Greed film review: Steve Coogan sets out to prove greed is not good February 21, 2020 I’m a member of an very in-exclusive club: people whom Sir Philip Green has called a c**t. There was no real malice behind it – I was writing a story about his fashion brand and that was simply the way he spoke to the media. Still, there was something cathartic about watching Michael Winterbottom and [...]
Pearson profit falters as US courseware business drags it down February 21, 2020 Education publisher Pearson posted underlying profit at the top end of a reduced guidance range for 2019 today, and warned its ongoing transition to digital will drag profits even lower in 2020. Pearson’s share price sank 4.4 per cent to 558.2p as traders digested the figures. The figures Operating profit halved to £275m in 2019, [...]
London media hub Outernet signs video production deal with Ridley Scott February 20, 2020 London entertainment hub Outernet Global today said it has inked a deal with veteran filmmaker Ridley Scott to launch a new development and production platform for branded content. Outernet, which is due to open in December, has teamed up with the Ridley Scott Creative Group to provide early-stage funding for visual content producers. The initiative, [...]
How to break up big tech? Regulating technology companies is more easily said than done February 20, 2020 Over the last few years, the public perception of technology companies has shifted quite dramatically. Large tech firms such as Google, Facebook and Amazon are no longer the darlings of the world. They are attracting the same kind of ire that financiers attracted a decade ago. At the political level, this translates into a broad [...]
Dominic Cummings’ war on conventions is just getting going February 19, 2020 Much is being made of Dominic Cummings’ supposed overreach this week. His attack on the BBC proved so brutal that even Auntie-sceptic John Whittingdale blanched, while one of Number 10’s newly-hired “weirdos and misfits” had voiced his support for marital rape and sympathy for eugenics in online forums. Andrew Sabinsky’s Downing Street career lasted just [...]
Heathrow airport halts take-offs due to plane blocking runway February 19, 2020 Heathrow airport briefly halted some flights this morning due to an aircraft blocking one of its runways. Specialist air travel news website Airlive had reported that a plane was blocking runway 27R. The plane, a BA flight from Tel Aviv, had to be towed off the runway after a hydraulic fluid spill. Sign up to [...]
Free speech risks being sacrificed on the altar of offence culture February 19, 2020 Harry Miller never considered that he might be national news-worthy. A former police officer turned businessman, during late 2018 he posted a series of tweets which questioned the biological sex of transgender individuals. One of his musings stated “I was assigned mammal at birth, but my orientation is fish. Don’t mis-species me.” What should have [...]
Tiktok launches family mode in latest bid to improve user safety February 19, 2020 Tiktok today unveiled a new feature aimed at helping parents and guardians keep their children safe, marking the social media platform’s latest effort to fight off concerns about harmful material. The video-sharing app’s family safety mode will link a parent’s Tiktok account to their teenager’s, allowing them to control a range of features remotely. Parents [...]
UK live entertainment sector poised for £2.3bn 5G boost February 19, 2020 The UK’s live entertainment industry could be given a boost of as much as £2.3bn over the next 10 years thanks to a raft of benefits brought by 5G, new research has revealed. Figures compiled by O2, seen exclusively by City A.M., showed consumer spending on live music and sports events could surge in the [...]
Andrew Sabisky: Johnson adviser quits after backlash over eugenics and race comments February 18, 2020 An adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson quit on Monday saying “media hysteria” about his old online posts meant he had become a distraction. Andrew Sabisky came under scrutiny after details emerged of his views on a range of subjects. He had previously discussed the benefits of forced contraception, said that data showed the US [...]