TV Streaming Discussion: HBO MAX UPDATE: WTF is Going on? Merger with PARAMOUNT?!
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‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ Sets Streaming Release Date on HBO Max
The thunder is hitting HBO Max.
“Shazam! Fury of the Gods” is arriving on the streamer, which will soon be renamed to Max, on May 23. Although the DC Comics adaptation opened at No. 1 at the box office, it flew in lower than its predecessor, barely cracking a $30 million debut.
By Anna Tingley
April 12, 2023
The thunder is hitting HBO Max.
“Shazam! Fury of the Gods” is arriving on the streamer, which will soon be renamed to Max, on May 23. Although the DC Comics adaptation opened at No. 1 at the box office, it flew in lower than its predecessor, barely cracking a $30 million debut.
By Anna Tingley
April 12, 2023
‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ Sets Streaming Release Date on HBO Max
Shazam! Fury of the Gods arrives on HBO Max on May 23.
variety.com
This mofo wants to be “FOX LITE”.
He keep it up and a call to boycott Warner Bros. is gonna Fuck that company up.
He playing with fire.
David Zaslav Defends CNN’s ‘Both Sides’ Approach With ‘Republicans Back on the Air’ as Trump Town Hall Criticism Continues
By Todd Spangler
May 18, 2023
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said CNN is rebuilding itself to be a news network that presents “both sides” of every issue rather than an “advocacy network” — comments coming as CNN continues to face a backlash over the town hall with Donald Trump last week.
Zaslav, speaking at the MoffettNathanson Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York, said that previously the overall impression of CNN’s brand was that it was “left-leaning.” That’s now changing, he said, citing a new YouGov poll finding an 11-point improvement in U.S. viewers’ trust in CNN. “Our view is, there’s advocacy networks on either side. We have the best journalists in the world. We need to show both sides of every issue,” he said.
CNN CEO Chris Licht and the rest of the leadership team are “working hard” to reposition the network, and “Republicans are back on the air” on CNN, Zaslav said. According to Zaslav, CNN hosted 75 GOP members during the contentious four days of voting for House speaker Kevin McCarthy, 41 of which went on CNN before they went on Fox News. “CNN should be the place that people come for the best version of the truth and for journalism,” he said.
Zaslav didn’t speak to the Trump controversy directly, but he previously had said about Trump, “He’s the front-runner — he has to be on our network. We’re happy he’s coming on there.” During Trump’s May 10 CNN town hall appearance, among other things he repeated lies about the 2020 election and called moderator Kaitlan Collins a “nasty person.” On Wednesday, former CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour joined the chorus of critics, saying “I still respectfully disagree with allowing Donald Trump to appear in that particular format” and said she would have “dropped the mic at ‘nasty person.'”
Asked at the MoffettNathanson conference about CNN’s ratings declines, Zaslav said that “CNN is a little bit different, and the economic makeup of CNN is different” than WBD’s other linear networks, because its revenue is more dependent on pay-TV affiliate fees than advertising. “But advertisers are interested in CNN again. They don’t want to be part of an advocacy network,” Zaslav said. “We’ve had meeting after meeting and they say, ‘We’re with you.'” CNN has a digital audience of 150 million, he added.
Speaking about Warner Bros. Discovery’s business overall, Zaslav said, “It’s hard to run a company successfully when you have a real bleeder, when you have a business that’s losing and you don’t have your hands around it,” Zaslav said. He said WBD had two unprofitable businesses — HBO Max and Warner Bros.
In the first quarter of 2023, the company’s U.S. streaming business eked out adjusted operating income of $50 million in Q1, and Zaslav said the segment will be be profitable for 2023, a year ahead of previous expectations. For the first quarter of 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery reported a net loss of $1.07 billion, which include $1.81 billion of “acquisition-related intangible assets” and $95 million of pre-tax restructuring costs.
Next Tuesday, May 23, Warner Bros. Discovery will launch Max, its big consolidated streaming service that will supersede the three-year-old HBO Max service and pull in content from Discovery+.
WBD’s assumption had been that it needed to be the strong third streaming player alongside Netflix and Disney. But the company’s content investment in HBO Max was too high and the retail pricing was too low, Zaslav said. Overall, the pricing of streaming services is “irrational,” Zaslav said. Consumers “are paying a lot less for content… than they were five years ago.”
