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☆ Changes hit The Wall Street Journal during new EIC Emma Tucker's first week, as she installs a chief of staff and the paper's veteran managing editor departs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Taneth Evans, who previously ran audience development at The Times of London, will be Tucker's chief of staff, three Journal sources said. The top editorial ranks at The Wall Street Journal are already changing under new Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker. Tucker has tapped Taneth Evans as her chief of staff, according to three Journal sources. On Monday, the British-born Tucker addressed Journal staff for the first time from the paper's New York headquarters. Pensiero held a variety of roles during her tenure, including editor for newsroom standards and managing editor for international.

A fter a year of layoffs across media and entertainment companies, more cuts could come in 2023 .. A pull-back of advertising tied to the declining economic outlook has affected all media. From tech diruptors like Netflix to news stalwarts like the Washington Post, a range of companies are impacted. In the blink of an eye, the media and tech jobs market has gone from hot to not. Discovery and Paramount Global that are racing to make their streaming businesses profitable to digital media companies such as BuzzFeed and Vice that are trying to bolster their valuations. Here are 15 media and entertainment companies that have laid off staff as of December 2022:

☆ She says she was fired in retaliation. Hearst Magazines says she was insubordinate. Here's how Delish's hit YouTube show 'Budget Eats' came crashing down.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

Produced by the Hearst-owned food brand Delish, "Budget Eats" was the kind of digital success story that traditional magazine giants crave. As Xie worked her day job developing recipes, "Budget Eats" was morphing from a pandemic experiment to a bonafide hit. A career recipe developer at work, the "Budget Eats" Xie doesn't even measure out ingredients. "It felt like she was afraid that putting 'Budget Eats' from her kitchen onto this cable network might dilute the honesty," Lennon-Simon said. As for "Budget Eats," Delish recently posted what is presumably the last episode.

☆ Substack is having a moment, again. But can the startup live up to its massive $650 million valuation?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +17 min

He provided a place where readers could find him "in case the bird app spirals into oblivion": his Substack newsletter. The epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding began promoting his Substack newsletter to his 722,000 Twitter followers in early November. They have been a welcome addition, Substack writers say. Substack has also recently rolled out mentions and cross-reporting functions, where writers can mention other Substack writers and share existing posts with their audiences. The irony, of course, is that many Substack writers rely on their Twitter audiences to promote their posts.

☆ Netflix, NBCUniversal, BuzzFeed, Vice, and other media companies have laid off thousands in 2022, and there could be more cuts ahead in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Lucia Moses | Claire Atkinson | Elaine Low | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A fter a year of layoffs across media and entertainment companies, more cuts could come in 2023 .. A pull-back of advertising tied to the declining economic outlook has affected all media. In the blink of an eye, the media and tech jobs market has gone from hot to not. More than 3,300 media jobs were lost through November this year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas data — though this was down from an unprecedented 2020, when Challenger data showed 30,000 media sector jobs were lost. Discovery and Paramount Global that are racing to make their streaming businesses profitable to digital media companies such as BuzzFeed and Vice that are trying to bolster their valuations. Here are 15 media and entertainment companies that have laid off staff as of December 2022:

☆ Emma Tucker has been named editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal in a Murdoch editorial shakeup
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Tucker will join The Wall Street Journal from The Sunday Times, another Murdoch-operated newspaper. Journal editor Matt Murray is staying on at a senior role within News Corp, the company said. Rumors have been swirling for weeks about the potential change, Insider previously reported. Emma Tucker, previously the editor of The Sunday Times, will replace Editor-in-Chief Matt Murray, a Journal veteran who has served atop the Rupert Murdoch-owned paper since 2018. "Her global vision and experience will be particularly important at a time of immense international opportunity for The Wall Street Journal.

☆ New York Times Staffers Walk Off Job Amid Contract Fight
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

New York Times staffers walked off the job on Thursday for one day. Union staffers are in heated contract negotiations with the paper over issues like pay. More than 1,100 union members had pledged to stop working at midnight on December 8 if an agreement had not been reached over a new union contract, with the stoppage planned for 24 hours. That is not where we are today," New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn wrote in a memo to staff, according to an unbylined Times story about the one-day strike beginning. Union members plan to picket outside of the New York Times headquarters on Thursday.

☆ Wall Street Journal insiders are buzzing about what a leadership shake-up could mean for Murdoch world
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Sunday Times editor Emma Tucker is expected to replace Journal editor Matt Murray, Semafor reported. News Corp insiders believe Murdoch might make changes ahead of a possible recombination of News Corp and Fox. Is Rupert Murdoch planning to move his editorial chess pieces ahead of a potential recombination of News Corp and Fox? Last month, Semafor reported that Wall Street Journal editor Matt Murray is expected to be replaced by Emma Tucker, who leads fellow News Corp title The Sunday Times in London. That report followed the October disclosure that Murdoch is considering recombining News Corp with Fox Corp, with both companies convening special committees to review options.

