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How to Run a Modern Media Company: Bank Crash Edition

media/telecom startups

How to Run a Modern Media Company: Bank Crash Edition

By Jon Steinberg · March 11, 2023 7:17 AM PST

Hi, welcome to your Weekend!I do not envy news media executives, who have difficult jobs in the best of times. This week was not the best of times, as our CEO Jessica Lessin could tell you. While captaining a newsroom going full-throttle to cover the cataclysmic collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Jessica was also scrambling to ensure that The... Hi, welcome to your Weekend!I do not envy news media executives, who have difficult jobs in the...

Photo of Kopit Levien by Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images. Photo-illustration by Clark Miller

The News Business Is in Crisis—but Not The New York Times Co.

By Abram Brown · March 11, 2023 6:00 AM PST · 9 comments

Meredith Kopit Levien exists in a perpetual yo-yo motion. Most weeks, the CEO of The New York Times Co. spends three days in New York—“sometimes more if needed”—where a pied-à-terre gives her easy access to the company’s landmark Eighth Avenue headquarters. The rest of the time she spends in Washington, D.C.,... Meredith Kopit Levien exists in a perpetual yo-yo motion. Most weeks, the CEO of The New York...

Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff at the company's 2022 Code Conference. Photo by Getty Images.

startups media/telecom

Vox Media’s Bankoff is Battered but Standing. What’s Next?

By Sahil Patel and Paris Martineau · Feb. 23, 2023 7:02 AM PST · 1 comment

Last summer, Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff met with representatives from Facebook parent Meta Platforms to catch up on business. The meeting was timely. A few months before, Vox, owner of New York magazine and websites including Eater and The Verge, had bought Group Nine Media, a smaller collection of websites such as The Dodo, which makes cute... Last summer, Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff met with representatives from Facebook parent Meta...

Art by Clark Miller

Bari Weiss Brings the Culture Wars Home

By Annie Goldsmith · Jan. 27, 2023 12:00 PM PST · 5 comments

Art by Clark Miller

Bari Weiss Brings the Culture Wars Home

By Annie Goldsmith · Jan. 27, 2023 12:00 PM PST · 5 comments

“I’m just putting my face on!” yelled the voice around the corner. Bari Weiss—former New York Times Op-Ed staff editor and writer and current founder of the controversy-courting new media company The Free Press—came streaming into her living room, hair wet, dressed all in black. She greeted me and two of her... “I’m just putting my face on!” yelled the voice around the corner. Bari...

Photo by Bloomberg. Art by Mike Sullivan.

entertainment media/telecom

Modern Media Companies Have a Delightful Problem to Solve

By Andrew A. Rosen · Jan. 27, 2023 10:00 AM PST · 2 comments

Sign up for Rosen’s newsletter, Parqor, part of The Information’s newsletter network. Fifteen years after Netflix launched its streaming-video service, it now has gaming and advertising offerings, both built under the purview of Netflix Chief Product and Operating Officer Greg Peters, who has lately been elevated to co-CEO.... Sign up for Rosen’s newsletter, Parqor, part of The Information’s newsletter...

Disney CEO Robert Iger and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Photos by Bloomberg, Shutterstock

entertainment media/telecom

2023 Will Be Another Difficult Year for Traditional Media

By Andrew A. Rosen · Dec. 21, 2022 9:00 AM PST · 2 comments

Parqor is part of The Information’s newsletter network. To receive it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, sign up here. Next year is going to be ugly for public media companies. Cord cutting has reached levels many have long anticipated—an estimated 60 million households still have cable service, down from 95 million in... Parqor is part of The Information’s newsletter network. To receive it in your inbox every...

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From left: Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Blackstone's Joe Baratta, Kevin Mayer, Tom Staggs and Reese Witherspoon. Photos by Bloomberg; AP. Art by Mike Sullivan

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Inside Blackstone’s Plans to Create an Entertainment Empire

By Jessica Toonkel · Jan. 6, 2022 6:00 AM PST · 1 comment

Two years ago, Joe Baratta couldn’t figure out what Blackstone, the private equity giant he worked for, should do for its next move in media and entertainment. The big TV companies, such as ViacomCBS and Discovery, were bleeding viewers as people cut the cord to cable television and streaming powerhouses like Netflix grew ever bigger.... Two years ago, Joe Baratta couldn’t figure out what Blackstone, the private equity giant he...

Jonah Peretti, founder and chief executive officer of BuzzFeed. Photo by Bloomberg

e-commerce amazon

Amazon, Walmart Suspend Marketing Deals With Digital Media Firms

By Jessica Toonkel · March 31, 2020 3:08 PM PDT · 3 comments

Publishers are bracing for a pullback in advertising amid the Covid-19 pandemic. And one big shoe has already dropped: Amazon and Walmart have temporarily suspended commerce marketing deals with digital media firms such as BuzzFeed, two people familiar with the situation said.Commerce marketing has become an increasingly important part of... Publishers are bracing for a pullback in advertising amid the Covid-19 pandemic. And one big shoe...

YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki unveiling YouTube TV in 2017. Photo by Bloomberg.

google entertainment

YouTube TV in Talks to Add More Free Channels in Search for TV Ad Dollars

By Sahil Patel · Nov. 23, 2021 6:00 AM PST

You won’t spot the series “Chicken Girls” from Brat TV on your regular cable service. But if all goes well, YouTube’s version of cable TV—its $65 a month YouTube TV service—will carry the comedy about teen girls in high school. Brat TV is one of several midsize digital media firms, including Vox Media and... You won’t spot the series “Chicken Girls” from Brat TV on your regular cable...

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