| | | | | We started the week by asking: What other bidders are eyeing Fox? Now we know. Comcast and Verizon are both talking with 21st Century Fox about a possible deal, sources confirmed to me and Dylan Byers. This capped a wild 24 hours worth of media biz news: Mashable is being sold to Ziff Davis at a fire sale price... Meredith is bidding for Time Inc. again... and the "antitrust case of the decade" still looms as AT&T and Time Warner await a possible lawsuit from the Justice Department. Let's begin with the big-picture view of what's going on... | | | Activate CEO Michael J. Wolf on the phone with me: "I think there's one common thread between these, and it's really the quest for scale. Those who DON'T have it are looking for it, and those who DO are trying to suck up everything else that they can get..." | | News of new suitors send Fox shares soaring | | Rupert Murdoch is serious about selling 21st Century Fox, and he has suitors. Both Comcast and Verizon have approached 21st Century Fox about acquiring the same assets that Disney was eyeballing earlier this month. The Nov. 6 news report about Disney-Fox is what spurred the companies to approach Fox. Here's our full story...
-- Fox shares jumped by more than 10% in after-hours trading...
-- For Comcast, this is seen as an international expansion strategy... i.e. Murdoch's stakes in satellite distributors like Star and Sky... and Fox's movie and TV studio...
-- Per David Faber, "Comcast is also attracted by the prospect of gaining control of Hulu..."
-- Reminder: Fox News and Fox Sports are "not for sale," as one source put it Thursday night...
-- The WSJ says Sony's entertainment unit "has also informally approached Fox..." | | Beyond Comcast, Verizon and Sony, what other companies could be interested in these assets? One exec suggested Amazon to me. The company declined to comment...
-- Dylan Byers' take: "There's absolutely no reason to rule out Amazon: Jeff Bezos is clearly betting big on original content to bring in more Amazon Prime subscribers, as evidenced by the unprecedented sum he just spent to acquire 'Lord of the Rings.' So why not acquire Fox's movie and TV studios and expand the effort? There's no doubt Amazon could afford it..." | | Re: Fox, all the usual caveats apply... | | | The talks are early... A deal might not materialize... And none of the companies are commenting. The Murdoch-owned WSJ had the Comcast news first... and the Comcast-owned CNBC matched the story within a couple of minutes, leading me to believe both outlets were chasing it simultaneously... | | "You could feel the ground shifting" | | | Other media desks were playing catch-up to the WSJ all day long. I asked media and marketing editor Arol Sharma what the day FELT like: | | | "You could feel the ground shifting in profound ways in media, from the digital darlings' troubles to the big ticket M&A. So much drama. It was one of those days where you realize what team reporting can do -- tons of collaboration to get these scoops out the door that doesn't always show up in the byline." | | BuzzFeed way off its revenue target | | One of the WSJ's other scoops was about BuzzFeed being "on track to miss its revenue target for this year by a significant amount." BF was "targeting revenue of around $350 million in 2017 but is expected to fall short of that figure by about 15% to 20%, the people said. That would mean a roughly $50 million to $70 million shortfall." Sharma and Lukas I. Alpert reported that BF's board of directors "took management to task" at a recent board meeting...
-- ps: "Prospects for an initial public offering next year, which BuzzFeed had been exploring, now look remote..."
-- Flashback: In September BF reported that CNN Digital was facing a "$20 million shortfall..." | | | That same WSJ story said Vice Media "is also expected to miss its revenue target of more than $800 million this year, though it is unclear to what degree..." | | Ziff Davis buying Mashable | | BuzzFeed and Vice's difficulties are the backdrop for this news: Mashable has found a buyer. The site was valued at $250 million early last year... But it has agreed to sell itself for just $50 million to Ziff Davis, per the WSJ... Bloomberg said the deal isn't done, but is "close..."
