BuzzFeed News Is Shutting Down, Company Laying Off 180 Staffers

blog post that the writers’ room on the “Game of Thrones” spin-off “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight” has shut down for the duration of the Writers Guild of America strike. “Ira Parker and his incredible staff of young talents are on the picket lines,” Martin said.

George R.R. Martin is expressing his full support for the Writers Guild and the ongoing strike. In a blog post, the Game of Thrones co-creator revealed the “The writers room on GoT spinoff A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Night has closed for the duration.”

But alas, despite its popularity, Jenny Craig could be shutting up shop for good, a leaked email sent to the US arm of the business revealing mass staff redundancies. 

“unrecognizable” — and may have had some cosmetic tweaks.“WTF has Meg Ryan done to her face?!” one baffled fan asked. “Is that really Meg Ryan? If so that’s such a shame and incredibly sad,” another cynic sniped.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The FTC alleges Meta failed to comply with a 2020 privacy order — and as such, the agency wants to impose new restrictions on the social giant, including prohibiting Facebook, Instagram and its other services from monetizing data from users under 18. The FTC also is proposing to prohibit Meta from releasing new or modified products, services or features without “written confirmation” from the third-party assessor overseeing its privacy programs. Under the 20-year settlement with the FTC (reached in 2019 and approved the following year) Meta agreed to pay a record-breaking $5 billion fine and to submit to new oversight by the commission. That was to settle claims that the company violated a 2012 FTC order “by deceiving users about their ability to control the privacy of their personal information.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Roku is reinvesting in — and bulking up — its originals lineup, announcing a new season of “The Great American Baking Show” and an unscripted comedy featuring singer-songwriter Charlie Puth among the shows coming to the Roku Channel. Notably, the content announcements at Roku’s 2023 NewFronts presentation — coming on Day One of the WGA writers strike — were unscripted/reality formats. Also at the event in New York Tuesday, the streaming platform unveiled a suite of new ad solutions, including sponsorships for its popular Roku City screensaver. The company announced that it has renewed reality competition series “The Great American Baking Show” for Season 2. The news came ahead of the premiere Friday, May 5, of the new six-episode run of the show featuring Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith, Ellie Kemper and Zach Cherry (pictured above, left) on the Roku Channel. “The Great American Baking Show,” produced by Love Productions USA, ran for five seasons on ABC as a spinoff of original hit “The Great British Baking Show” before it was picked up last year by Roku. The streaming company previously acquired U.S. rights to dozens of episodes in the “Great Baking Show” franchise for a FAST channel. Roku will also bring back the holiday special of “The Great American Baking Show,” which will feature all-new celebrity bakers and debut this upcoming holiday season.

Clubhouse, the live audio app that once drew big buzz and interest in a multi-billion-dollar takeover, is “resetting” and letting go of 50% of its staff of a few dozen workers.

IDW Media Holdings, the company that includes a prominent comics division and an entertainment division behind such series as Syfy’s Wynonna Earp, BBC America/Netflix’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and Netflix’s Locke & Key, said Thursday it is undergoing cost-cutting measures including reducing its workforce by more than a third, delisting from the NYSE and making changes to senior management in response to “operational challenges.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amazon, in the midst of paring back its workforce, topped Wall Street forecasts with better-than-expected revenue growth for the first quarter of 2023. The company reported Q1 revenue of $127.4 billion, up 9% year over year, improving over a 7% rise in the year-earlier quarter but still off its historical pace of top-line growth. Net income was $3.2 billion, or 31 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $3.8 billion in Q1 2022 (which included a $7.8 billion loss on its stake in electric-vehicle maker Rivian). The results come as the ecommerce colossus is in the middle of laying off 9,000 workers, on top of the 18,000 job cuts announced in January. On Thursday, the company laid off about 100 employees at Amazon Studios and Prime Video.

Team, In response to the current market conditions and business realities facing VMG and the broader news and media industry, we are moving forward on some painful but necessary reductions, primarily across our News business. We are transforming VICE News to better withstand market realities and more closely align with how and where we see our audiences engaging with our content most.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amid broad cost-cutting moves, Meta is shuttering the Facebook Watch originals group, whose small slate of shows included the hit “Red Table Talk” hosted by Jada Pinkett Smith, Variety has confirmed. A Meta representative confirmed that the company is shuttering its originals group but declined to provide further comment. The news was first reported by Deadline. With the shutdown of Facebook Watch originals, Mina Lefevre, head of development and programing for the group, is leaving the company. Lefevre joined Meta (then called Facebook) in 2017, after serving as MTV’s head of scripted development. At Meta, Lefevre reported to Ricky Van Veen, VP of creative strategy.