Now, Zaslav said, “We have a scaled service that is about 100 million homes, and we have great, quality content.”
The launch of Max is aimed at reducing churn rates by providing an expanded lineup of content genres catering to all members of the household. In addition, WBD has live sports and news content that it can put on the streaming service to make it even stickier. The new Max also has a recommendation engine to suggest new content and adds a wealth of kids’ content. “As we go into this war, we have all this artillery,” he said.
Zaslav said for media companies to gain more scale in streaming, consolidation through M&A at this point is a nonstarter — so, he suggested, the industry needs to figure out a way to package services together in a bundle with “the No. 1, 2 or 3 products” for “a specific price,” in effect reinstantiating the cable-TV model. “If we don’t do it to ourselves, I think it’ll be done to us,” he said.
On the studio side, Zaslav said putting movies directly on streaming didn’t make financial sense and said that Warner Bros. is “making a turn” on its way to profitability. He touted the hiring of James Gunn as head of DC Studios — wondering aloud why Marvel didn’t put him in charge — and upcoming movie releases like “The Flash” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” “Now we have movies that we like,” he said, adding that Warner Bros. was an “underutilized” asset.
Sports is different from WBD’s other content businesses where it owns the intellectual property, Zaslav said. “Sports is a rental business,” he said. “You now have to look and see, where does it make sense?” He said NCAA March Madness, MLB and NHL are good deals for Warner Bros. Discovery; he said “the NBA is doing very well for us” but added, “We just have to be careful not to be silly” in reaching a new deal. None of the sports-rights deals
The ad market remains challenging, Zaslav said, adding that the “upfront is hard to predict” but asserted WBD was poised to “outperform” the market this year. His appearance at the MoffettNathanson conference came a day after Warner Bros. Discovery’s upfronts presentation, where execs (not including Zaslav) hyped the coming Max launch and touted a few new programming projects.
A topic that didn’t come up in the Zaslav’s conversation at the MoffettNathanson conference was the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. The WGA had scheduled a picket line outside of Zaslav’s appearance at the MoffettNathanson event Thursday and the union plans to protest his scheduled commencement address at Boston University on Sunday, May 21. At Cannes, “Euphoria” producer Jeremy O. Harris urged the WBD chief to reach an agreement with the writers union in an interview with Variety. “David Zaslav, make a deal. That’s what I’ll say about Season 3 of ‘Euphoria.’ Make a deal, David. It’s easy. Just come to that table.”
Zaslav in 2022 remained among the highest-paid media execs, with a pay package totaling $39.3 million (though that was down from the whopping $246.6 million he earned in 2021).
Warner Bros/Discovery CEO David Zaslav
He keep it up and a call to boycott Warner Bros. is gonna Fuck that company up.
He playing with fire.
David Zaslav Defends CNN’s ‘Both Sides’ Approach With ‘Republicans Back on the Air’ as Trump Town Hall Criticism Continues
By Todd Spangler
May 18, 2023
David Zaslav Defends CNN’s ‘Both Sides’ Approach With ‘Republicans Back on the Air’ as Trump Town Hall Criticism Continues
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav boasted that Republicans are back on CNN's air, amid ongoing criticism of the network's Trump town hall.
variety.com
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said CNN is rebuilding itself to be a news network that presents “both sides” of every issue rather than an “advocacy network” — comments coming as CNN continues to face a backlash over the town hall with Donald Trump last week.
Zaslav, speaking at the MoffettNathanson Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York, said that previously the overall impression of CNN’s brand was that it was “left-leaning.” That’s now changing, he said, citing a new YouGov poll finding an 11-point improvement in U.S. viewers’ trust in CNN. “Our view is, there’s advocacy networks on either side. We have the best journalists in the world. We need to show both sides of every issue,” he said.
CNN CEO Chris Licht and the rest of the leadership team are “working hard” to reposition the network, and “Republicans are back on the air” on CNN, Zaslav said. According to Zaslav, CNN hosted 75 GOP members during the contentious four days of voting for House speaker Kevin McCarthy, 41 of which went on CNN before they went on Fox News. “CNN should be the place that people come for the best version of the truth and for journalism,” he said.
