Mediagazer: Roku plans to launch its first 55", 65", and 75" high-end Pro Series TVs in spring 2024, offering improved picture quality and better audio for up to $1,500 (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

5:20 PM ET, January 3, 2024

Top News:

Blackwells nominates three candidates to Disney's board to rival Nelson Peltz's proxy fight, and says Disney's ValueAct deal is “a disappointing defensive move” — Disney and CEO Bob Iger have secured votes of confidence from two key allies in the company's proxy fight with Nelson Peltz.

Discussion: GlobeNewswire News Room, The Hollywood Reporter, @xpangler, Radio & Television … and Reuters

Michael Flaherty / Axios:

Hedge funds vie for power at Disney: ValueAct supports Disney's board slate, Trian and Ancora support Nelson Peltz, and Blackwells pushes other board candidates — Trian, ValueAct, Ancora and Blackwells — it's a fight within a fight. … ValueAct, in turn, said it would support Disney's slate of directors.

Discussion: Reuters, IndieWire, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, UPI, The Wrap, The Information, Wall Street Journal, The A.V. Club and New York Post

Ben Scent / Bloomberg:

Disney signs a confidentiality agreement to share information with shareholder ValueAct, which will support Disney's board nominees and consult with the company — ValueAct Chief Investment Officer Mason Morfit said in the statement that Disney has the best intellectual property …

Discussion: The Walt Disney Company, Wall Street Journal, Next TV, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Reuters and Financial Times

Max Tani / Semafor:

Sources: The Messenger's board weighed shutting the site down, at a December 29 meeting, and Jimmy Finkelstein has expressed a willingness to sell the site — The Scoop — The board of the startup news organization The Messenger weighed shutting the publication down at a meeting on Friday …

Discussion: The Information, @jbenton, @caleweissman, @thestalwart, @maxwelltani, @justinbaragona, @maxwelltani, @scottnover, @mediaevan and @mekosoff

Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast:
Richard Beckman, president of The Messenger, announces his resignation, citing health problems, and says January 31 will be his last day

Discussion: American Press Institute and Richard Beckman on LinkedIn

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Source: The Messenger is expected to lay off roughly two dozen out of ~300 employees this week; the company says it is “in the midst of a second-round raise”

Discussion: Mediaite, Talking Biz News, The Wrap, @benmullin, @theloniusly, @benjaminopowers, @lmoses, @carlmacgowan, @stufalk, @evolambert, @carloseats, @tomaxwell, @benmullin, New York Post and The Information

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Twitch changes its sexual content policies again and says the platform won't allow streamers to “imply or suggest that they are fully or partially nude” — Twitch is changing its sexual content policies again, this time to prohibit implied nudity on the platform.

Discussion: Forbes, @carnage4life@mas.to, @MikeElgan@mastodon.social, ClutchPoints and safety.twitch.tv, more at Techmeme »

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

T-Mobile plans to bundle Hulu's ad-supported tier with its Go5G Next plan from January 24; Netflix and Apple TV+ are already free on the Go5G Next plan — The mobile carrier already offers complimentary Netflix and Apple TV+ on its Go5G Next plan. … The telecom giant says that it is …

Discussion: The Desk, The Streamable, 9to5Mac, BGR, Variety, MediaPost and Cord Cutters News

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Athan Stephanopoulos plans to leave as CNN's chief digital officer at the end of January, the second turnover of digital executives at CNN since WBD took over — Athan Stephanopoulos will leave his role as chief digital officer of CNN as the news outlet's new chief starts to implement …

Discussion: Financial Times, Deadline, The Wrap, @dylanbyers, @dylanbyers, @pressgazette, The Hollywood Reporter and @bristei

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

The UK Editors' Code of Practice Committee rejects calls to extend the discrimination clause in the code to cover Jews, Muslims, those with ADHD, and others — Leading editors have rejected new calls to extend the discrimination clause of the Editors' Code of Practice to cover groups.

Aleks Chan / The Guardian:

The Guardian US raised $2.2M in its 2023 year-end fundraiser, up 25% from the previous record and the most successful raise since its first appeal six years ago — The Guardian US had its most successful end of year fundraiser ever, raising more than $2m to support our journalism in 2024

Christopher Williams / Telegraph:

Sources: The Telegraph delays its restructuring until January 31, after UK officials asked to wait until Ofcom reviews RedBird IMI's takeover — ‘Hive down’ delayed until after Ofcom delivers review of Abu Dhabi-backed takeover — A corporate restructuring of The Telegraph viewed …

Discussion: @pressgazette

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Roku plans to launch its first 55", 65", and 75" high-end Pro Series TVs in spring 2024, offering improved picture quality and better audio for up to $1,500 — Roku Inc., the maker of TV streaming boxes and software, is debuting its first high-end televisions in a bid to continue sales momentum for the company's devices.