☆ How FTX's implosion put crypto news sites like CoinDesk, The Block, and Decrypt in the spotlight as they work to fend off an ad slump and conspiracy theories about their coverage
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Reed Alexander | Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Crypto news sites like CoinDesk, The Block, and Decrypt have dominated coverage of the FTX implosion. Now, crypto media staffers are wondering whether more dominoes falling from FTX could further hurt the industry or cripple their ad revenues. "We cover the good, the bad and the ugly," Dan Roberts, the editor-in-chief of Decrypt, told Insider. "In general, I think these things are good for crypto media," he said. Stacy-Marie Ishmael, the managing editor for Bloomberg's crypto team, likened burgeoning crypto coverage to 1990s coverage of the Internet.

☆ FTX's bankruptcy hearing is underway and the details are wild. Here's what to know.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

FTX kicked off its bankruptcy hearing on Tuesday, and the initial statements give Sam Bankman-Fried and company little to cheer. James Bromley, counsel to FTX's new management, had choice words during the first day in the Delaware hearing. Ray and his new management team's estimate of FTX's cash holdings has nearly doubled, a Saturday filing showed. In the letter, seen by the Financial Times, Bankman-Fried said excessive borrowing by Alameda Research was responsible for FTX's collapse. Elon Musk's EV maker has seen its market cap plunge from a high of $1.2 trillion.

☆ The story of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX implosion put crypto news sites like CoinDesk and The Block on the map. Inside their plan to fend off an ad slump and conspiracy theories — and keep winning.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Reed Alexander | Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Now, crypto media staffers are wondering whether more dominoes falling from FTX could further hurt the industry or cripple their ad revenues. Crypto media kicks into overdriveRoberts said Decrypt's traffic doubled during the first week of the FTX saga. "In general, I think these things are good for crypto media," he said. Stacy-Marie Ishmael, the managing editor for Bloomberg's crypto team, likened burgeoning crypto coverage to 1990s coverage of the Internet. "It's now a situation where the crypto media has egg on their face.

Robert Allbritton launched Protocol in early 2020 with a lofty goal of replicating his success with Politico for the tech industry. But that was a nonstarter, in part because Axel Springer, through a joint venture, already owned half of Politico Europe. Axel Springer acquired Protocol in October 2021 as part of its $1 billion-plus acquisition of Politico. Goli Sheikholeslami became CEO of Politico Media Group in February and was focused on the task of integrating Politico's US and Europe operations. The person familiar with the business said that Axel Springer gave Protocol a real shot.

According to a person familiar with the business, some inside Politico originally hoped to create what became Protocol as a direct offshoot — using a name like "Politico Tech." But that was a nonstarter, in part because Axel Springer already owned the rights to half of the Politico brand in Europe. Axel Springer acquired Protocol in October 2021 as part of its $1 billion-plus acquisition of Politico. Goli Sheikholeslami became CEO of Politico Media Group in February and was focused on the task of integrating Politico's US and Europe operations. A few former employees, in retrospect, wondered how committed Axel Springer was to the little tech-news site that came bundled with its Politico purchase.

☆ Introducing Insider's 100 people transforming business
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Matt Weinberger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

It's my pleasure to introduce to you Insider's list of 100 People Transforming Business in 2022 — our annual celebration of the people who are bucking trends and upending convention across industries. Insider's annual list of the 100 People Transforming Business. 100 People Transforming Business. Twitter insiders worry that a crash is incoming. TCI, a major investor in Google's parent company Alphabet, sent a letter on Tuesday urging Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai to cut costs.

☆ How Recurrent Ventures went from media darling to another publisher hit by layoffs and struggles
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Recurrent Ventures made a digital-media splash with acquisitions like The Drive and Popular Science. In May of last year, Recurrent Ventures announced its flashiest deal yet: a $300 million fundraising round led by the private-equity giant Blackstone. To make a more appealing parent brand to house a growing fleet of media properties, they eventually created a new entity called Recurrent Ventures. Recurrent Ventures expanded as it acquired well-known publishers like the 150-year-old Popular Science. Recurrent Ventures shut down MEL Magazine, the men's lifestyle publication it once planned to make the centerpiece of a new lifestyle vertical of sites.