Zaslav didn’t speak to the Trump controversy directly, but he previously had said about Trump, “He’s the front-runner — he has to be on our network. We’re happy he’s coming on there.” During Trump’s May 10 CNN town hall appearance, among other things he repeated lies about the 2020 election and called moderator Kaitlan Collins a “nasty person.” On Wednesday, former CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour joined the chorus of critics, saying “I still respectfully disagree with allowing Donald Trump to appear in that particular format” and said she would have “dropped the mic at ‘nasty person.'”
Asked at the MoffettNathanson conference about CNN’s ratings declines, Zaslav said that “CNN is a little bit different, and the economic makeup of CNN is different” than WBD’s other linear networks, because its revenue is more dependent on pay-TV affiliate fees than advertising. “But advertisers are interested in CNN again. They don’t want to be part of an advocacy network,” Zaslav said. “We’ve had meeting after meeting and they say, ‘We’re with you.'” CNN has a digital audience of 150 million, he added.
Speaking about Warner Bros. Discovery’s business overall, Zaslav said, “It’s hard to run a company successfully when you have a real bleeder, when you have a business that’s losing and you don’t have your hands around it,” Zaslav said. He said WBD had two unprofitable businesses — HBO Max and Warner Bros.
In the first quarter of 2023, the company’s U.S. streaming business eked out adjusted operating income of $50 million in Q1, and Zaslav said the segment will be be profitable for 2023, a year ahead of previous expectations. For the first quarter of 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery reported a net loss of $1.07 billion, which include $1.81 billion of “acquisition-related intangible assets” and $95 million of pre-tax restructuring costs.
Next Tuesday, May 23, Warner Bros. Discovery will launch Max, its big consolidated streaming service that will supersede the three-year-old HBO Max service and pull in content from Discovery+.
WBD’s assumption had been that it needed to be the strong third streaming player alongside Netflix and Disney. But the company’s content investment in HBO Max was too high and the retail pricing was too low, Zaslav said. Overall, the pricing of streaming services is “irrational,” Zaslav said. Consumers “are paying a lot less for content… than they were five years ago.”
Now, Zaslav said, “We have a scaled service that is about 100 million homes, and we have great, quality content.”
The launch of Max is aimed at reducing churn rates by providing an expanded lineup of content genres catering to all members of the household. In addition, WBD has live sports and news content that it can put on the streaming service to make it even stickier. The new Max also has a recommendation engine to suggest new content and adds a wealth of kids’ content. “As we go into this war, we have all this artillery,” he said.
Zaslav said for media companies to gain more scale in streaming, consolidation through M&A at this point is a nonstarter — so, he suggested, the industry needs to figure out a way to package services together in a bundle with “the No. 1, 2 or 3 products” for “a specific price,” in effect reinstantiating the cable-TV model. “If we don’t do it to ourselves, I think it’ll be done to us,” he said.
On the studio side, Zaslav said putting movies directly on streaming didn’t make financial sense and said that Warner Bros. is “making a turn” on its way to profitability. He touted the hiring of James Gunn as head of DC Studios — wondering aloud why Marvel didn’t put him in charge — and upcoming movie releases like “The Flash” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” “Now we have movies that we like,” he said, adding that Warner Bros. was an “underutilized” asset.
Sports is different from WBD’s other content businesses where it owns the intellectual property, Zaslav said. “Sports is a rental business,” he said. “You now have to look and see, where does it make sense?” He said NCAA March Madness, MLB and NHL are good deals for Warner Bros. Discovery; he said “the NBA is doing very well for us” but added, “We just have to be careful not to be silly” in reaching a new deal. None of the sports-rights deals
The ad market remains challenging, Zaslav said, adding that the “upfront is hard to predict” but asserted WBD was poised to “outperform” the market this year. His appearance at the MoffettNathanson conference came a day after Warner Bros. Discovery’s upfronts presentation, where execs (not including Zaslav) hyped the coming Max launch and touted a few new programming projects.
A topic that didn’t come up in the Zaslav’s conversation at the MoffettNathanson conference was the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. The WGA had scheduled a picket line outside of Zaslav’s appearance at the MoffettNathanson event Thursday and the union plans to protest his scheduled commencement address at Boston University on Sunday, May 21. At Cannes, “Euphoria” producer Jeremy O. Harris urged the WBD chief to reach an agreement with the writers union in an interview with Variety. “David Zaslav, make a deal. That’s what I’ll say about Season 3 of ‘Euphoria.’ Make a deal, David. It’s easy. Just come to that table.”
