Entertainment One plans to ease off on acquisitions and let Peppa Pig bring home the bacon May 24, 2016 Entertainment One (EOne) is planning to ease off on acquisitions and let Peppa Pig lead its growth. The FTSE 250 company's chief executive told City A.M. 2016 is likely to be quieter in terms of M&A. His statement comes after a shareholder last week condemned the board's acquisitions strategy. EOne chief executive Darren Throop also today talked down [...]
Minister: The Guardian newspaper, not Rupert Murdoch, lobbied to clip BBC wings May 24, 2016 The Guardian, rather than the Rupert Murdoch press, lobbied the government to "clip the wings" of the BBC, a minister has revealed. Ed Vaizey, minister of state for culture and the digital economy, has told MPs the Guardian was not happy about BBC expansion in Australia and the US, two areas the newspaper group has [...]
Man Utd’s PR over Van Gaal sacking was as cryptic and obfuscatory as a Panamanian tax return May 23, 2016 Louis van Gaal is said to have heard of his sacking from his wife after she’d seen a breaking news alert. Harsh stuff. Despite the FA Cup win there clearly was no love lost between the Dutchman and Manchester United’s owners, the Glazer family. As the bungled leaking of Van Gaal’s sacking showed – first [...]
Contagious content: Don’t Panic’s Joe Wade on why Jon Snow, GoPro and The LAD Bible hold the secrets to making a video ad go viral May 23, 2016 A number of advertisers have won a Cannes Gold Lion. But few can claim a Bafta on top of it, and say they’ve dug up the lawn of a former frontbench MP. “We wanted to repackage social and political issues in a different way,” says Joe Wade, film-maker and co-founder of Don’t Panic London, speaking of [...]
Spending spree on the cards for publisher as it plans Future acquistions May 20, 2016 Magazine publisher Future reported it had reduced its pre-tax losses today as it forecast further acquisitions activity. The figures Group revenue fell from £30.8m to £30.2m during the six months to 31 March. Its magazine revenue was down 12 per cent to £17m, “reflecting the market’s overall structural decline”. Read more: Top Gear and Radio [...]
Yah-boo: Bids for internet giant are way lower than anticipated May 20, 2016 Bids for Yahoo’s core business are expected to be lower than anticipated. Several organisations have been linked with the auction process for the internet giant, including Verizon Communications, private equity firms and the owner of the Daily Mail. It also emerged this week that investor Warren Buffett is backing a consortium that is bidding for Yahoo’s [...]
Shareholder advisory group tells members to reject £70m package of WPP chief executive Martin Sorrell May 18, 2016 Shareholder advisory group ShareSoc has recommended its members reject the remuneration package of WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell. The advice, issued today ahead of the firm’s 8 June AGM, comes after WPP last month confirmed Sorrell’s total pay package for 2015 totalled £70m. The figure included a £62.8m long-term bonus. Read more: Martin Sorrell's [...]
Johnston Press shows signs of a turnaround after bumpy start to year May 18, 2016 Regional publisher Johnston Press, which recently bought the i newspaper, today said it expects its full-year results to be in line with expectations despite a challenging first quarter. In its trading update for 3 January 2016 to 30 April 2016, group revenue fell by 13.7 per cent, hit by a 16.9 per cent decline in [...]
Recipe for success: BBC backtracks on plan to cull 11,000 recipes and announces plans to migrate content over to Good Food website May 18, 2016 In a good turn for peckish foodies and skint students everywhere, the BBC has backtracked on plans to cull 11,000 free online recipes and promised to migrate many of its popular recipes to the BBC Good Food site. A massive public outcry, including more than 166,000 people signing a petition on the campaigning site Change.org [...]
A recipe for disappointment: BBC expected to announce removal of cooking archive amid strong protests May 17, 2016 The BBC is expected to disappoint thousands today as it announces the removal of more than 11,000 archived recipes from its website. A petition calling for the archive to be saved has been signed more than 17,000 times – with thousands of names added this morning. Celebrity chef Jack Monroe has also been leading a charge against [...]