Mediagazer: Inside Disney's costly online push while its lucrative legacy businesses decline, as sources say the success of Disney+ diminished Disney's interest in Hulu (Financial Times)

6:20 PM ET, December 7, 2020

Top News:

MSNBC names SVP of News Rashida Jones as its next president, the first Black executive to run a major cable news network; Phil Griffin will leave in January — Mr. Griffin, who has been with the cable news network for 25 years, will leave after the end of January

Discussion: The Wrap, Variety, @davidfolkenflik, CNN, TVNewser, Mediaite, The Hill, @brianstelter, @jbflint, @toddmasterson, @eugene_scott, @jasminestylestv, @vivian, @benmullin, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, @joshsternberg, @yashar, @thekenyeung, @jbenton and New York Post

Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:

After Google's announcement in May that it would start blocking “heavy” ads in Chrome, it is now blocking some ads that publishers sell if they hog resources — On some recent business day, The New York Times sold an ad to a company. I can't tell you the name of the company …

Discussion: @pilhofer, Chromium Blog, @jarroddicker, @kennwhite and MediaPost

Ben Smith / New York Times:

Former colleagues share how a powerful Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter, Michael Fuoco, got away with sexual misconduct for years as his paper, union ignored it — Michael Fuoco was a bigfoot reporter with a fiery personality and a reputation for harassing young women. No one seemed to want to rein him in.

David Smiley / Miami Herald:

Monica R. Richardson has been named the new executive editor of the Miami Herald, the first Black executive editor in its 117-year history — The Miami Herald's parent company named a new executive editor on Monday to lead its newsrooms in Florida — a 30-year veteran of the news business …

Discussion: Al Jazeera, @raju, @newsbysamuels, @mcclatchy, @verambergen, @markseibel, @watchdogdiva, @rana_cash, @tonywhunter, @craigtimes, @newsbysmiley, @elaheizadi, @jewelwickershow and The Wrap

Jane Lytvynenko / BuzzFeed News:

This year, disinformation about the pandemic, BLM protests, and the election divided the US, with “Plandemic” as a case study of social networks' failures — Disinformation and its fallout have defined 2020, the year of the infodemic. Month after month, self-serving social media companies …

Discussion: @brandyzadrozny, @ashleyn1cole, @katestarbird, @pandemic_times, @rasmus_kleis, @janelytv and @austinfrerick

Financial Times:

Inside Disney's costly online push while its lucrative legacy businesses decline, as sources say the success of Disney+ diminished Disney's interest in Hulu — Media empire must sustain its costly online push while its lucrative legacy businesses decline — The Walt Disney Company …

Discussion: Awful Announcing, @annaknicolaou, The Streamable, @financialtimes, @sub8u, @rasmus_kleis, @webbarr and @annaknicolaou, more at Techmeme »

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

Universal Music says it has acquired Bob Dylan's entire music catalog of over 600 songs; the deal is estimated to be worth over $300M — Universal Music purchased his entire songwriting catalog of more than 600 songs in what may be the biggest acquisition ever of a single act's publishing rights.

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:

As Trump leaves global press freedom in tatters, Biden needs to be bold, including appointing an envoy for press freedom and reintroducing daily press briefings — When Donald Trump first started accusing the mainstream media of dealing in “fake news,” it was impossible to know the long-term effects of this rhetoric.

Discussion: Fox News, @sulliview, @froomkin and The Week

Jeff Jones / Knight Foundation:

Survey: 59% of Americans say media was responsible in reporting election results; 63%, including 17% of Republicans, believed media projections of Biden's win — The 2020 election was marked by severe political divisions, a public health crisis, unease about the voting process …

Discussion: Business Insider, Breitbart, @knightfdn, @froomkin, @knightfdn, The Hill, @knightfdn and Poynter

Brian Schwartz / CNBC:

Sources: Michael Pack is planning a purge at USAGM, pushing for the removal of agency officials whom he put on administrative leave, before Biden is sworn in — - President Donald Trump's federal media agency CEO is attempting one last purge before Joe Biden is sworn in as the next commander-in-chief.