Zaslav in 2022 remained among the highest-paid media execs, with a pay package totaling $39.3 million (though that was down from the whopping $246.6 million he earned in 2021).
Warner Bros/Discovery CEO David Zaslav
HBO Continues to Have the Worst Timing
Somehow Warner Bros. Discovery thinks it’s a good idea to relaunch its HBO Max streaming service as just “Max” in the middle of a Hollywood shakeup.
This mofo wants to be “FOX LITE”.
He keep it up and a call to boycott Warner Bros. is gonna Fuck that company up.
He playing with fire.
David Zaslav Defends CNN’s ‘Both Sides’ Approach With ‘Republicans Back on the Air’ as Trump Town Hall Criticism Continues
By Todd Spangler
May 18, 2023
David Zaslav Defends CNN’s ‘Both Sides’ Approach With ‘Republicans Back on the Air’ as Trump Town Hall Criticism Continues
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav boasted that Republicans are back on CNN's air, amid ongoing criticism of the network's Trump town hall.variety.com
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said CNN is rebuilding itself to be a news network that presents “both sides” of every issue rather than an “advocacy network” — comments coming as CNN continues to face a backlash over the town hall with Donald Trump last week.
Zaslav, speaking at the MoffettNathanson Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York, said that previously the overall impression of CNN’s brand was that it was “left-leaning.” That’s now changing, he said, citing a new YouGov poll finding an 11-point improvement in U.S. viewers’ trust in CNN. “Our view is, there’s advocacy networks on either side. We have the best journalists in the world. We need to show both sides of every issue,” he said.
CNN CEO Chris Licht and the rest of the leadership team are “working hard” to reposition the network, and “Republicans are back on the air” on CNN, Zaslav said. According to Zaslav, CNN hosted 75 GOP members during the contentious four days of voting for House speaker Kevin McCarthy, 41 of which went on CNN before they went on Fox News. “CNN should be the place that people come for the best version of the truth and for journalism,” he said.
Zaslav didn’t speak to the Trump controversy directly, but he previously had said about Trump, “He’s the front-runner — he has to be on our network. We’re happy he’s coming on there.” During Trump’s May 10 CNN town hall appearance, among other things he repeated lies about the 2020 election and called moderator Kaitlan Collins a “nasty person.” On Wednesday, former CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour joined the chorus of critics, saying “I still respectfully disagree with allowing Donald Trump to appear in that particular format” and said she would have “dropped the mic at ‘nasty person.'”
Asked at the MoffettNathanson conference about CNN’s ratings declines, Zaslav said that “CNN is a little bit different, and the economic makeup of CNN is different” than WBD’s other linear networks, because its revenue is more dependent on pay-TV affiliate fees than advertising. “But advertisers are interested in CNN again. They don’t want to be part of an advocacy network,” Zaslav said. “We’ve had meeting after meeting and they say, ‘We’re with you.'” CNN has a digital audience of 150 million, he added.
Speaking about Warner Bros. Discovery’s business overall, Zaslav said, “It’s hard to run a company successfully when you have a real bleeder, when you have a business that’s losing and you don’t have your hands around it,” Zaslav said. He said WBD had two unprofitable businesses — HBO Max and Warner Bros.
In the first quarter of 2023, the company’s U.S. streaming business eked out adjusted operating income of $50 million in Q1, and Zaslav said the segment will be be profitable for 2023, a year ahead of previous expectations. For the first quarter of 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery reported a net loss of $1.07 billion, which include $1.81 billion of “acquisition-related intangible assets” and $95 million of pre-tax restructuring costs.
Next Tuesday, May 23, Warner Bros. Discovery will launch Max, its big consolidated streaming service that will supersede the three-year-old HBO Max service and pull in content from Discovery+.
WBD’s assumption had been that it needed to be the strong third streaming player alongside Netflix and Disney. But the company’s content investment in HBO Max was too high and the retail pricing was too low, Zaslav said. Overall, the pricing of streaming services is “irrational,” Zaslav said. Consumers “are paying a lot less for content… than they were five years ago.”
Now, Zaslav said, “We have a scaled service that is about 100 million homes, and we have great, quality content.”
