• 'Forbes' Launches Branded Airport Newsstands
    Aiming to take advantage of travelers' still-active interest in magazines, Forbes recently launched its first branded airport newsstand in Detroit’s Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, with three more to come in Washington Reagan and Washington Dulles airports. Branding means the stores will contain "TVs streaming content from the Forbes video network and interactive touch-screen computers on which customers can browse Forbes.com," writes Emma Bazilian. Also, "throughout the year, the newsstands will run in-store promotions around various Forbes editorial franchises."
  • CBS Might Create Aereo Rival
    CBS would consider starting an streaming over-the-top TV service with other networks to rival Aereo if the Supreme Court rules that the contested company "can resell broadcasters’ programming without their permission," writes Bloomberg reporters. “We are going to win either way,” says CBS CEO Les Moonves.
  • Microsoft Sees Spencer As Xbox Savior
    Microsoft has tapped Phil Spencer, head of the company’s game studios, to oversee its Xbox business. “As such, he’ll have the task of making the Xbox One more competitve against rivals, as well as helping to spread gaming to more and more people around the globe,” VentureBeat reports. “He will take on that role at a time when Microsoft has been losing ground to Sony in the core game business.” 
  • NJ 'Star-Ledger' Expects Staff Layoffs
    Advance Publications Inc. said it will create "a new company, NJ Advance Media, to provide advertising, marketing and news content" for its Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest newspaper -- but there will also be layoffs coming as well, writes Hugh Morley.
  • CNN Atlanta Lays Off 16, Braces For More Job Changes
    Roughly 16 video editors and photojournalists have been laid off from CNN Atlanta, with "at least 160 [more] positions... set to change in some way due to new technologies," according to a source cited by Jordan Chariton.
  • How Television Without Pity Helped Create 'Contemporary TV Culture'
    NBCUniversal's recent killing of TV recap website Television Without Pity, including all of its archives, "feels like a heartless, shortsighted move... but even if TWoP itself disappears, there's no way for its long reach ever will," writes Margaret Lyons. "TWoP helped create contemporary TV culture as we know it." Lyons explains further how "TWoP certainly popularized the recap concept — which is now utterly pervasive across entertainment-based and general-interest sites — but it also introduced a new vein of what TV coverage entails."
  • Twitter Hasn't Grown User Base
    Shockingly, a mainstream audience continues to resist Twitter’s firehouse feed of self-promoters, social climbers, sales pitches, inside jokes and side conversations. “Despite widespread media publicity surrounding Twitter during its triumphant IPO in November, it failed to add meaningfully to its user base during the fourth quarter, and since then questions have begun to mount over its ability to rectify that,” Quartz reports. Yet, CEO Dick Costolo remains determined to change all that. 
  • NBCUniversal Dumping DailyCandy, Television Without Pity
    After ditching iVillage, NBCUniversal is doing away with DailyCandy and Television Without Pity. “The reason for the closing down was pretty basic: Despite creating laudable sites, there was still not enough traffic and, therefore, a difficulty monetizing the properties,” Kara Swisher reports in Re/Code. “Attempts to sell the properties were made, but apparently were unsuccessful.” DailyCandy cost Comcast’s media unit $125 million back in 2008. 
  • Dish, DirecTV Said To Be Talking About Merger
    Dish Network's Chairman and DirecTV's CEO recently discussed merging the two companies, according to sources cited by Alex Sherman. Still they are "reluctant to push forward with formal talks out of concern regulators may block the deal because the two companies directly compete with each other."
  • Spotify Eyes IPO
    It is looking increasingly likely that Spotify will take the big public plunge before the end of the year. “The popular music-streaming company has participated in informal chats with some of the investment banks likely to fight for a role in a potential IPO,” Quartz reports, citing sources. “The 6-year-old service may start holding formal meetings as early as next month in anticipation of an offering in autumn.”  
« Previous Entries