Pearson appoints Disney veteran Andy Bird as new chief executive August 24, 2020 Publishing group Pearson has appointed former Disney bigwig Andy Bird as its new chief executive. The company said Bird will take over from current boss John Fallon on 19 October. Fallon will step down from the board but remain as an adviser until the end of the year. Veteran media industry boss Bird, whose career [...]
Relx snaps up UK analytics firm Scibite in £65m deal August 21, 2020 Relx today said it has acquired British data analytics firm Scibite as the publishing giant shifts its focus to digital services. The FTSE 100 company did not disclose financial terms, but a source told City A.M. the deal was worth roughly £65m. The deal forms part of Relx’s strategy to supplement organic growth with analytics [...]
Trust is at an all-time low, but we need journalism now more than ever August 21, 2020 Last month, a YovGov poll found that over 50 percent of adults in the UK now see the British media as a “force for bad”. This is an alarming statistic. It is the first time the monthly tracker has found that the majority of Brits hold this view, and the speed at which this trend [...]
Angry Birds maker Rovio gets lockdown profit boost August 14, 2020 The company behind the Angry Birds franchise has posted a huge rise in profit for the second quarter as players flocked to the hit video game during the coronavirus lockdown. The figures Rovio’s adjusted operating profit jumped 160 per cent to €13.8m (£12.5m) in the three months to the end of June. Revenue slipped 3.6 [...]
Social media news consumption drops as trust declines August 13, 2020 The number of people accessing news through social media has fallen in the last year as trust in online platforms has slipped, new figures have revealed. The proportion of Brits using social media sites to stay up to date with the latest stories slipped to 45 per cent in 2020, down from 49 per cent [...]
Daily Mail publisher to cut up to 100 jobs as Covid-19 hits revenue August 13, 2020 The publisher of the Mail newspapers is said to be cutting as many as 100 jobs as the coronavirus crisis continues to take its toll on the publishing industry. Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), which also owns Mail Online, Metro and the i newspaper, has started consultations with staff across its publishing arm DMG [...]
Coronavirus: Amazon donates £500,000 to Fleabag theatre fund August 13, 2020 A fund set up by two Fleabag stars to support theatre workers affected by the coronavirus crisis has received a £500,000 donation from Amazon Prime Video. Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Olivia Colman said they were “utterly blown away” by the “extraordinary” level of support. The donation forms part of a $6m (£4.6m) commitment from the US [...]
ITV investigated by watchdog over viewer competitions August 11, 2020 ITV is facing a probe by the media watchdog over its viewer competitions after the broadcaster admitted that some postal entries were never counted in its prize draws. ITV referred itself to Ofcom after discovering that some postal entries were not entered into the winner selection process for six competitions between 2014 and 2019. The [...]
Bezos accused of ‘wilful blindness’ over use of unlicensed music on Twitch August 10, 2020 Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has found himself under fire by the music industry for an “apparent unwillingness” to counteract use of unlicensed music on streaming platform Twitch. In a letter, seen by City A.M., non-profit organisation the Artist Rights Alliance (ARA) accused Bezos of being ignorant of copyright issues on Twitch, having submitted more than [...]
MPs urge watchdog to probe BBC jobs cuts amid fears over local output August 10, 2020 A group of MPs has urged Ofcom to probe the BBC’s plans to cut hundreds of jobs in its local news division amid concerns the broadcaster is failing in its public service obligations. In a letter to Ofcom chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes, the MPs called for an urgent response to the proposed cuts before [...]