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| Piers Morgan |
News Corp is bringing Piers Morgan back to the airwaves as the centerpiece in its launch of talkTV, a British channel set to launch early next year. According to News Corp’s British arm, News UK, the network “will be streamed live and made widely available on all platforms including linear TV and OTT with content available across social media as well as News UK’s own broad inventory of websites and apps.” In the US, Morgan’s chat show will run on the Fox Nation streaming service, and it will appear on Sky News Australia. Morgan will also write a weekly column that will appear in The Sun and the New York Post. Most recently, he hosted ITV’s “Good Morning Britain,” but he exited that position in March following his on-air accusation that Meghan Markle was not telling the truth in her CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey.
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Fox Corporation buys celebrity gossip brand TMZ from AT&T’s WarnerMedia. TMZ co-founder Harvey Levin will stay on as managing editor. Fox will operate TMZ’s main website, its culture site TooFab.com, its syndicated television programs and celebrity bus tours. “The unique and powerful brand Harvey has created in TMZ has forever changed the entertainment industry and we’re excited to welcome them to Fox,” Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement. TMZ is one of the assets that AT&T is selling as it prepares for the spinoff of WarnerMedia, which is to merge with Discovery.
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| Roger Darnell |
Roger Darnell, founder of The Darnell Works Agency, has written a book aimed at professionals and students who want to improve their prospects in business. “The Communications Consultant’s Foundation” outlines how readers can develop the soft skills required for a successful career as a communicator, as well as offering tips on effective ways to work remotely and independently. Incorporating knowledge from established industry figures and first-hand insight from Darnell’s own career, the book explores such topics as essential business imperatives, what it means to be a PR expert in the creative industry, customer service and the basics of positive, proactive, strategic communications. Darnell has worked on projects including music videos; featured, short and brand films; integrated marketing campaigns; and Super Bowl spots.
Versant Media Group, the NBCUniversal cable TV spin-off, today reported its first financial results as 2025 revenues dipped 5.3 percent to $6.7B and standalone EBITDA dropped 9.1 percent to $2.2B.
Trump Media & Technology Group is discussing a spin-off of the Truth Social platform following the expected closing of its $6B merger deal with TAE Technologies... Condé Nast sells off Them, the digital LGBTQ-focused platform it launched in 2017, to Equalpride, publisher of Out, The Advocate, Out Traveler, Health PLUS Wellness and Pride.com... CBS News has parted ways with longevity influencer Peter Attia, one of the 19 contributors that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss brought on as part of her plan to present a wider variety of voices on the platform. 
Symbolic.ai forms a partnership with News Corp to begin using the company’s AI-native publisher platform in the newsrooms of News Corp publications to augment research, writing and publishing... Mediaite launches a newsletter that promises to give readers a summary of—media newsletters... The Fund for American Studies launches the Journalism Excellence Fellowship, a program that will provide promising young journalists the opportunity to work alongside top writers, reporters, and media professionals.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has roots going back to 1786, is going out of business, the paper’s owners, Block Communications, announced on Jan. 7... GQ editor Will Welch is stepping down to take on a new Paris-based role with the musician Pharrell, who is also men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton... Semafor says it has raised $30 million on a $330 million valuation, following its first profitable year. 
The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI reach an agreement that will make a set of more than 200 animated, masked and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars available for use by Sora, OpenAI’s short-form generative AI video platform... CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has moved Tony Dokoupil, a co-host at “CBS Mornings” since 2019, into the anchor’s chair for the “CBS Evening News,” following the departure of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois... USA Today editor-in-chief Caren Bohan has left the paper.