The launch of Max is aimed at reducing churn rates by providing an expanded lineup of content genres catering to all members of the household. In addition, WBD has live sports and news content that it can put on the streaming service to make it even stickier. The new Max also has a recommendation engine to suggest new content and adds a wealth of kids’ content. “As we go into this war, we have all this artillery,” he said.
Zaslav said for media companies to gain more scale in streaming, consolidation through M&A at this point is a nonstarter — so, he suggested, the industry needs to figure out a way to package services together in a bundle with “the No. 1, 2 or 3 products” for “a specific price,” in effect reinstantiating the cable-TV model. “If we don’t do it to ourselves, I think it’ll be done to us,” he said.
On the studio side, Zaslav said putting movies directly on streaming didn’t make financial sense and said that Warner Bros. is “making a turn” on its way to profitability. He touted the hiring of James Gunn as head of DC Studios — wondering aloud why Marvel didn’t put him in charge — and upcoming movie releases like “The Flash” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” “Now we have movies that we like,” he said, adding that Warner Bros. was an “underutilized” asset.
Sports is different from WBD’s other content businesses where it owns the intellectual property, Zaslav said. “Sports is a rental business,” he said. “You now have to look and see, where does it make sense?” He said NCAA March Madness, MLB and NHL are good deals for Warner Bros. Discovery; he said “the NBA is doing very well for us” but added, “We just have to be careful not to be silly” in reaching a new deal. None of the sports-rights deals
The ad market remains challenging, Zaslav said, adding that the “upfront is hard to predict” but asserted WBD was poised to “outperform” the market this year. His appearance at the MoffettNathanson conference came a day after Warner Bros. Discovery’s upfronts presentation, where execs (not including Zaslav) hyped the coming Max launch and touted a few new programming projects.
A topic that didn’t come up in the Zaslav’s conversation at the MoffettNathanson conference was the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike. The WGA had scheduled a picket line outside of Zaslav’s appearance at the MoffettNathanson event Thursday and the union plans to protest his scheduled commencement address at Boston University on Sunday, May 21. At Cannes, “Euphoria” producer Jeremy O. Harris urged the WBD chief to reach an agreement with the writers union in an interview with Variety. “David Zaslav, make a deal. That’s what I’ll say about Season 3 of ‘Euphoria.’ Make a deal, David. It’s easy. Just come to that table.”
Zaslav in 2022 remained among the highest-paid media execs, with a pay package totaling $39.3 million (though that was down from the whopping $246.6 million he earned in 2021).
Warner Bros/Discovery CEO David Zaslav
Yo Storm Shadow...
@ViCiouS
Ya mans out here tripping again
‘Euphoria’ Producer Jeremy O. Harris Calls Out David Zaslav as Writers Strike Threatens Season 3: ‘Make a Deal. It’s Easy’
Jeremy O. Harris is best known as the playwright of “Slave Play,” which picked up a record-setting 12 Tony Award nominations in 2021, but he’s also a producer on HBO’s Emmy-…
variety.com
Got home yesterday and checked out MAX.
They basically merged HBO MAX with Discovery+ and got basically the whole catalogs of both services on there.
Still not understanding why WB took some of the content off and put on other services. Looks like there is plenty of room to put everything on there.
They do have a section where some content is going to be removed in a period of time.
I still don’t see the “American Undercover”, “Real Sex” or “Cathouse” stuff. Maybe it’s there and i didn’t come across it.
Shazam: Fury of the Gods is on there, might watch it tonight or next week when I’m home.
They basically merged HBO MAX with Discovery+ and got basically the whole catalogs of both services on there.
Still not understanding why WB took some of the content off and put on other services. Looks like there is plenty of room to put everything on there.
They do have a section where some content is going to be removed in a period of time.
I still don’t see the “American Undercover”, “Real Sex” or “Cathouse” stuff. Maybe it’s there and i didn’t come across it.
Shazam: Fury of the Gods is on there, might watch it tonight or next week when I’m home.
Yeah, I noticed the HBO MAX app is still working, but it doesn’t have the Discovery+ content.
They may be getting ready to shut it down soon.
No streaming service right now is better than the other.
It all comes down to your individual personal preference.
Netflix is good right now for original series/movies, stand-up specials and miscellaneous shit. Because of the pandemic, they started opening up and bringing in content from other Netflix services around the world. Which puts them in a unique position than other streaming services that focus on US domestic content.