Discussion: @schwartzbcnbc

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Tom Lowell, formerly a producer of Megyn Kelly's shows, named executive VP and managing editor of news at Fox News, will oversee daytime news editorial content — “From creating the top-rated morning news program 'America's Newsroom' in 2007 to leading newsgathering, Tom has made a formidable impact …

Discussion: nexttv.com, The Wrap and @bristei

Variety:

Sources: Legendary, which co-financed Dune, is considering suing Warner Bros. over its decision to release movies simultaneously on HBO Max and in cinemas — Legendary Entertainment, the production company that co-financed “Dune” and “Godzilla vs. Kong,” may take legal action against Warner Bros …

Discussion: The Wrap, ScreenRant, @marisabalkus, /Film, ComingSoon.net, The Week, @successlon, @pkafka, @discussingfilm, @johnnysobczak, @tinycamcorder, IndieWire and Cord Cutters News

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China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

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More News:

David Gilbert / VICE:
At Trump's rally in Georgia on Saturday, people were seen distributing a truckload of Epoch Times papers, spreading the same baseless conspiracies as Trump

Discussion: @daithaigilbert and The Bulwark

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
UK-based Reach says its news website My London, launched in 2019, had 4.8M visitors in October, up 59% YoY, and plans to hire 20 to boost editorial staff by 50%

Discussion: @danrussell12000, @pressgazette, @pressgazette and @pressgazette

Bloomberg:
Sources: Comcast's Sky is considering reducing its workforce in Italy by up to 20%, or around 1,000 jobs, after the pandemic hit revenues

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Dish Network to pay $210M to the US government and four states to settle a lawsuit claiming it made millions of illegal robocalls to sell satellite TV services

Discussion: Advanced Television and Silicon Valley Business …

Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Google starts rolling out Apple Music support to Assistant smart speakers and displays, including its Nest products, in the US, UK, France, Germany, and Japan

Discussion: The Keyword, @ohmdee, Engadget, TechCrunch, Android Central and 9to5Google, more at Techmeme »

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
UK's The Times pays £30K in libel damages and apologizes after an article was edited to suggest an advocacy org supported a suspected terror attacker

Discussion: @brokenbottleboy and @jane_redux

Earlier Picks:

Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with NYT's SVP of product engineering Brian Hamman on how the paper prepared for the 2020 election and changes they made to the homepage for the event

Discussion: @niemanlab, @niemanlab and @niemanlab

William Turvill / Press Gazette:
ProPublica's Richard Tofel discusses the Trump Bump: donors rose from ~3K in 2015 to 32K in 2019, when small donations made up 20% of $33.1M in revenue

Jon Levine / New York Post:
Maya Wiley made ~18 appearances on MSNBC since leaving as a contributor to launch her NYC mayoral run, earning criticism from mayoral rivals and media ethicists

Discussion: @margoandhow and @connortryan

BBC:
Netflix says “we have no plans, and see no need, to add a disclaimer” warning The Crown viewers that the show is a work of fiction

Discussion: IGN, /Film, Collider, @variety, @jameelajamil, Newser, The Guardian, Hollywood Reporter and Daily Mail

Amaris Castillo / Poynter:
Report: in six countries, including the US, proportion of women journalists has remained flat since 2000 and women are 2x to 6x less likely to be quoted in news

Discussion: @nickcharles61, @amariscastillo, @joannelipman, @poynter and @julieburtonwmc

Manisha Krishnan / VICE:
Canada's Global News radio host Supriya Dwivedi quits, alleges colleagues' on-air racist narratives led to threats against her; Global News is “taking action”

Discussion: icfj.org, @rebekahlsanders, @reem_abdellatif, @amydiehl, Matt Gurney's Code 47, @jane_gerster, @chadloder, @manishakrishnan, Toronto Star, The Hamilton Spectator, AllAccess.com and VICE

From Techmeme:

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Meta adds Dina Powell McCormick, who served as deputy national security adviser to Trump in his first term, and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison to its board

Financial Times:
Sources: Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence raised $2B led by Greenoaks at a $32B valuation; SSI last raised $1B at a $5B valuation in September 2024

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Binance asked the US Treasury last month to loosen oversight on its AML compliance, after Binance entered into deal talks with Trump's crypto venture

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