Top News:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
CNN CEO Chris Licht confirms he plans to step down, replaced by Amy Entelis in the interim, after a damaging Atlantic profile and Donald Trump town hall — Chris Licht, the embattled CEO of CNN, plans to step down, he confirmed to Axios on Wednesday. Licht has been on the job for 13 months.
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Alex Griffing / Mediaite:
CNN has also let go Chris Licht's top lieutenants, including comms chief Kris Coratti, strategic comms head Matt Dornic, and chief of staff Devan Cayea — After news dropped on Wednesday morning that CNN's CEO Chris Licht had been fired from the ratings-beleaguered network …
Discussion:
Adweek, Insider, @sarafischer, Axios and Boing Boing
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
WBD CEO David Zaslav has a history of tearing down and renovating what he considers to be underperforming cable assets, but this strategy might not work for CNN — Analysis: Warner Bros. Discovery's news giant is no fixer-upper, and probably shouldn't be treated as such
Semafor:
Chris Licht managed talent poorly and the push to shift CNN to the center politically failed, but the fundamental issue is that cable news is in secular decline — Chris Licht will be stepping down as the CEO and Chairman of CNN. His departure was first reported by Puck News early Wednesday.
Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:
Internal memo: WBD CEO David Zaslav addressed Chris Licht's departure, saying “I take responsibility” and “things did not work out the way we had hoped”
Discussion:
Mediaite, HuffPost, Insider, New York Post, Fox News, RADAR, Page Six, National Review, Deadline, @thewrap, Broadband TV News, KRON4, Politico and CBS News
Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
The LA Times is cutting 74 newsroom jobs, representing 13% of total staff; layoffs will affect some editors, audio producers, and the audience engagement team — The Los Angeles Times is cutting its newsroom staff, becoming the latest news organization to contract amid economic pressures brought …
Financial Times:
Sources: Lloyds puts B.UK, a holding company that controls the Telegraph titles and The Spectator, into receivership over ~£1B debts owed by the Barclay family — UK bank to seek sale of media group over almost £1bn in debts owed by Barclay family
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Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon plans to launch an ad-supported Prime Video tier and is talking with WBD and Paramount about adding their ad-based tiers to Prime Video Channels — Discussions come as ad buyers have been pushing for more access to premium shows and movies — Amazon is planning to launch …
Discussion:
The Wrap, The Streamable, Reuters, Cord Cutters News and NBC Bay Area, more at Techmeme »
Dominick Mastrangelo / The Hill:
Tucker Carlson posts the first episode of his new show, Tucker on Twitter; the episode was just over 10 minutes long and appeared to be from his home in Maine — Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson released the first episode of his new show on Twitter Tuesday evening.
Discussion:
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The Athletic:
Sources: MLS and Apple discussed sharing new Season Pass subscriber revenue with Lionel Messi; on June 6, Apple unveiled a four-part Messi docuseries on TV+ — Major League Soccer and Inter Miami are solidifying details around the potential signing of Argentine superstar Lionel Messi.
Discussion:
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Michael Schulman / New Yorker:
A look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe yanking Hollywood into a franchise-drunk era, in which IP, over star power or directorial vision, drives what gets made — Robert Redford, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Rudd, and Angela Bassett now disappear into movies whose plots can come down to “Keep glowy thing away from bad guy.”
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The Guardian, The Playlist, @katrosenfield, @johnmcternan, @newyorker, UPROXX, Metro, Comic Book, The Wrap and Los Angeles Times
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz on operating a satellite business, hardware dependency, online content delivery, podcasts, company structure, and more — SiriusXM scooped up Stitcher, Pandora, and Team Coco in recent years, but satellite radio in cars still drives the business.
Discussion:
@siriusxmlife
Sara Fischer / @sarafischer:
OutVoice, a freelancer management and payment service for media workers, acquires Study Hall, a newsletter and online freelancer community for six figures — Very proud to announce that @studyhallxyz, the freelance journalism newsletter and community that I co-founded in 2015, was just acquired by @OutVoicePay. Thanks to @sarafischer for covering in Axios https://www.axios.com/... [image]
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