Disney, MAX, Paramount is mainly good for their catalog and what original programming they have.
Apple and Amazon is mainly what original programming they have on the service.
And then you have the free services like tubi, XUMO, PlutoTV, FreeVee, Plex and others that are good for old school throwback content.
‘The Flash’ Falls Down With $55M 3-Day Opening: Here’s Why
Sunday AM Writethru , after Saturday AM post…refresh for updates There are a lot of lessons to be learned this weekend. But chief among them is what it’s like for a major motion picture…
deadline.com
batgirl was a hbomax release. so it wasn't going to make them any return from the box office.
True. But there was a bit of back and forth at one point about the release.
The point people are making is just to poke fun at Z and his huge cost costing.
no doubt. he became ceo with the objective to get wb discovery out of the multi billion dollar hole at&t the company into. they will make some money with wb version of pluto tv
We will see how this all plays out very soon.
I don't think it will end well for WB with Z in control.
When David Zaslav Is Your Boss: 20-Plus Insiders on His Exacting Standards (And Those 6:30 a.m. Calls)
With CNN head Chris Licht ousted, other WBD executives turn their attention to his very hands-on overlord, with one source wondering: "Who wants to have to manage him?"
www.hollywoodreporter.com
@ViCiouS
Max Just Removed a Beloved Justice League Animated Show
One of DC's original animated series has just left Warner Bros. Discovery's new streaming service.
thedirect.com
Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson “Heartened” About TCM After Talks With David Zaslav
The three filmmakers issued a joint statement about the classic film network, "a precious resource of cinema," which the Warner Bros. Discovery CEO is in the midst of restructuring.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson “Heartened” About TCM After Talks With David Zaslav
The three filmmakers issued a joint statement about the classic film network, "a precious resource of cinema," which the Warner Bros. Discovery CEO is in the midst of restructuring.
I apologize to every bgol vet who told me damn near a decade ago to not stop buying dvds and blue rays.
Should have listened.
I really thought these streaming platforms were going end all that
The powers that be have been doing this to black movies for decades. Warner Brother are holding several black movies hostage and burying them. Disney buying up other production companies and is doing the same thing.
Black movies from the 70s already starting to get buried. The lesser known 90s black movies will completely get shelved, especially if any content isn’t PC friendly.
Physical media is nice, but it’s an economic thing. And because of this, black movies aren’t released on Blu-ray/4k like white movies. I have spoke with several distribution companies about this and they all told me the same thing “there isn’t a market for black films on home media.” In other words, black folks aren’t buying them in mass and white folks don’t care for black movies like that. But it’s understandable.
But white folks get to feel what we been feeling when it comes to movies getting buried.
I'm going to give the eyebrow raise to this specific part. When I was buying dbds it was hard as hell to find certain black properties
To be fair I completely understand music rights complicated the situation immensely but still I really think the black buying audience was THERE.
I remember standing on line at circuit city and best buy on Sunday and Tuesday for DVD releases. It was black folk bring black movies.
The buying power was there but we also bootlegged our movies to oblivion, especially in the 90s and 2000s.
Also, people rather stream today, so companies don’t care to even remaster some of our classics.
Warner Bros. Discovery Lays Off Diversity Exec Karen Horne
The company says the cut was not due to cost cutting, but is the result of a reorganization of the division.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
Warner Bros. Discovery Lays Off Diversity Exec Karen Horne
The company says the cut was not due to cost cutting, but is the result of a reorganization of the division.
Holy sh*t
Whelp this has to be some type of collusion or some mandate expired because it seems all these post #me too post George Floyd departments and positions
Not only at corporations
but also schools
Are being dismantled
And just when affirmative action roe wade and lgbtq rights being rolled back too
Interesting
@ViCiouS
deadline.com
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David ZaslavEthan Miller/Getty Images
GQ magazine has removed an article about Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav from its website after the company objected to the article.
The unflattering piece by freelance film critic Jason Bailey appeared Monday. It catalogued a number of moves by Zaslav — particularly decisions at Warner Bros, Max and TCM — which have made him “the most hated man in Hollywood.” Bailey wrote that Zaslav is “only good at breaking things,” comparing him with the businessman played by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.
