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Mar 18

Morning Media Newsfeed: Politico Europe Announced | Hack Costs Sony $15 Million

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Politico to Launch European Site (FishbowlNY)
Politico is preparing to expand to Europe with the launch of Politico Europe. The site will use the similar tactic taken by Politico and Capital New York — a free site with subscription-only verticals that focus on one subject, like tech. FishbowlDC At 12:01 a.m. Brussels time on April 21, www.politico.eu will go live; and two days later, Politico will debut its weekly print edition in Brussels, Paris, Berlin, London and several other European capitals. HuffPost For the European launch, editors have tapped senior E.U. correspondent Ryan Heath to write a morning column on “what’s driving the daily political conversation on this side of the Atlantic,” a product similar to Mike Allen’s Playbook. Politico / Dylan Byers on Media Former Reuters journalists Pierre Briançon and Nicholas Vinocur will lead coverage of France. Jacopo Barigazzi will lead coverage of Italy. Former Wall Street Journal Europe editor Craig Winneker will serve as news editor. The Economist’s Jan Cienski will serve as energy editor. Former New York-based journalists Tara Palmeri, of the New York Post, and Zeke Turner, of Women’s Wear Daily and the New York Observer, will work from Brussels. Former New Republic managing editor Linda Kinstler and former Newsweek global editor Tunku Varadarajan will both serve as contributing editors. The Guardian Politico claims it will have more journalists combined in Washington and Brussels than any other outlet. Total staff at the venture will reach about 70.

Sony Pictures Posts Hack-Delayed Quarterly Profit of $51 Million (THR)
Sony Pictures generated a profit of $51 million (6.2 billion yen) in the quarter ended Dec. 31 (the period affected by the hacking attack), more than the $20 million it had predicted in February, Sony Corp. announced in Tokyo on Tuesday. IBT The hacks that brought the operations of Sony Pictures to a screeching halt in December have proven costly for the motion picture studio, to the tune of $15 million (1.8 billion yen). Sony Pictures profits fell from $148.3 million (18 billion yen), a 74 percent drop compared with the same quarter in the previous year. Funds set aside to investigate and fix the damage related to the hacks accounted for 10 percent of the decrease. BuzzFeed Sony said that there were fewer major DVD and streaming releases in the quarter compared to the year before, while the company’s films did not perform as well. Television income was hit compared to last year thanks to Sony getting major income from demand for Breaking Bad at the end of 2013. Variety Sony also released an unusually detailed breakdown for SPE’s third quarter, including U.S. dollar aggregated results that differ from Picture segment results in the earnings announcement, with operating profit declining 79 percent year-on-year to $53 million and total sales dropping 20 percent to $1.79 billion. The biggest release in the third quarter was Fury, which earned a worldwide total of $194 million, and compared with the $209 million from Captain Phillips in the same quarter of 2013.

Evening News Ratings for Week of March 9 Show Tight Race (TVNewser)
The evening news race just got a lot tighter. NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt held an 11,000 total viewer lead over World News Tonight With David Muir. That’s the closest ABC has gotten to NBC in more than 5 years — since the week of Sept. 7, 2009 which was the week after Charlie Gibson announced his retirement from World News. Variety Muir triumphed over Holt for the second time in five weeks, winning more of the evening-news viewers advertisers care most about. The NBC evening newscast won an average of 1.96 million viewers between the ages of 25 and 54, the demographic that sponsors of news programming pay most to reach, a tumble of 18 percent from the week-earlier period and 11 percent from the same week last year. ABC’s World News in turn lured an average of 2.033 million, down 11 percent week over week and up just 0.3 percent year over year. The Daily Beast According to the Teutonic Time-Shifting Theory, all three 6:30 p.m. network newscasts lose significant viewership when it stays light outside later. But NBC is supposedly disadvantaged disproportionately because its audience is more prosperous and suburban, given to lovely sunset bike rides and mint juleps on the veranda — while ABC’s audience is weighted toward a less affluent, more “urban,” indoorsy demographic.

‘Radio Andy’ Cohen Plans SiriusXM Channel (USA Today)
Andy Cohen has carved out a niche getting wild and candid with guests on Watch What Happens Live, his late-night Bravo talk show. But he promises things will get even wilder when he heads to SiriusXM radio with his own 24/7 channel. THR Cohen will curate the content for the channel, called Radio Andy, which will make its debut later this year. He will have his own weekly show, which will be one or two hours long, and the rest of the platform’s air time will be filled by hosts who have yet to be announced.

HBO’s The Jinx Finale Draws More Than 1 Million Viewers on Sunday (Variety)
HBO documentary series The Jinx, which chronicled the twisty tales of Robert Durst, ended its run Sunday with a ratings spike. Nielsen estimates that the sixth and final installment of The Jinx: The Life And Deaths of Robert Durst averaged 802,000 viewers for its initial airing at 8 p.m., a roughly 80 percent jump from the prior week’s 446,000 and the program’s largest audience to date. The previous high for the show was the 752,000 who tuned in for its premiere on Feb. 8. THR Authorities found nearly 150 grams of marijuana and a revolver in millionaire Robert Durst’s hotel room when he was arrested over the weekend, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Durst appeared before a judge for a second straight day Tuesday to face the drug and weapons charges. He also is charged with murder in a Los Angeles killing 15 years ago.