-- Dylan Byers emails: "The Mashable/Vice/BuzzFeed big picture: Limits of scale, overly ambitious goals and chaotic changes in the digital ad market, including the power of the Facebook-Google duopoly, are forcing digital natives to restructure, and to rethink their sky-high valuations. In short, the ad-supported media business is in trouble..." | | | FROM DIGITAL PUBLISHING TO PRINT... | | Meredith bids for Time Inc. | | | Following up on last night's reports about the Koch brothers backing Meredith's newest bid for Time Inc: The bid has officially been submitted, "in the range of $17 to $20 a share," WSJ's Jeffrey Trachtenberg reported. $TIME was trading around $12 before the latest takeover reports hit. "Members of Time Inc.'s board have received the offer and have begun discussing the matter..." | | | Brian Lowry emails his view: It's not surprising that Disney and Comcast -- the two best-positioned content companies in traditional media circles -- would both kick the tires on 21st Century Fox. Comcast, in fact, might be a more complementary partner in some respects, although it's likely a degree of defensiveness might be at play in these talks -- that is, even if the two studios are somewhat ambivalent about anteing up for Fox assets, they don't want to see them in the quiver of a major rival... | | -- What a difference 10 days makes! The NYT points out that "until last week, most analysts believed that the Murdochs had no interest in selling..."
-- LATimes' Meg James: "Brian Roberts loves doing deals..."
-- Recode's Edmund Lee: "If Comcast (or Verizon or Disney) wants a piece or pieces of Fox, it'll have to wait in line. The pending court fight will make the AT&T-Time Warner merger the bellwether for all future media mergers in the land..." | | | Ken Doctor says "today's media business requires -- more than ever -- scale to succeed." He sent me a sneak peek of his next column... which will tie together all of Thursday's storylines... and ask "Why, and why now?" His answer: "We can point to many reasons, but there's one singular one driving almost everyone: The digital advertising duopoly of Google and Facebook -- in which they take in 2017 about 90% of all the digital ad dollar growth -- drives everyone else in media to run tighter ships. Legacy revenues -- in print and broadcast are flat to significantly down. Companies like Mashable, now towards the end of its hardly secret fire sale, haven't been able to compete with that duopoly and the bigger digital start-ups themselves scrambling for the relative crumbs Google and Facebook leave..." | | | MEANWHILE, GOOD NEWS FOR SINCLAIR... | | Trump's FCC paves way for more media consolidation | | | "The Republican-led FCC voted along party lines Thursday to do away with longstanding restrictions on media ownership," CNN's Seth Fiegerman reports... | | -- Lloyd Grove has the strangest story of the day: Gene Simmons has been "banned for life" from Fox News... Here's why... (The Daily Beast)
-- What'd you think of "Thursday Night Football?" The game was broadcast mostly "Madden-style," via a pair of SkyCam units, as Ahiza Garcia reports here... (CNNMoney)
-- The AP's Jacquelyn Martin explains how she got that Mnuchin $$$ photo... (AP)
-- Smart Charlotte Alter piece: "At the NRA's TV network, guns are a weapon in the culture wars..." (Time) | | | THE AT&T-TIME WARNER DEAL | | | No DOJ suit, no settlement either... But at a conference in Barcelona, AT&T CFO John Stephens said exactly what you'd expect, that "we are in discussions with the DOJ" and "we continue to believe that the transaction will close..." | | Delrahim lays out his antitrust philosophy | | | DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim didn't mention AT&T-Time Warner when he spoke at the American Bar Association conference Thursday morning, but he said he's moving the department away from "behavioral remedies" (a/k/a the conditions imposed in the Comcast-NBCU deal) and focusing on "structural relief to remedy mergers that violate the law and harm consumers." Here's the full text of the speech... | | James B. Stewart's column in Friday's NYT puts Delrahim's speech in context and says this "may well be the antitrust case of the decade, even without the claims of presidential meddling that have already engulfed the deal in partisan controversy."
A DOJ lawsuit against AT&T "would mark a radical departure from decades of antitrust enforcement policy," he points out, before quoting an expert who flatly says the government "will lose..." | | Thursday's other developments | | -- John Malone predicted that the deal still has a 75% chance of "getting done on the current terms, without divestiture..."