The article then went through a round of edits before being fully removed from the site without explanation after the company complained and Bailey asked for his byline to be removed. One change removed the “most hated man” line and replaced it with “the face of a rocky and controversial new period in Hollywood.” Archived versions of the original and a revised version have been circulating on social media and The Washington Post included both in its piece about the flap. Entertainment site Showbiz 411 had the first report about the disappearance of the article.
It is unusual for a publication of GQ‘s caliber to remove any article from circulation without offering an explanation to readers. It also can often take months or even years for a piece to be taken down entirely, but things moved far more swiftly in this case.
Condé Nast-owned GQ said it had identified several errors in the piece by Bailey after the piece was prematurely published.
“A piece published by GQ on Monday was not properly edited before going live,” the magazine said in a statement provided to Deadline. “After a revision was published, the writer of the piece asked to have their byline removed, at which point GQ decided to unpublish the piece in question. GQ regrets the editorial error that led to a story being published before it was ready.”
WBD’s main point of contention was that it had never been contacted by Bailey at any stage of the writing process, which is not the norm for corporate coverage in general.
“The freelance reporter made no attempt to reach out to Warner Bros. Discovery to fact-check the substance of the piece before publishing — a standard practice for any reputable news outlet,” WBD said in a statement. “As is also standard practice, we contacted the outlet and asked that numerous inaccuracies be corrected. In the process of doing so, the editors ultimately decided to pull the piece.”
CEOs by nature tend to be highly visible, but the latest episode extends a run in a particularly bright spotlight for Zaslav, who ascended to a larger throne after shepherding the $43 billion merger of Discovery with WarnerMedia in 2022. In overseeing assets like Warner Bros. Pictures and HBO, a big change from steering cable networks known for unscripted programming, the exec has presided over some financial improvement but his managerial approach hasn’t always hit the mark. In the past six weeks alone, he elicited boos from students and striking WGA members when delivering a commencement address at Boston University; raised eyebrows by throwing a lavish party in Cannes in a time of cost-cutting and labor unrest; and alarmed A-list filmmakers including Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese with a significant round of staff cuts at classic film cable network TCM.
The Newhouse family, which owns Condé Nast, has seats on the Warner Bros. Discovery board and a stake in the company. While that structural element was noted in coverage of the article dustup by the Post and The New York Times, a WBD rep emphatically denied it played a role in how events unfolded.
David Zaslav Article Taken Down By GQ After Warner Bros. Discovery Raises Objections
GQ has removed a profile of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav from its website after the company raised objections to the article.
deadline.com
David Zaslav Article Taken Down By GQ After Warner Bros. Discovery Raises Objections
By Dade Hayes
July 5, 2023 11:18am
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David ZaslavEthan Miller/Getty Images
GQ magazine has removed an article about Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav from its website after the company objected to the article.
The unflattering piece by freelance film critic Jason Bailey appeared Monday. It catalogued a number of moves by Zaslav — particularly decisions at Warner Bros, Max and TCM — which have made him “the most hated man in Hollywood.” Bailey wrote that Zaslav is “only good at breaking things,” comparing him with the businessman played by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.
The article then went through a round of edits before being fully removed from the site without explanation after the company complained and Bailey asked for his byline to be removed. One change removed the “most hated man” line and replaced it with “the face of a rocky and controversial new period in Hollywood.” Archived versions of the original and a revised version have been circulating on social media and The Washington Post included both in its piece about the flap. Entertainment site Showbiz 411 had the first report about the disappearance of the article.
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It is unusual for a publication of GQ‘s caliber to remove any article from circulation without offering an explanation to readers. It also can often take months or even years for a piece to be taken down entirely, but things moved far more swiftly in this case.
Condé Nast-owned GQ said it had identified several errors in the piece by Bailey after the piece was prematurely published.
“A piece published by GQ on Monday was not properly edited before going live,” the magazine said in a statement provided to Deadline. “After a revision was published, the writer of the piece asked to have their byline removed, at which point GQ decided to unpublish the piece in question. GQ regrets the editorial error that led to a story being published before it was ready.”
WBD’s main point of contention was that it had never been contacted by Bailey at any stage of the writing process, which is not the norm for corporate coverage in general.
“The freelance reporter made no attempt to reach out to Warner Bros. Discovery to fact-check the substance of the piece before publishing — a standard practice for any reputable news outlet,” WBD said in a statement. “As is also standard practice, we contacted the outlet and asked that numerous inaccuracies be corrected. In the process of doing so, the editors ultimately decided to pull the piece.”
