Top News:
Deadline:
Sources: in a WBD town hall, CEO David Zaslav denied rumors of a merger or a sale: “We are not for sale, absolutely, not for sale”; rumors point to Comcast — The top brass at Warner Bros Discovery held a company-wide town hall Wednesday over Zoom in which they laid out the current state …
Discussion:
Variety, Broadband TV News, @deadline, TBI Vision, @great_katzby, @thenugeekz, @tvgrimreaper, The Streamable, The Wrap and The Hollywood Reporter
Emily Langer / Washington Post:
Bill Plante, who covered the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and four presidencies as a CBS News correspondent for more than half a century, dies at 84 — He became a fixture of American television sets, covering the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War and four presidencies
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CBS News, The Wrap, @nprkelly, @zevshalev, @dpotternews, @edokeefe, @ruralj, @sarah_boxer, @edokeefe, @tvietor08, @phil_mattingly, @ejdionne, @tonyfratto, @kevinmaddendc, @edokeefe, CBS News, @jimrutenberg, @djjudd, @edokeefe, @jimsciutto, @cbctom, @edokeefe, New York Times and Deadline
The Daily Beast:
Sources: CNN laid off the last remaining CNN+ employees, around 20 people, on September 28, a few days after laying off eight staff from CNN's audio division — Five months after the network axed its much-hyped but short-lived streamer, it gave pink slips to the remaining staffers on the failed endeavor.
Discussion:
@patrickokeefe, @justinbaragona, @patrickokeefe, New York Daily News, New York Post, Insider, Deadline and Mediaite
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Lionsgate rebrands its international streaming service StarzPlay as Lionsgate+; SEC filing: the company is exploring spinning off its studio business, not Starz — Lionsgate is now looking at spinning off its studio business — rather than kicking out the Starz premium network and streaming business.
Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
How The Telegraph and Reach use personalized newsletters to improve open rates and page visits; the Toronto Star says most users want “what everyone else got” — As companies like The New York Times and The Washington Post experiment with personalizing their homepages to get readers …
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Nifty Thoughts, Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, @nbj914, Michael's Newsletter and The System Newsletter
Lesley Goldberg / The Hollywood Reporter:
Epix plans to rebrand as MGM+ on January 15, 2023; Epix 2 will become MGM+ Hits, Epix Hits will become MGM+ Marquee, and Epix Drive-In will become MGM+ Drive-In — The linear network as well as its streaming offering will be rebranded starting in January. — Epix is joining ABC Family …
Discussion:
Variety, Deadline, EPIX Press Site, Next TV, TBI Vision, C21Media, @billsimmons, @sherman4949, @drewkerr, @loudmouthjulia, @xpangler, The Desk, TechCrunch, The A.V. Club, TVLine, Media Play News, Adweek, The Streamable, IndieWire, The Wrap and Ad Age
Reuters:
Dyson, Mazda, and others suspended Twitter marketing campaigns because their promoted tweets appeared alongside tweets publicly soliciting or selling child porn — Some major advertisers including Dyson, Mazda and chemicals company Ecolab have suspended their marketing campaigns or removed …
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CNN, @andst7, Insider, Search Engine Journal, @andst7, @andst7, @donie, @andst7, @elizableu, @kyleanzalone_, @joey_galvin, @karissabe, Gizmodo and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
Aisha Majid / Press Gazette:
Report: the number of digital subscribers to local US outlets will pass print subscribers in 2023; revenue split of print and digital subs was 85%-15% in May — Digital subscriptions are providing some glimmers of light for under -pressure local news publishers in the US.
Max Goldbart / Deadline:
BBC World Service plans to close some stations or make them digital-only and relocate some staff away from UK, leading to ~382 lost jobs, aiming to save £30M — UPDATE 03:46 a.m PT: The BBC has confirmed the relocation of some of its World Service journalists away from the UK …
Discussion:
Press Gazette, The Guardian, @jimwaterson, The Hollywood Reporter, @avasantina and @johnlappin
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google unveils search results with machine-translated news, coming in early 2023, and a “Discussions and forums” section, rolling out now on mobile in the US — At Search On 2022, Google announced that “Discussions and forums” will be getting their own sections in results …
Discussion:
American Press Institute, The Keyword, @cmcloutier, @searchliaison, The Verge, CNET, Search Engine Journal and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
Ryan Gajewski / The Hollywood Reporter:
CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, The New York Times, Frontline PBS, Vice, and others took home awards at the 43rd News and Documentary Emmy Awards — The first night of the 43rd annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards, honoring the winners in the News categories, was held Wednesday in New York City.
Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Fast Company took its website offline after a hacker used its Apple News account to send two obscene push notifications; Apple disabled the outlet's channel — It's been a little while since we had a high-profile media feed hijacking, but tonight someone sent an Apple News notification …
Discussion:
MacRumors, @fastcompany, @applenews, One Man & His Blog, Digiday, The Desk, TechCrunch, @oliverdarcy, Washington Post, BleepingComputer, MediaPost, Wall Street Journal, RestorePrivacy, American Press Institute, @racheltobac, @rjcc, @matthewkeyslive, CNN, @matthewkeyslive, @joncappetta, @fastcompany, New York Post, Newser, Metro.co.uk, The Desk, Engadget, Bloomberg, The Hill, The Daily Beast, Gizmodo, 9to5Mac, The Wrap, Insider and New York Daily News