-- Reuters confirmed that AT&T has hired Daniel Petrocelli, "whose clients have included President Trump, to defend its acquisition." He'll be "lead trial counsel for both companies if the case ends up before a judge..."
-- Bloomberg Businessweek pointed out that "if a judge did take the case, Trump's tweets against CNN could haunt the Justice Department..." | | -- Elizabeth Drew, a veteran of The New Yorker, "is joining The New Republic as a contributing editor," per an internal memo...
-- Insightful piece by Mark Bergen: Google is "revamping the way it displays breaking news search results" to weed out so-called "Evil unicorns," i.e. "unverified posts on obscure topics, full of lies..." (Bloomberg)
-- I missed this yesterday: Martha MacCallum responding to sexist criticism of Fox News... (Time) | | "New revelations about a sitting senator" | | | John Berman's intro to "AC360" on Thursday: "It has been an astonishing 24 hours. New sexual misconduct allegations against a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Roy Moore. Then new revelations about a sitting senator, Al Franken. A new groping accusation, the seventh, against one former president, George H.W. Bush. People reassessing their views of another, Bill Clinton. Finally, there is the current president, himself accused of misconduct by numerous women, and on the record bragging that he could get away with it. He is now doing what he almost never does — saying, well, nothing. He is not talking. Not tweeting, even though he is known to tweet at all hours about anything and everything. The new silence in and of itself a screaming statement. Of course, all of this is part of a growing picture of men with power — in Washington, Hollywood and elsewhere — behaving badly. And the increasing number of women and men confronting them about it..." | | Radio news anchor shares her story | | On Thursday morning Leeann Tweeden spoke into the mic at her radio station, TalkRadio 790 KABC in L.A., and said Al Franken kissed and groped her without consent. The station simultaneously shared her first-person account on its web site. And within minutes it was everywhere -- partly because of the photographic evidence. Franken issued a statement, and then a second lengthier statement. Read Juana Summers and MJ Lee's full story about the day's developments here...
-- ICYMI: Tweeden spoke with Jake Tapper in a remarkable interview on Thursday afternoon...
-- Franken wasn't seen on camera on Thursday... | | | "Roy Moore has still not taken questions from the press about the allegations since his Hannity interview," Fox's Dan Gallo tweeted Thursday afternoon. "Moore dodged cameras after his press conference..." After the presser, his supporters "berated the press..." | | Why did Hannity punt on Moore? | | | CNN's Rebecca Berg shares this reporting: An intervention by Steve Bannon might have moved Sean Hannity off of his initial stance questioning inconsistencies in Roy Moore's stories. Bannon called Hannity following his Tuesday night ultimatum and urged the host to dial back the harsh criticism, a source familiar with the conversation confirmed. On Wednesday night's show, Hannity said it's up to the voters to decide... | | Trump and Hannity are on the same page | | | Sarah Sanders also deferred to the voters when she was peppered with Q's at Thursday's briefing. Commentary mag's Noah Rothman made this observation: "If you're an ESPN host who criticized the president, @PressSec has thoughts about the direction in which your career should progress." (Remember, Sanders said Jemele Hill committed a "fireable offense.") But, Rothman wrote, if you're a "lecherous scofflaw running for Senate" on the GOP ticket, "who's to say, really?" | | By tweeting about Franken on Thursday night, President Trump made his silence about Moore an even bigger story. First he said the "Al Frankenstien picture is really bad," then he followed up with a question, "Lesley Stahl tape?" There's no "tape," but he was probably referencing this: "Al Franken joked about raping Lesley Stahl in 1995 New York Magazine article." That's from FoxNews.com. Hannity referenced it on Fox an hour before Trump tweeted...
-- Ben Shapiro tweeted: "Who's up for a weeklong media recap of all the sexual harassment/assault allegations against Trump? Because that's what Trump just opened up..." | | "Chairman Steps Down As NPR Grapples With Harassment Crisis" | | David Folkenflik and Merrit Kennedy's piece for NPR.org is a must-read. It describes fissures "along generational lines" within the newsroom, weeks after NPR head of news Michael Oreskes resigned under pressure amid a sexual harassment scandal. New info: "NPR has placed David Sweeney, recently promoted to the position of chief news editor, on paid administrative leave as it reviews recent allegations about his conduct..."
