Business of Media
OJ Simpson, fallen NFL hero acquitted of murder in ‘trial of the century,’ dies at 76
OJ Simpson, the football star and Hollywood actor acquitted of charges he killed his former wife and her friend in a trial that mesmerised the public and exposed divisions on race and policing in America, has died. He was 76, reports AP’s Ken Ritter.
The family announced on Simpson’s official X account that he died on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) of prostate cancer. He died in Las Vegas, officials there said.
Donald Trump has flipped the power relationship with Rupert Murdoch
For Rupert Murdoch, it almost certainly wasn’t love at first sight. When Donald Trump became an acquaintance, probably in New York and probably in the early 1980s, the shameless, publicity-hungry property developer was keen, like his fellow wannabe celebrities, to be covered in Murdoch’s New York Post, reports Nine Publishing’s Rodney Tiffen.
Trump’s business reputation was already far from pristine. He and his businesses would eventually be party to a total of more than 4000 legal actions, exceeding all other leading property developers combined. He would file for bankruptcy – for himself or various of his entities – no fewer than six times. When he was divorcing his first wife Ivana, he planted news stories designed to humiliate her, some of which made the front page of the New York Post and estranged him for a time from his three eldest children.
Spotify plans new remixing tools for the TikTok generation
Coming soon to Spotify: do-it-yourself song remixing, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Anne Steele.
The audio streaming company is developing tools that would allow subscribers to speed up, mash up and otherwise edit songs from their favorite artists, according to people familiar with the discussions. It is a bet on the future of music consumption that Spotify hopes will deepen user engagement and appeal to young users, while generating new revenue for artists.
‘Made for Advertising’ websites are the marketing industry’s latest messy situation
The ad industry is railing against online publishers that get visitors largely by advertising clickbait headlines around the web, then turn a profit by serving a barrage of ads to anyone who bites, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Megan Graham.
These “made for advertising” sites stand accused of giving visitors a poor experience, delivering dubious results for advertisers and elevating carbon emissions because they run many more energy-consuming instant auctions for their ad inventory than websites with typical ad loads.
News Brands
Why a billionaire’s son could change the fortunes of Network Ten
All roads are leading Network Ten and its parent company, Paramount Global, towards new ownership and who the successful party might be just got a little clearer this week, reports Nine Publishing’s Calum Jaspan.
David Ellison, who owns film production studio Skydance Media (and is the son of Larry Ellison, founder of tech giant Oracle and the world’s fifth-richest person), is in an exclusive month-long negotiating period with Paramount to merge the two companies.
Senior NPR editor claims public broadcaster lacks ‘viewpoint diversity’
A debate about media bias has broken out at National Public Radio after a longtime employee published a scathing letter accusing the broadcaster of a “distilled worldview of a very small segment of the US population” and “telling people how to think”, prompting an impassioned defense of the station from its editor-in-chief, reports The Guardian’s Edward Helmore.
In the letter published on Free Press, NPR’s senior business editor Uri Berliner claimed Americans no longer trust NPR – which is partly publicly funded – because of its lack of “viewpoint diversity” and its embrace of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Television
Melrose Place reboot to star Heather Locklear, Daphne Zuniga, Laura Leighton
The sexy villains of cult 90s soap Melrose Place are making a comeback with troubled actor Heather Locklear among the OGs returning for its latest series reboot, reports News Corp’s Kathy McCabe.
It will be third time lucky for Locklear, whose advertising executive character Amanda Woodward turned the struggling series into a hit in its second season in 1993 and was also enlisted to star in the 2009 reboot which was cancelled after just one season.
Sports Media
Favourites emerge in Tabcorp CEO contest
The search for the boss of the nation’s largest wagering company, Tabcorp, is set to begin shortly and already there’s said to be two names the company is keen to target, reports The Australian’s Bridget Carter.
One of them is former Sportsbet boss Cormac Barry, and another is Foxtel’s chief executive, Patrick Delany.