Top News:
Max Tani / Semafor:
The 2024 GOP primary races are failing to lure news audiences back, with ratings down, as media execs reckon with the lack of a “Trump bump” to save ad budgets — The News — For one week every four years, the DoubleTree hotel in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire …
Joe Posnanski / JoeBlogs:
Joe Posnanski, a former Sports Illustrated senior columnist, reflects on the magazine's impact on his own life and on sports journalism before the internet — At the moment, there's confusion. Heartbreak and confusion. Sports Illustrated may live on. It may not. It may morph into something else.
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NPR, New York Post, Chicago Sun Times, The Hill and ABC News
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Filing: the Arena Group “failed to make a quarterly payment” of ~$3.75M on January 2 to Authentic Brands, the license holder of Sports Illustrated
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Reuters:
Sony sends a termination notice to Zee Entertainment to call off the $10B merger between its Indian media unit and Zee, citing unmet conditions as the reason — Japan's Sony Group (6758.T) said on Monday it has sent a termination notice to Zee Entertainment (ZEE.NS) to call off a $10 billion merger …
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Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Fox Corp. head of ad sales Marianne Gambelli plans to retire; Jeff Collins, currently head of ad sales for Fox News, will gain oversight of all Fox divisions — Collins, currently head of ad sales for Fox News, will add oversight of the entire company's portfolio.
Yair Rosenberg / The Atlantic:
How a cascade of media failures led to misleadingly truncated quotes from Israeli officials about Gaza being cited in the BBC, NPR, The New York Times, and more — Journalists and jurists point to damning quotes from Israel's war cabinet as evidence of genocidal intent. But the citations are not what they seem.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
ElevenLabs, which uses AI tools to create and edit synthetic voices, raised an $80M Series B co-led by a16z, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross at a $1B+ valuation — There's a lot of money in voice cloning. — Case in point: ElevenLabs, a startup developing AI-powered tools to create …
Discussion:
@elevenlabsio, John McClymont on LinkedIn, TechStartups, Reuters and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
Donald Trump's campaign refused to let NBC News correspondent Vaughn Hillyard travel as a pool reporter, leading to NBC News' access being cut off for the day — Donald Trump's campaign refused to agree to let an NBC News correspondent travel with him on New Hampshire campaign stops today …
Daisy Dumas / The Guardian:
Australia's Nine newspapers names former Daily Mail Australia editor Luke McIlveen as executive editor, overseeing the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more — McIlveen was previously editor-in-chief of news.com.au and founding editor of Daily Mail Australia. He takes on Tory Maguire's former role at the Age and SMH
Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:
A profile of David Ellison, who built Skydance Media into a powerful and profitable maker of big-budget movies and TV shows, as he explores a deal for Paramount — Skydance Media's David Ellison produced and financed movies and shows. Now he has his eyes on Paramount.
Discussion:
@jbflint
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Some indie producers say raising money via Sundance exposure no longer works; Comscore: 13 indie movies made $20M+ at the US box office in 2023 vs. 21 in 2019 — The number of hit indie movies is in decline. Some blame the Sundance Film Festival, but the problems run much deeper.
Discussion:
@lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw and Variety
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
The UK publishes its mid-term review of the BBC's Royal Charter, ending on December 31, 2027, saying “the BBC needs to adapt or risk losing” audience trust — The U.K. government is giving more power to the BBC and media regulator Ofcom to handle complaints as part of its mid-term review into the corporation's functioning.
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The Guardian, Byline Times, Sky News, GOV.UK, Broadband TV News, The Mirror, Deadline, HoldtheFrontPage, Telegraph, The Guardian and Financial Times
Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
Sky UK & Ireland head Stephen van Rooyen plans to step down at the end of February; the unit will now report directly to Sky Group CEO Dana Strong — “I have taken the decision that now is the right time for me to leave Sky.” — Comcast's Sky Group said on Monday that Stephen van Rooyen …
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WORLD SCREEN, Variety, Deadline and Broadband TV News
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