LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE
HEARST'S SWEET LOSES EDITOR, DIRECTION, FACES NEW CHALLENGES
As Time Inc nears the deadline for final offers from potential suitors, a
change at the top of Fortune is taking palce. When then Fortune
Magazine editor Alan Murray was upped to Chief Content Officer replacing
Norm...
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WAIT. SAY WHAT NOW?
"They
didn’t want Sweet to be Sweet. They wanted Sweet to be like all the
other Hearst publications that are now exactly the same."
-FORMER HEARST EMPLOYEE
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Good Media Morning
to you. Time Inc could announce some big news regarding its future this
week. Will Meredith Corp, considered to be the front runner, finally
get its hands on the publisher of Time, Fortune, People, Sports
Illustrated and other leading media brands? Until that news comes down,
here's whats happening elsewhere:
FORMER HULU CEO JASON KILAR BEING EYED FOR TOP SONY ENTERTAINMENT GIG
As Sony searches for a successor to Michael Lynton to serve as CEO of
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Jason Kilar, the former head of Hulu, is
the latest name to enter the mix of execs under consideration.
Kilar, the firebrand CEO of Hulu, which he oversaw for five years until
his resignation in 2013, often clashed with the company’s corporate
owners.
OUCH! NETFLIX BOSS SAYS MOVIE THEATERS' ONLY INNOVATION IS POPCORN
Asked about his company’s relationship with major theater chains, Reed
Hastings didn’t pull any punches. “How did distribution innovate in the
movie business in the last 30 years? Well, the popcorn tastes better,
but that’s about it,” he quipped. The Netflix CEO made the remarks
during a Q&A session with reporters.
SOUTHERN LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE GARDEN AND GUN CELEBRATES 10 YEARS
Despite launching in the inauspicious media year of 2007, the magazine
has managed the difficult feat of surviving for a decade and winning
respect, and readers, in both New York and the South, among other
places. All while steadfastly clinging to the “Gun” in the title. “It’s
had its up and it’s downs — mostly ups. But it’s a pretty incredible
thing that we are here tonight
celebrating our 10th anniversary,” Rebecca Wesson Darwin, the
magazine’s president and chief executive officer, said during an
introductory toast.
ARE PUBLISHER'S DILUTING TRUTH FOR SCALE?
The news media trades off the trust of their audiences. "This is the
truth," they say, "and we offer the context for why it matters to you".
Talk is cheap, obviously, and many news organisations only have a
passing acquaintance with the truth, but it's the trust of their
audiences they bank upon all the same.
FACEBOOK IS PREPARING TO PUSH INTO CONSUMER HARDWARE
A top secret division within Facebook called Building 8 is working on at least four unannounced consumer hardware products.
One product involves cameras and augmented reality, the futuristic tech
that overlays virtual objects onto the real world. Evidence suggests
Building 8 is also working on a drone. Building 8 will include a big
retail push complete with warehouse operations, different retail
experiences, and a “global contact center footprint.” The all-start
roster of tech veterans that Facebook began assembling one year ago is
quietly making progress, steadily expanding the size of its ranks and
the hardware prototypes under development.
AD BUYERS ARE STILL TRYING TO WRAP THEIR HEADS AROUND TIMES INC'S NEW SALES STRUCTURE
Former sales executives and ad agencies said that while in theory the
category sales approach could work, there were execution and cultural
issues that hung up the transition. Business was falling through the
cracks because clients weren’t being called on during the transition and
brand people still wanted to sell brands, a former sales exec said.
“It’s 100 percent not working from a revenue standpoint and a culture
and personnel standpoint”.
SNAP INC SHARES EXPECTED TO FALL FURTHER
Ahead of the IPO, investors were already warned the stock would have no
voting rights nor may the company may never make any profits.
Facebook continued adding disappearing story functionality to its
messaging app, including WhatsApp. Though SNAP was profitable for some
longs after the stock peaked at $29.44 a share, the trade is now a loss
for others.
DOES IT PAY TO BE A FOOD WRITER?
I imagine that other media companies are seeing the same growth that we
are. It's why Time Inc. launched a second food brand last year. It's why
Bon Appetit continues to send Andrew Knowlton and Julia Kramer on the
road all year (and why its publisher gets written up in the trades on
the regular). It's why Ed Levine was able to sell Serious Eats for
millions. It's why the Infatuation exists at all and continues to grow.
The audience is there, the money is there.
VOGUE ARABIA IS UP AND RUNNING
In addition to major Arab cities, some of the 35,000 initial copies of
the March issue have been distributed to Cairo, Beirut and select
locations in North Africa. Notably, this is the first international
Vogue edition that targets a region rather than specific country. The
debut issue includes a section in Arabic and also highlights, as has the
website, the calligraphy of Wissam Shawkat.
RUSSIA WILL INVESTIGATE U.S. MEDIA COMPANIES IN RUSSIA
The Russian parliament on Friday
evening called for an investigation of American media organizations in
Russia, following a call by an American senator to look into the
activities of a Kremlin-backed television network in the U.S.
T MAGAZINE CUTS FREQUENCY FROM 13 ISSUES A YEAR TO 11
T: The New York Times Magazine has reduced its frequency to 11 from 13
issues a year, WWD has learned. Market sources pointed to declining
advertising pages at The New York Times-owned fashion and lifestyle
glossy, following a string of departures, the largest being editor in
chief Deborah Needleman.
MCLATCHY RESTRUCTURES TO FOCUS ON DIGITAL
McClatchy announced a corporate restructuring Friday
as the company tries to focus its digital strategy. The development
comes after former Wall Street Journal bureau chief and tech executive
Craig Forman took the reins of McClatchy as its CEO in January.
ROACHES ONCE FELL FROM THE CEILING AT US WEEKLY
In the aftermath of the title’s sale to American Media Inc. for $100
million, its former editor-in-chief Janice Min reveals some unknown
facts about the onetime darling of publishing: “Roaches once fell from
the ceiling onto the conference table during the morning meeting in our
offices on Sixth Avenue.”
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Reviewed by Editor
on
Monday, March 20, 2017
Rating:
