more than a procedural formality.

Tribune

Tribune Publishing newspapers fell prey to a cyber attack last weekend. A report in the Los Angeles Times said that in addition to the Tribune papers (the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, and Baltimore Sun, among others), several other dailies that share the company’s production platform saw their Saturday editions delayed due to the presence of computer malware in the system. The LA Times and San Diego Union-Tribune, both former Tribune papers, were affected, as were the West Coast editions of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. A spokesman for the LA Times said the attack is believed to have come from outside the U.S.

fios

Verizon and Disney have reached an agreement that will keep Disney’s programming running on Verizon’s FiOS system. The standoff threatened to bar consumer access to the ABC channels in New York and Philadelphia, as well as The Disney Channel, Freeform and ESPN. The agreement comes as the college bowl season hits high gear, with the NFL playoffs just days away. A tweet from Verizon News said that details of the agreement “will be released in the coming days.” FiOS shed nearly 63,000 subscribers in Q3 2017, bring its current subscriber total to about 4.6 million.