E! Is Pulling The Plug on Fashion Police Until September (HuffPost / AP)
Fashion Police is taking a break after losing co-hosts Kelly Osbourne and Kathy Griffin and plans to slip into something new for fall, the E! channel said. Co-hosts Giuliana Rancic and Brad Goreski and executive producer Melissa Rivers will be back in September with the series, which will “evolve” into its next chapter, E! said in a statement Tuesday. USA Today Osbourne departed a few days after objecting to a critical remark Rancic made about actress/singer Zendaya’s hair, for which Rancic apologized. Comedian Griffin, who succeeded the late Joan Rivers on the fashion-commentary show, quit last week after just a short stay, saying it didn’t fit her style. “After seven episodes of Fashion Police, I discovered that my style does not fit with the creative direction of the show and now it’s time to move on,” Griffin wrote on Twitter.

China’s Huayi Brothers to Partner With STX Entertainment on 18-Movie Deal (Variety)
Robert Simonds’ STX Entertainment is close to securing a three-year deal to produce 18 films with China’s Huayi Brothers Media. Huayi revealed a partnership with an unnamed U.S. entity on Monday, as part of a regulatory filing in China. THR According to the filing, the Huayi Brothers will co-produce, co-finance and retain distribution rights to the movies in Greater China. Huayi also would take a share of global revenues and profits. It would also mark the first time that a Chinese film company held the copyright to the co-produced films, according to the filing. TheWrap While the deal likely won’t be officially announced for several weeks, it serves as further proof of China’s increasing control over Hollywood product. STX already has funding from Chinese investor Hony Capital, while Jeff Robinov‘s Studio 8 is partnered with China’s Bona Film Group. On the small screen, STX has an output deal with Showtime that runs through 2019.

CBS Gets Into Big Data Game (Adweek)
CBS may have launched a new streaming service (and announced a new one for daughter network Showtime), but traditional TV is where it’s at, as far as the television company is concerned. Tuesday, the company unveiled a new product designed to demonstrate TV’s reach power to CBS clients, which it’s calling “Campaign Performance Audit,” or CPA. B&C CBS says CPA has been tested with select advertisers since last fall. It provides them with a roadmap using analytics from by CBS and Nielsen. CBS research assets include its Television City facility in Las Vegas where the network measures viewer reaction to its shows. CBS says Television City can also be used to test the effectiveness of ad messages. WSJ / CMO Today In addition, CBS will also work with Nielsen to provide advertisers feedback on the effectiveness of their campaigns and media spending.

Christian Lorentzen Named New York Book Critic (FishbowlNY)
New York has named Christian Lorentzen its book critic. Lorentzen most recently served as a senior editor at the London Review of Books. He will continue to work there as an editor-at-large. Capital New York Lorentzen starts writing for New York and Vulture in April.

Nicole Lapin Joins Redbook (FishbowlNY)
Redbook has named Nicole Lapin its first-ever financial columnist. Lapin is a CNN anchor and has contributed to MSNBC and the Today show. She has also served as a correspondent for Bloomberg TV. WWD / Memo Pad Lapin will become the magazine’s first personal finance columnist. She joins celebrity stylist and Fashion Police co-host Brad Goreski; makeup artist Mally Roncal and HGTV’s design star Emily Henderson, among others.

Vanessa Kingori Named British GQ Publisher (FishbowlNY)
Condé Nast International has named Vanessa Kingori publisher of British GQ. Kingori most recently served as associate publisher, fashion, for British GQ and publisher of GQ Style. She has been with British GQ since 2009.

Billboard Promotes Mike Bruno (FishbowlNY)
Effective Tuesday, Mike Bruno at Billboard has a new title. A VP of digital content since March of 2014, he has been promoted to senior vice president, digital content.

Mickey Kaus Quits Daily Caller After Tucker Carlson Pulls Critical Fox News Column (Politico / Dylan Byers on Media)
Blogger Mickey Kaus has quit his job at The Daily Caller after the conservative site’s editor-in-chief, Tucker Carlson, pulled a critical column about Fox News from the site, Kaus said Tuesday.

New D.C. Bureau Chief, Political Reporter at The Daily Beast (FishbowlDC)
The Daily Beast has announced the hiring of Betsy Woodruff, as well as the promotion of Will Rahn, according to a staff memo from editor-in-chief John Avlon.

Dish’s Sling TV to Add A+E Channels (LostRemote)
Sling TV announced Tuesday morning that it will now be available on Xbox One and that it’s adding content from A+E Networks towards the end of March. A+E’s Lifetime, History, A&E, and H2 will be incorporated into the “Best of Live TV” core package.