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.
Discussion:
@tommytomlinson, NPR, New York Post and Chicago Sun Times
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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
Discussion:
@si_union, New York Daily News, TIME, @xpangler, Axios, Awful Announcing, UPROXX, Front Office Sports, The Ringer, Hollywood Reporter, HuffPost, The Information, Business Insider, Washington Post, Newser, Page Six, Los Angeles Times, Vibe, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal and Defector
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 …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, BBC, Financial Times, The Wrap, WORLD SCREEN, @danprimack, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, TechCrunch, CNN, Deadline, Broadband TV News, Financial Times and Wall Street Journal
Ben Axelrod / Awful Announcing:
Months after pulling its Surviving Barstool series from YouTube over censorship claims, Barstool Sports announces a deal with Rumble; Rumble stock jumps 30%+ — Nearly two months after pulling its popular Surviving Barstool series from YouTube over claims of censorship, Barstool Sports has a new video home.
Discussion:
Rumble, Bloomberg, @rumblevideo, Reclaim The Net and Barrett Media, more at Techmeme »
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.
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:
Fast Company, @elevenlabsio, Reuters, Bloomberg, John McClymont on LinkedIn and TechStartups, 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
Discussion:
@reallykazcooke and @gingergorman
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.
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.
Discussion:
The Guardian, Byline Times, Sky News, GOV.UK, Broadband TV News, The Mirror, Deadline, HoldtheFrontPage, Telegraph, The Guardian and Financial Times
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