Top News:
Armando Tinoco / Deadline:
In response to Pat McAfee's claims, ESPN says no one is more committed to ESPN's success than Norby Williamson and it will “handle this matter internally” — ESPN is responding to claims made by Pat McAfee that an executive from within the sports network is “trying to sabotage” his show.
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Sharon Knolle / The Wrap:
Pat McAfee, who signed a lucrative deal in 2023 for his YouTube show to air on ESPN, accuses top ESPN executive Norby Williamson of “sabotaging” his program — The former NFL punter accuses Norby Williamson of leaking inaccurate ratings information — Video
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Christine Burke / Bloomberg:
Radio network Audacy reaches a deal with a supermajority of its debt holders that allows Audacy to reduce its total debt load by 80% to ~$350M — - Deal announced Sunday will reduce total debt load by 80% — Radio, podcast company also files for Chapter 11 protection
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Dan Kennedy / Media Nation:
Cost-cutting by Alden Global Capital and Gannett at legacy newspapers inadvertently created “a call to arms” that helped boost startup local news projects — Is there a silver lining hiding somewhere inside the rise of newspaper ownership by private equity? Brant Houston says yes.
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Gateway Journalism Review and Simon Owens's Media Newsletter
Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:
Top execs at Bloomberg, The Atlantic, The Independent, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and Vox Media express caution and sometimes optimism about 2024 ad revenue — Media execs are setting their ad revenue goals for 2024 with an abundance of caution as they wait and see just how much of the …
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Nicholas Thompson on LinkedIn
Financial Times:
Source: the British Library plans to spend £6M to £7M, or ~40% of its reserves, to recover from an October 2023 cyberattack that took down most of its services — London-based institution faces spending millions of pounds to rebuild most digital services
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Oliver Darcy / CNN:
Taylor Swift's associates say they are dismayed by an NYT opinion piece that speculated on Swift's sexuality, calling it “invasive, untrue, and inappropriate” — A controversial New York Times opinion piece that openly speculated this week whether Taylor Swift is a closeted queer person …
Scott Roxborough / The Hollywood Reporter:
Universal had the largest share of 2023's global box office, after releasing 24 films that made $4.91B, dethroning Disney, which had the top spot since 2016 — Box office jumped more than 8 percent to $1.35 billion but remained well below pre-COVID levels. — Thank you Barbenheimer.
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IEEE Spectrum:
How Midjourney v6 and DALL-E 3 produce “plagiaristic outputs”, even when not directly asked to do so, which could expose users to copyright infringement claims — This is a guest post. The views expressed here are solely those of the authors and do not represent positions of IEEE Spectrum or the IEEE.
Wall Street Journal:
A look at the ambitious bid to turn around the Golden Globes, as a source say CBS is paying a significantly lower licensing fee than the ~$60M NBC used to pay — The Golden Globes are back with new owners, new prizes and a new network. Now they need viewers to tune back in.
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Robert D. McFadden / New York Times:
Joseph Lelyveld, The New York Times executive editor from 1994 to 2001 and Pulitzer Prize winner, dies at 86 from complications of Parkinson's disease — As executive editor from 1994 to 2001, he oversaw a period of growth, expanding national and international readerships …
Anthony Crupi / Sportico:
Nielsen: NFL made up 93 of 2023's 100 most-watched TV broadcasts, up from 82 in 2022; SOTU and Macy's Parade were the only non-football broadcasts in the top 50 — The actor's glum endorsement of the generic—he looked like a referee who'd been going through a bad divorce …
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
WBD's Max delays plans to start charging for its Bleacher Report sports tier “for a few more months”; the original start date was the end of February 2024 — EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. Discovery plans to launch the paid version of its B/R Sports Add-On several months from now, a shift from the company's initial guidance.
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