 Tom Steyer |
Fox News is being accused of breach of contract by billionaire political activist and donor Tom Steyer over the network’s Oct. 31 decision to pull a 60-second TV spot that calls for President Trump’s impeachment. The spot, bankrolled by Steyer, was part of what Politico reports was an ad buy of over $10 million. The spot accused the President of bringing the U.S. “to the brink of war with North Korea” as well as potentially obstructing justice by firing former FBI director James Comey in the midst of the Federal probe into possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russian political operatives. The decision to pull the spot was called “baseless and unethical” in a memo sent to Fox News president Jack Abernethy by Brad Deutsch, a lawyer for Streyer, on Nov. 3. In a statement, Abernethy said that the spot was pulled due to the “strong negative reaction to their ad by our viewers.” But he may have been most influenced by one high-profile Fox News fan. “Wacky & totally unhinged Tom Steyer, who has been fighting me and my Make America Great Again agenda from beginning, never wins elections!” Trump tweeted soon after the ad aired on "Fox & Friends," a program that is a Presidential favorite.
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CNN has announced plans that it says will help to turn the digital side of its operations into a bigger moneymaker. Starting as soon as the second quarter of next year, the network will offer premium subscriptions that will give users access to special content on such topic-specific verticals as CNN Politics and CNN Money, as well as a less specialized package that provides content from across CNN’s sites. Establishing direct-to-consumer subscriptions would reduce CNN’s reliance on ads that run before videos as a source of revenue. While CNN expects its digital properties to bring in $370 million this year, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the new initiatives are part of what the company says is a five-year plan to develop additional revenue streams, and raise digital revenue to $1 billion annually by 2022.
 Jillian D'Onfro |
CNBC Digital is adding two reporters, Alex Sherman and Jillian D’Onfro, to its technology team. Sherman comes to CNBC from Bloomberg News, where he covered telecom and media. In his new post, he will be on the mergers and acquisitions beat, focusing on tech and the Silicon Valley venture capital world. D’Onfro spent three years at Business Insider as senior technology reporter, covering the tech industry with a concentration on Google, Facebook and startups. At CNBC, she will cover companies such as Alphabet/Google as well as writing human-interest features.
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.
USA TODAY brings on Jamie Stockwell as VP of news, effective March 30. Stockwell was most recently deputy managing editor of news for the Washington Post... YouTube expands its likeness detection capabilities to a pilot group of government officials, journalists and political candidates... The AP Fund for Journalism adds 50 news organizations to its local news program, bringing the total number of participating newsrooms to 100. 
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.