Discussion: Next TV, The Streamable, TechCrunch, The Verge, BGR, 9to5Google, Cord Cutters News and Media Play News, more at Techmeme »

Ray Schultz / MediaPost:

Quebec City's Le Soleil newspaper, founded in 1896, ends its print edition, going fully digital; the newspaper started printing on Saturdays only in March 2020 — Le Soleil, a newspaper based in Quebec City, has published its last print edition and is now going entirely digital.

Discussion: CBC News

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 5:20 PM ET, January 3, 2024.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Energy & Commodities Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Politics Reporter, TX — Texas Tribune

Consumer Brands Reporter, GA — AJC

Deputy Editor - Health Care, VA — Politico

Product Editor, CA — CalMatters

Indigenous Affairs Editor, Sydney — Guardian US

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Bangor Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Commerce Editor - Health, Remote US — Yahoo

Sports Editor, MI — Detroit News

Deputy Politics Editor, CA — Sacramento Bee

Alphaville Reporter, London — FT

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
BPI: UK consumers streamed 179.6B audio tracks in 2023, up 12.8% YoY; women artists topped the UK's official singles chart for a record 31 of the 52 chart-weeks

Discussion: BPI, CMU, BPI, Music Week, The Guardian, Financial Times and Music Ally

Jay Peters / The Verge:
X launches a Verified Organizations Basic tier for $200/month or $2,000/year, in addition to Full Access for $1,000/month and $50/month for each US affiliate

Discussion: MediaPost, @adrianpcarbone, @verified and X, more at Techmeme »

Casey Newton / Platformer:
Casey Newton says Platformer will meet with Substack, hoping Substack will remove pro-Nazi content, and Platformer plans to leave if Substack fails to do so

Discussion: The Guardian, @dankennedy_nu@threads.net, Adweek, @alex.stamos@threads.net, @marisakabas@threads.net, @nopipbutcpip.bsky.social, @mmasnick.bsky.social, @marisakabas@threads.net, @marc.e.elias@threads.net, @reporterzoe@threads.net, @brianforrester8@threads.net, @johnbattelle@threads.net, @jacaranda7@threads.net, @marisakabas.bsky.social and @crumbler@threads.net

Sarah Krouse / Wall Street Journal:
Antenna: 6.3% of US customers cancelled major streaming services in November 2023, up from 5.1% YoY; 24% canceled three or more services over the past two years

Discussion: @trengriffin, @tvgrimreaper, Simon Owens on LinkedIn, The Hill, MediaPost, Digiday, Dan Goman on LinkedIn, @danilo@hachyderm.io, Breitbart, New York Post and The Streamable

Joe Mandese / MediaPost:
Omnicom closes its $900M acquisition of Flywheel Digital from Ascential; ex-Ascential CEO Duncan Painter will lead Flywheel as a practice area within Omnicom

Discussion: Digiday and PR Newswire

Adam Chitwood / The Wrap:
USC study: women directed 12.1% of 2023's top films, up from 2022's 9%; Universal led with four top films directed by women, followed by Lionsgate and Disney

Discussion: Breitbart, Business Insider, The Hollywood Reporter, @Lilith111@mastodon.social, ScreenRant and Variety

Earlier Picks:

Ben Jiang / South China Morning Post:
A look at the rise of mini TV series, typically 100+ one-to-five-minute episodes, with the first ~10 free to watch, on Chinese short video platforms like Douyin

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
In an email, Cheddar furloughs at least some employees, effective immediately, and bars them from further work, blaming unforeseen internal and external factors

Discussion: @chrisharihar, @benmullin, @sherman4949, Adweek, New York Post, The Desk and Variety

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:
G/O Media names Dan Hirschhorn as editor-in-chief of Quartz; Hirschhorn most recently worked for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Philadelphia Inquirer

Discussion: @danhirschhorn1 and Dan Hirschhorn on LinkedIn

Kelly Garrity / Politico:
Donald Trump plans to forgo the CNN's GOP primary debate in favor of a town hall on Fox moderated by Fox anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum

Discussion: Mediaite, The Hill, CNN, New York Post, Fox News, Boing Boing, Newser, @brianstelter, Axios, Semafor, Breitbart, Adweek, Washington Post, CBS News, Bloomberg, The Desk, Forbes and Media Matters for America

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
X posts with link previews now display titles or headlines in the bottom left corner of the image, but the text size is small and long headlines get cut off

Discussion: The Verge, TechCrunch, Forbes, The Register, The Hill, New York Post, @crumbler@threads.net and Bloomberg

From Techmeme:

Emma Roth / The Verge:
Nintendo delays Switch 2 preorders that were set for April 9 due to concerns about Trump's tariffs but the June 5 launch date remains unchanged

Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Microsoft Copilot adds support for memory, personalization, web-based actions, podcast creation, camera and screen analysis, deep research, and more

RT Watson / The Block:
The US SEC says that “covered” US dollar stablecoins like USDT and USDC are not securities, and registration is not required for minting or redeeming them

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page