ā NewsPeggy Noonan speaks to Bari Weiss (off-camera). (Screenshot/The Free Press)Noonan meets Trump: The Wall Street Journalās Peggy Noonan told Weiss that sheād avoided Trump for years because she āhad a feeling that up close he would be charming and funny and that would mess with my swing as an observer.ā They finally met at an editorial board meeting recently, and her fears were borne out. Trouble in Pittsburgh: The president of the union at the Post-Gazette was arrested after throwing a chair at a wall during negotiations. The paperās union, long a troubled one, has been on strike for two years, even as many of its journalists are back at work across the picket line. Asked for comment on the incident, NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss responded by criticizing the paperās management, but didnāt address the arrest. No error: If you want to start a small, ambitious newsroom, listen to Jason Koebler describe to Peter Kafka how he and three partners built 404 Media to revenues in the ballpark of a million a year, mostly with splashy scoops. Their biggest cost after payroll? Insurance. ā PublishingThe Guardianās owner ā struggling to sell off its Sunday paper, the Observer, to Tortoise Media over the objections of a restive staff ā says itāll take a stake in the podcast-centric startup as part of the deal. Meanwhile, another bidder has emerged for the publication, a green energy investor named Dale Vince. ā AudioA still from a Nelk episode with Trump. (Screenshot)A Trump official told Politico this week that they ācould very well see a press briefing room where Maggie Haberman sits next to Joe Rogan.ā That seems unlikely on a lot of fronts: While the āmanosphereā podcast stars and YouTubers have backed Trump and benefited from his appearances on their shows, few have expressed any enthusiastic desire to take part in the drudgery of daily White House press corps duty. But Politicoās piece buried a more interesting detail: The Nelk Boys, the YouTube pranksters-turned-Trump supporters, dipped their toes into political organizing this election cycle, spending $20 million through their voting registration initiative Send the Vote to target 18-to-34-year-old men in swing states who were registered to vote but hadnāt previously turned out. Politico reported that the group organized a tailgate at the Penn State-Wisconsin football game in October, ran a voter registration concert with rapper Waka Flocka Flame in Atlanta, and got over 100,000 people to look up voting sites through the Send the Vote website. ā° HollywoodIn another sign of the celebrity media production bubble bursting, LeBron Jamesā media venture, SpringHill, reportedly lost $30 million last year. Jamesā company recently merged with British media company Fulwell 73 in order to achieve greater scale to navigate challenging media headwinds. ā¦ MarketingIt was a big Black Friday for Amazonās advertising business. Media buyers and advertisers told Digiday they were experimenting with Amazon Primeās new shoppable advertising feature ā while also jockeying for space on Amazonās Black Friday broadcast of the Kansas City Chiefs and Las Vegas Raiders game. Amazon used the game to woo football fans to sign up for Prime. |