CEOs by nature tend to be highly visible, but the latest episode extends a run in a particularly bright spotlight for Zaslav, who ascended to a larger throne after shepherding the $43 billion merger of Discovery with WarnerMedia in 2022. In overseeing assets like Warner Bros. Pictures and HBO, a big change from steering cable networks known for unscripted programming, the exec has presided over some financial improvement but his managerial approach hasn’t always hit the mark. In the past six weeks alone, he elicited boos from students and striking WGA members when delivering a commencement address at Boston University; raised eyebrows by throwing a lavish party in Cannes in a time of cost-cutting and labor unrest; and alarmed A-list filmmakers including Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese with a significant round of staff cuts at classic film cable network TCM.
The Newhouse family, which owns Condé Nast, has seats on the Warner Bros. Discovery board and a stake in the company. While that structural element was noted in coverage of the article dustup by the Post and The New York Times, a WBD rep emphatically denied it played a role in how events unfolded.
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David Zaslav Article Taken Down By GQ After Warner Bros. Discovery Raises Objections
GQ has removed a profile of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav from its website after the company raised objections to the article.
David Zaslav Article Taken Down By GQ After Warner Bros. Discovery Raises Objections
By Dade Hayes
July 5, 2023 11:18am
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David ZaslavEthan Miller/Getty Images
GQ magazine has removed an article about Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav from its website after the company objected to the article.
The unflattering piece by freelance film critic Jason Bailey appeared Monday. It catalogued a number of moves by Zaslav — particularly decisions at Warner Bros, Max and TCM — which have made him “the most hated man in Hollywood.” Bailey wrote that Zaslav is “only good at breaking things,” comparing him with the businessman played by Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.
The article then went through a round of edits before being fully removed from the site without explanation after the company complained and Bailey asked for his byline to be removed. One change removed the “most hated man” line and replaced it with “the face of a rocky and controversial new period in Hollywood.” Archived versions of the original and a revised version have been circulating on social media and The Washington Post included both in its piece about the flap. Entertainment site Showbiz 411 had the first report about the disappearance of the article.
RELATED STORY
Fire On Warner Bros Studio Lot In Burbank Is Out After Transformer Explosion
It is unusual for a publication of GQ‘s caliber to remove any article from circulation without offering an explanation to readers. It also can often take months or even years for a piece to be taken down entirely, but things moved far more swiftly in this case.
Condé Nast-owned GQ said it had identified several errors in the piece by Bailey after the piece was prematurely published.
“A piece published by GQ on Monday was not properly edited before going live,” the magazine said in a statement provided to Deadline. “After a revision was published, the writer of the piece asked to have their byline removed, at which point GQ decided to unpublish the piece in question. GQ regrets the editorial error that led to a story being published before it was ready.”
WBD’s main point of contention was that it had never been contacted by Bailey at any stage of the writing process, which is not the norm for corporate coverage in general.
“The freelance reporter made no attempt to reach out to Warner Bros. Discovery to fact-check the substance of the piece before publishing — a standard practice for any reputable news outlet,” WBD said in a statement. “As is also standard practice, we contacted the outlet and asked that numerous inaccuracies be corrected. In the process of doing so, the editors ultimately decided to pull the piece.”
CEOs by nature tend to be highly visible, but the latest episode extends a run in a particularly bright spotlight for Zaslav, who ascended to a larger throne after shepherding the $43 billion merger of Discovery with WarnerMedia in 2022. In overseeing assets like Warner Bros. Pictures and HBO, a big change from steering cable networks known for unscripted programming, the exec has presided over some financial improvement but his managerial approach hasn’t always hit the mark. In the past six weeks alone, he elicited boos from students and striking WGA members when delivering a commencement address at Boston University; raised eyebrows by throwing a lavish party in Cannes in a time of cost-cutting and labor unrest; and alarmed A-list filmmakers including Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese with a significant round of staff cuts at classic film cable network TCM.
The Newhouse family, which owns Condé Nast, has seats on the Warner Bros. Discovery board and a stake in the company. While that structural element was noted in coverage of the article dustup by the Post and The New York Times, a WBD rep emphatically denied it played a role in how events unfolded.
