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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.
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
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