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ViacomCBS is changing its name to Paramount, but investors don’t seem too bullish on the company’s performance. Shares of the company slid more than 20 percent in early trading on Feb. 16, following the unveiling of the new moniker on Feb. 15. Paramount’s streaming services, Paramount+ and Showtime, currently have 56 million subscribers combined—putting them far behind Netflix (222 million), Disney+ (130 million) and HBO Max (74 million). However, the company is looking to up that number to 100 million by 2024, a big increase over its earlier projection of 65 million to 75 million. As part of that drive, it is bulking up its streaming content with the addition of such titles as “South Park” and a new “Star Trek” movie. In addition, starting in 2024, all Paramount films will be exclusively streamed on Paramount+ in the US after their theatrical runs.
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| P.J. O'Rourke |
P.J. O’Rourke, who went from editing the National Lampoon to manning the foreign affairs desk at Rolling Stone and writing for such publications as the Atlantic and Weekly Standard, died of lung cancer on Feb. 15. A sort of walking definition of “political incorrectness,” O’Rourke started out as a liberal, but later landed on the Republican side of the fence, where he stayed until the emergence of Donald Trump turned him into a Hillary Clinton supporter in the 2016 presidential election. Author of such books as “Parliament of Whores” and “Republican Party Reptile,” O’Rourke treated figures on both sides of the political divide with humor and an appropriate lack of respect. His varied career also included a longtime stint on NPR’s “Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!” podcast, where he made his debut shortly after 9/11. “One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems on,” he wrote in Rolling Stone in 1989. “And when you do find somebody, it's remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver's license.”
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Lee Enterprises, publisher of newspapers including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Tulsa World and Richmond Times-Dispatch, won a victory in its effort to defuse a hostile takeover from hedge fund Alden Global Capital, which took over the Tribune Publishing newspaper chain last year. A Delaware court ruled in favor of Lee's move to reject Alden’s nominees to the company’s board on procedural grounds. Alden attempted to nominate the new members last year as it was trying to get the board to accept its offer to buy the company at $24 per share. After Lee rejected both ideas, Alden sued, alleging its board nominees were illegally ignored. Lee, which says that Alden “grossly undervalues” its papers, said Feb. 15 that the judge supported its decision to reject Alden's nominees because the hedge fund didn't meet Lee's technical requirements to nominate board members. Alden said it will now urge shareholders to vote against Lee chairman Mary Junck and one other longstanding board member at the company's March 10 annual meeting.
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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