an AdWeek report, Friday will be the last day for Paper Magazine’s editorial team, as the company laid off between 20 to 30 of its full-time staff members. All editorial operations have been halted, though Paper Magazine’s editor-in-chief will apparently stay on through May.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Jerrell Jimerson, Disney Streaming’s chief product officer and one of the architects of Disney+, has been let go as part of the media conglomerate’s latest round of layoffs, Variety has learned. Jimerson on Wednesday sent a note to his team at Disney Streaming telling them that “after five incredible years at Disney, I will be leaving the company at the end of June.” Disney is laying off some 4,000 employees across the company this week, part of its previously announced target of cutting 7,000 jobs to reduce costs. As chief product officer and EVP of product and design for Disney Streaming, Jimerson has overseen all aspects of product, user experience and design for Disney’s direct-to-consumer video streaming businesses, including Disney+, Hulu and Star+.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In today’s podcast news roundup: Buzzy Cohen gives “Jeopardy!” fans an insider’s look at the popular game show; “Real Housewives” alum Ramona Singer launches a podcast with her daughter, Avery; CNN Audio debuts “The Prince Mixtape,” exploring the Purple One’s life and legacy; the New York Times’ The Athletic preps a deep dive on LeBron James’ basketball career; OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network renews its SiriusXM podcast deal; Tribeca Festival sets 2023 podcast programming lineup; and more. Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television launched “This Is Jeopardy! America’s Favorite Quiz Show,” a new podcast that goes behind the scenes of the long-running game show hosted by former “Jeopardy!” champion and guest host Buzzy Cohen. The podcast, which premiered Wednesday (April 26) promises listeners “an exciting journey through the history of the quiz show,” featuring notable guests including contestants and producers. “I am so excited for the opportunity to give listeners a never-before-seen look at the show,” Cohen, who won the “Jeopardy!” 2017 Tournament of Champions, said in a statement. “This is Jeopardy!” is produced by Somethin’ Else and Sony Music Entertainment. Lizzie Jacobs, Tom Koenig and Sarah Kramer are the executive producers; Mia Warren is senior producer; and Julia Doyle and Sylvie Lubow are producers.

After country music star Morgan Wallen suddenly canceled his Sunday night performance at the Ole Miss stadium in Oxford, Mississippi, his music label is debunking rumors behind the cancelation.  Leaving thousands of fans disappointed, Wallen shared a statement to his fans through his Instagram story that he could not perform due to his strained voice.  However, a viral TikTok video suggested otherwise. A security guard at the venue claimed Wallen was too drunk for his performance and said his reason for losing his voice was "bull crap." He added that an ambulance picked up the "Last Night" singer.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube’s advertising revenue dropped for the third quarter in a row, dragging down Google’s financial results as the video platform continues to navigate a soft ad market. Ad sales at YouTube declined 2.6% year over year in the first quarter of 2023, to $6.69 billion. Analysts expected it to come in at $6.6 billion, per FactSet. Parent company Alphabet doesn’t break out YouTube’s subscription revenue (from YouTube TV or YouTube’s other premium services). YouTube revenue was down 7.8% in the fourth quarter of 2022 following a 1.9% dip the quarter before that. In February, Susan Wojcicki stepped down as YouTube’s CEO after nine years in the role, staying on at Alphabet in an advisory capacity. Stepping in to lead YouTube was Neal Mohan (pictured above), previously the video platform’s chief product officer.

Bam Margera‘s friends have been very worried about him — and earlier this month, they tried to get him help.

Disney layoffs currently impacting the company.Kelley had been a part of the company for more than 12 years, serving in different positions in digital marketing at both Walt Disney Studios and, later, at Disney+. He’d been the senior vice president of marketing at Disney+ for the past two years, following the direct-to-consumer streaming platform as it grew, during the pandemic, to one of the biggest streaming powerhouses on the marketing, certainly with one of the most robust libraries of legacy titles.

Pep Guardiola said he had no excitement for a potential Treble as he refused to discuss the prospect of Manchester City winning everything.

Thania Garcia Mandolin, a live-stream concert platform that thrived after COVID-19 put a pause on in-person experiences, quietly closed its doors on Monday amid the resurgence of live touring and concerts. Mandolin launched on June 1, 2020, months into the pandemic, and less than a year later was named the best streaming platform at the 2021 Pollstar Awards (they were nominated with other platforms including Veeps, LiveXLive and Nugs.net). Around this same time last year, Mandolin was testing different ways to keep the concert streaming boom going by launching a variety of initiatives aimed at maximizing the in-person concert experience with a wide range of digital services. Among them were ticket sales to meet-and-greet or after-party add-ons to shows, ordering food and merch online without waiting in line, and replays of shows that were filmed live. The mobile app experience was employed for numerous live concerts including the 2021 Telluride Bluegrass Festival and Lil Wayne’s Uproar Hip-Hop Festival.