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Meredith, which acquired Time Inc. in 2018, has now been acquired itself. Barry Diller's IAC has reached an agreement to purchase Meredith in a roughly $2.7 billion all-cash deal. Upon completion of the deal (which is expected by the end of the year), Meredith will combine with Dotdash, IAC's digital publishing division, to form a new company that will be known as Dotdash Meredith. Dotdash executives told investors that combining the companies' portfolios will make Dotdash Meredith one of the country's 10 largest digital media outlets. Dotdash chief executive Neil Vogel will head up the new company. Despite Dotdash's digital focus, Vogel said that Dotdash Meredith will not be abandoning print. While Meredith CEO Tom Harty said that employees' jobs are not changing because of the deal, an IAC spokeswoman said that the new company will be based in Dotdash's New York headquarters.
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| Kelly Campbell |
Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming channel, names Kelly Campbell president. Campbell's departure from Hulu, where she also served as president, was announced on Oct. 4. Before coming to Hulu as chief marketing officer in 2017, Campbell was with Google for 12 years, holding a variety of senior marketing posts. In her new position, she will be responsible for Peacock's streaming business, live and original content, as well as working with NBCUniversal executives on TV, film, news and sports programs that stream on the platform. While Hulu owner Disney says it has 42.8 million subscribers, NBCUniversal says that in July Peacock had 54 million subscribers, with 20 million monthly active users.
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Fox Weather, a new free, ad-supported streaming service from Fox News Media, is launching on Oct. 25. In addition to leveraging the existing meteorologists and weather resources at the cable channel and the Fox local stations, the service has hired Amy Freeze, the weekend meteorologist for WABC New York, as an anchor. Sharri Berg, who was previously COO, news & operations for Fox Television Stations, is serving as Fox Weather's president. Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch says the company is investing $200 million - $300 million into its streaming efforts this year. "We're seeing tremendous interest in brands who would not be traditional news advertisers coming to show tremendous interest in Fox Weather," he claimed.
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
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.
