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CNN is getting into the streaming game. The network says it is hiring hundreds of people and developing dozens of programs for a subscription streaming service, CNN+, that is set for an early 2022 launch. The service will exist alongside CNN's television networks and will feature eight to twelve hours of live programming a day. In addition to that live programming, CNN+ plans to air original series and will initiate what CNN chief digital officer Andrew Morse calls an "interactive community," which is intended to give subscribers the ability "to engage directly with our talent and experts about the issues that matter most to them." Morse will also serve as the executive in charge of CNN+. CNN is prevented from using its current live programming on the streaming channel because of deals with cable distributors, which it says bring in more than a billion dollars in profit annually.
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| Noah Shachtman |
Rolling Stone brings on Noah Shachtman, who has helmed the Daily Beast website since 2018, as the publication’s editor-in-chief. Shachtman will start his new position in September. He succeeds Jason Fine, who stepped down earlier this year, and now oversees Rolling Stone’s podcasts, video series and other digital journalism initiatives. Shachtman was hired by Rolling Stone president and chief operating officer Gus Jenner, whose father, Jann Wenner, sold a majority stake in the magazine to Penske Media in 2017. Shachtman told the New York Times that he plans to bring the hard-hitting style he employed at The Daily Beast to Rolling Stone. “It’s got to be faster, louder, harder,” he told the Times. “We’ve got to be getting scoops, taking people backstage, showing them parts of the world they don’t get to see every day,” Wenner says that the publication is currently profitable, with the print magazine boasting a circulation of about 500,000.
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| Bozoma Saint John |
Netflix has axed three senior marketing executives after it was discovered that they had been complaining on Slack about other employees, including management, according to a report in The Hollywood Reporter. Two targets of the complaints were allegedly chief marketing officer Bozoma Saint John and vp original films marketing Jonathan Helfgot. However, a Netflix spokesperson told the Reporter the “depiction of the slack messages in question being critical of marketing is untrue.” While Helfgot was initially reluctant to fire the offending exec, the report says that he did so in response to pressure from higher-ups in the company. The firings illustrate the “radical transparency” that is said to be a pivotal part of the Netflix culture under co-CEO Ted Sarandos. “Ted told me it’s a firing offense because it’s destructive to the fabric of the company,” a source told the Reporter.
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.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