☆ Bloomberg and CNN won't pay for Twitter verification for reporters, as newsrooms consider Musk's new plan
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter is planning to require users to pay to keep their verification. When reports emerged that the Elon Musk-operated Twitter planned to require users to pay to keep their blue verification badges, a question blossomed in newsrooms: Would media companies front the bill for their reporters? One media company, however, would certainly cover the cost of Twitter verification: Puck. Musk wrote on Twitter last week that he planned to charge $8 per month for a "Twitter Blue" subscription that would include verification. Long considered Twitter power users, journalists make up a large contingent of verified users on the platform, along with celebrities, organizations, and brands.

☆ Newsrooms consider whether to pay for Twitter verification for journalists. For CNN, it's 'highly unlikely,' but for Puck, it's a resounding yes.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter is reportedly planning to require users to pay $20 a month to keep their verification. CNN is unlikely to pay for everyone, while Puck said doing so for its dozen writers was a no brainer. One media company, however, would certainly cover the cost of Twitter verification: Puck. "It's a negligible amount of money for most media companies, even the largest that employ thousands of journalists," Kelly said. Long considered Twitter power users, journalists make up a large contingent of verified users on the platform, along with celebrities, organizations, and brands.

☆ New York Times pays as much as $300,000 in base salary to top talent. Here's pay data on US jobs in editorial, advertising, and more.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Colin Salao | Steven Perlberg | Ashley Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Times' news division has also expanded by hundreds in recent years and now employs about 1,700 journalists. The public data show how much the media company offered to pay foreign staffers it sought to hire in the US for jobs including editorial, data, engineering, and business-side positions. Editorial and some business employees at the Times are unionized, setting salary ranges for some positions at the company. Based on the data, the Times offered from late 2019 through the middle of 2022 annual base salaries ranging from $53,392 to $306,000 for various roles. In cases where the company submitted multiple applications for a particular job, such as a software engineer, we included the range of those wage rates.

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☆ The hotly anticipated media startup Semafor has launched, creating the 'Semaform' article structure to separate news from opinion
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The company has created "Semaform," a way to separate news and opinion in articles. Semafor, the hotly anticipated media startup that grabbed industry attention before it even launched, is finally here. Led by former Bloomberg Media CEO Justin Smith and former New York Times media columnist and BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief Ben Smith, the outlet began publishing Tuesday morning with the lofty ambition of "solving certain significant news consumer frustrations," Justin Smith told Insider. "We have a long runway through 2023 and moving into 2024 on a revenue front and a cost front," Justin Smith said. Overall, the target readership is "very much the news omnivore" and people who are "opinion leaders" in business, finance, and tech, Justin Smith said.

☆ How Omar Raja turned the 'SportsCenter' Instagram account into a hub for sports-adjacent viral videos
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Omar Raja joined ESPN in 2020 and is the face of the "SportsCenter" Instagram account. ESPN averages more than 400 social posts a day and has focused more on TikTok recently. Raja, 28, honed his craft as a teenager compiling "Call of Duty" clips on YouTube and, more famously, by creating the basketball-focused Instagram account House of Highlights. Raja is the face of the account — the bio reads, "I'm @Omar and this is SportsCenter!" Raja has helped grow the "SportsCenter" presence on Instagram to 32 million followers, from about 15.4 million when he started.

☆ Layoffs hit Recurrent Ventures, the private-equity-backed owner of Popular Science, Saveur, and The Drive
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Layoffs have hit Recurrent Ventures, the private-equity-backed owner of digital media properties including Popular Science and The Drive. The cuts come months after Recurrent Ventures shuttered MEL Magazine, the digital media darling it rescued from closure last year. One current Recurrent staffer told Insider that the staff was "totally surprised" at the fresh round of cuts. "The growth in our expenses has outpaced our revenue growth and we need to recalibrate," Johnson wrote in the memo. Since our inception, we have experienced tremendous audience and revenue growth.

☆ Inside the New York Times' heated union fight, where a potential strike looms and the biggest sticking point is pay
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Will reporters at The New York Times really go on strike? The idea, unthinkable just a few months ago, is now on the lips of New York Times Guild members as the union's contract negotiations with management heat up. New York Times reporters have walked off the job before, like as part of a 1962-1963 citywide newspaper strike. But Robles said union members are upset that the Times' strong business footing has not translated into better pay. (The Times spokesperson countered that the paper was not seeing record profits).

☆ The possibility of a strike looms at The New York Times as its union battles management over wage hikes
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Steven Perlberg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Will reporters at The New York Times really go on strike? The idea, unthinkable just a few months ago, is now on the lips of New York Times Guild members as the union's contract negotiations with management heat up. New York Times reporters have walked off the job before, like as part of a 1962-1963 citywide newspaper strike. The union at Wirecutter, the reviews site owned by the New York Times, walked off the job during the Black Friday shopping period last year, for instance. But Robles said union members are upset that the Times' strong business footing has not translated into better pay.

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