Also: NPR board chair Roger LaMay has given up his chairmanship... Read the rest here... | | | Via Lisa Respers France: The Kevin Spacey fallout continues. The Old Vic theater said Thursday that it has uncovered 20 new allegations against the actor... | | The tipping point in a screen grab | | | "Situation Room" E.P. Jay Shaylor flagged this Variety home page screen grab... an entire section on sexual harassment... "And Variety isn't even covering Roy Moore. Talk about a tipping point," he emailed... | | Sarah Silverman's view of her friend Louis C.K. | | Megan Thomas emails: Sarah Silverman broke her silence on her longtime friend Louis C.K.'s sexual misconduct this week in the opening of her Hulu series "I Love You, America."
"He wielded his power with women in f**ked up ways, sometimes to the point where they left comedy entirely. I could couch this with heartwarming stories of our friendship and what a great dad he is, but that's totally irrelevant, isn't it? Yes, it is. It's a real mindf**k, because I love Louis. But Louis did these things..." | | "For every Clinton, there will be a Trump. For every Roy Moore, there will be an Al Franken. Once you've covered up for one, you've lost the moral credibility to hold the other to account..."
—Amanda Carpenter on "The Lead" | | | For the record, part three | | | By Julia Waldow:
-- CJR is conducting two separate surveys for staff journalists and freelancers in relation to recent accounts of harassment within the media industry in order to "learn more about the way newsrooms around the country handle these kinds of reports..."
-- George Clooney is set to star in and direct a limited, six-episode series adaptation of Joseph Heller's "Catch 22" for Paramount TV and Anonymous Content... (Variety)
-- Williams-Sonoma is getting into the augmented reality business through an acquisition of AR 3D startup Outward... (TechCrunch) | | Sarah Ellison to WashPost! | | | VF's loss is WashPost's gain. Sarah Ellison is leaping to the Washington Post... She'll start in January... And remain based in NYC... | | Launching The Trust Project | | Nieman's Laura Hazard Owen reports: "Thursday marks the launch of The Trust Project, an initiative three years in the making (but feeling oh-so-relevant right about now) that brings together news outlets such as The Washington Post, The Economist, and the Globe and Mail, as well as Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Bing, in a commitment to 'provide clarity on the [news organizations'] ethics and other standards, the journalists' backgrounds, and how they do their work.' The project will standardize this method of increased clarity..."
--> Read more on the project via Seth Fiegerman... | | "Justice League" v. the Critics | | | Brian Lowry emails: Without questioning anyone's motives, some of the more bruising response to "Justice League" seemingly reflects the influence of social media/Twitter on criticism -- an environment that rewards sweeping pronouncements that can be synopsized in a tweet and doesn't have much use for nuance. Then again, perhaps that's because my own feelings about the movie were decidedly mixed, finding it not nearly as good as "Wonder Woman" but better than the previous DC/Warner Bros. titles "Batman v. Superman" and "Suicide Squad..." Read the full review here... | | Lowry reviews "Roman J. Israel, Esq." | | | More from Lowry: The legal thriller "Roman J. Israel, Esq." -- which Denzel Washington produced as a clear star vehicle for himself -- also receives a mixed verdict... | | | For the record, part four | | | By Lisa Respers France:
-- Rapper Lil Peep, an emerging voice in hip hop, has died at 21.
-- "What Not To Wear" cohosts Clinton Kelly and Stacy London aren't buds anymore. Here's how we know...
-- Patton Oswalt and Meredith Salenger's story on how they fell in love is just as sweet as you would imagine...
-- "The Blacklist" killed off a major character -- and the creator says it's not a trick... | | | Email brian.stelter@turner.com... I appreciate every message. The feedback helps us craft the next day's newsletter! | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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