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Media Tag

Posted by Casey Breznick on December 17, 2014 7 Comments
There’s only one man in the world who is in journalism to get rich. That man is Shane Smith, the CEO and co-founder of Vice Media, Inc. 20 years in the making, Smith's growing media empire has amassed him an estimated $400 million fortune, and according to widespread reports earlier this week, Vice is planning a “deal spree” in 2015 to be possibly followed by an IPO. With a $500 million “war chest,” Vice is looking to acquire “content, technology, and distribution deals” according to CNBC. The spending money comes from dual $250 million investments from A&E Networks,  in part owned by Disney, and Technology Cross Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture firm with notable stakes in Netflix and Facebook. These investments brought Vice’s valuation to $2.5 billion, doubling the company’s valuation previous valuation of $1.4 billion back in late 2013 when Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox bought a 5% stake for $70 million. This year, Vice is expected to report revenues of $500 million, and according to Smith that figure could reach $1 billion by 2016. Smith has also said that Vice’s profit margins are currently at 34%, though he wasn’t specific as to which measure this was (i.e. net income, pre-tax income, etc.). The New York Times, in comparison, has a net income margin of just 10%. So what exactly is Vice?

Posted by Mike LaChance on September 24, 2014 1 Comment
What's the problem with an extra ten or twenty thousand dollars for a journalism degree? It's not like the public's trust in journalists is at an all time low or anything. The higher education bubble is a subject we've covered extensively at College Insurrection. This new report from Kaitlin Mulhere at Inside Higher Ed is special because it also involves the future of American journalism. It seems the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism is in dire need of cash:
Jacking Up J-School Tuition A proposal to raise tuition at the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism has some faculty members, alumni and students worried about destroying the school’s distinctive character. Faced with a half-million-dollar budget gap, Dean Edward Wasserman announced plans to recommend a tuition increase for the 2016-17 academic year in a memo to campus members earlier this month. He said the increase is necessary given the school’s financial standing, and that the amount students pay doesn’t actually cover what it costs to provide that education. He also said that the school would remain devoted to affordability and dedicate a large portion of the sum raised through the new fee to financial aid. Much of the online response to the idea has been negative, with several people questioning how journalists can afford to pay an additional $20,500 over two years for a degree in a troubled industry with historically low pay.
One student quoted in the column knows she won't make much money in journalism but she's focused on the bigger picture.

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 26, 2014 3 Comments

The Obama administration's relationship with the media is hardly and adversarial one. In fact, at times it has seemed more like a partnership and there's a logical explanation for that. A surprisingly high number of people have moved back and forth from the media to the...

Posted by Anne Segal on November 15, 2012 13 Comments

NBC Chicago's Charlie Wojciechowski ignored and lashed out a reporter who covered the Northwestern University Midwest Marxism conference over the weekend, in particular referring to reporting of Teachers Union VP Jesse Sharkey's presence there as "full of sh*t." The conference was notable not only for its...

Posted by Anne Segal on August 31, 2012 11 Comments

I traveled to Tampa, FL, last-minute for work (good timing), so I got to experience some of the hullabaloo from the vantage point of an on-the-outskirts La Quinta. My observations: 1. Tampa's uber security perfectly captured the two paths our country faces. There was something inspiring about...

Posted by Anne Segal on August 17, 2012 36 Comments

Just as the media had finished congratulating itself for selecting a woman, CNN's Candy Crowley, as one of the 2012 presidential debate moderators for the first time in 20 years, there is now an outcry over the lack of African American representation among the moderators. A...

Posted by Anne Segal on August 17, 2012 22 Comments

Fareed Zakaria, the Time columnist and host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, who was exposed plagiarizing his column and suspended on August 10, has suffered long enough, apparently. Exactly one week after news broke of the plagiarism, Time announced that they will be revoking their previously publicized one-month...

Posted by Anne Segal on August 13, 2012 29 Comments

CNN host and Time magazine contributor Fareed Zakaria has been suspended by both outlets after Newsbusters reported Friday he had plagiarized a column. It was Cam Edwards of NRA News who first noticed the irregularity; he then tipped off Tim Graham at Newsbusters. Tim Graham of...

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