 |
Voting-machine company Dominion has added Newsmax Media and Herring Networks (the owner of One America News Network) to the list of those it has sued regarding claims that the company rigged the 2020 election in favor of president Biden. Dominion also sued former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, who has made similar accusations. Earlier this year, the company filed lawsuits against Fox News, Rudolph Giuliani, attorney Sidney Powell and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell over their roles in spreading election fraud claims. According to the Wall Street Journal, Newsmax said that its coverage of the 2020 election cited allegations made by public figures, including former president Trump, his advisers, and members of Congress, while One America said that the statement and claims made in “Absolute Proof,” a documentary produced by Mindell which claimed to show “100 percent” manipulated votes in President Joe Biden’s favor, were presented “as opinions only.”
 |
The New York Times posted positive numbers for Q2 2021 as regards both subscription and advertising revenue. Subscription revenue grew 16 percent over last year’s second quarter, “the largest year-on-year subscription revenue gain in more than a decade,” according to president and chief executive officer Meredith Kopit Levien. The paper says it added 142,000 net digital subscriptions in Q2, and now has more than eight million paid subscriptions across its paid and digital products. It expects total annual net subscription growth for 2021 to be “in the range of 2019.” Advertising revenues rose 66 percent overall year-on-year. Digital ad revenue fueled much of the growth, increasing 80 percent over Q2 2020 and 22 percent over Q2 2019’s pre-pandemic figures. Print ad revenue, while up by 48 percent over Q2 2020, was down 33 percent from Q2 2019. The company’s adjusted operating profit was $93 million, up 78 percent from the same period last year.
 |
| Eric Ludgood |
The E.W. Scripps Company hires former CNN International vice president for editorial Eric Ludgood to lead Newsy, its national news platform. Currently available on over-the-top and connected TV platforms, Newsy will launch over the air in more than 90 percent of U.S. television homes on Oct. 1, carried primarily over Scripps-owned broadcast stations' spectrum. Ludgood comes to Scripps from WAGA-TV, the FOX-owned and operated channel in Atlanta, where he was executive producer of the investigative team. At CNN, he played a pivotal role in such stories as the election of Nelson Mandela and the events of Sept. 11 and led the CNN World Report unit. In this newly created role, Ludgood will be responsible for the overall leadership, editorial identity and programming for Newsy.
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.
