digital

Vice Media fired three employees on Thursday amid a probe into sexual harassment and improper workplace conduct, according to an internal memo. Vice did not name the employees.

Hearst Magazines Digital Media has formed a five-person division dedicated to developing, creating and selling original video series for digital platforms. Built over the past six months, the Hearst Originals team is led by Brian Madden, VP of audience, and Michael Mraz, executive director of partnerships for Hearst Magazines Digital Media. Two weeks ago, Hearst hired former MTV and Vice News executive Eric Leven as its director of Hearst Originals, who will be responsible for the day-to-day development of original shows.

Digital and TV have an often symbiotic relationship for Univision, with shows created for digital also running on linear TV.

As web video merges with film and TV, meet the breakouts — from Lilly Singh to Adam Conover — leveraging fame on YouTube and Instagram into careers on platforms their parents actually watch.

Digital executives from Nexstar, Tegna, Graham Media and Raycom will discuss the challenges of integrating digital news production and distribution into traditional television newsroom workflow at the sixth annual NewsTECHForum conference in New York on Dec. 11-12.

A new study charts trends affecting media buyers and sellers. It’s available from ComScore as a complimentary download.

The Tegna NBC affiliate in Portland, Ore., promoted Greg Retsinas to a newly created position overseeing digital content and revenue strategy.

Former Mashable executive Adam Ostrow will oversee Tegna’s digital vision and strategy.

The cuts, which are impacting about 2% of Vice Media’s 3,000 person staff, comes as the company grows its video operations internationally.

Discovery Communications today appointed Fred Graver SVP, digital content and social for Discovery Digital. Graver most recently was the global head of TV for Twitter. In his new role, he will oversee […]

In Cannes to talk up his latest venture, WndrCo, Jeffrey Katzenberg says he’s found “a brand new Everest.” The company is getting into what he’s so far terming “New TV” destined for mobile devices in the form of shows with full story arcs, but limited to 6-10 minutes per episode. The target demo is the coveted 18-34 range and the plan involves incentives along the way for every stakeholder, including creatives. It will be built with a significant advertising component.

The former YouTube executive will help drive the company’s digital strategy and will be responsible for growing the consumption, audience engagement and monetization of NBCUniversal Digital Enterprises’s content on both existing and emerging platforms.

Former Fox Sports/Speed Channel television network and digital media executive Kevin Annison will join Motorsport Network to spearhead the group’s planned expansion in traditional and internet television as its president. […]

Shelly Leslie, WRAL’s creative director is now the general manager of audience development — a new Capitol Broadcasting Co. division focused on growing the company’s digital video footprint.

Gregory Raifman, Nexstar Digital’s newly-minted president, says the company is well underway with a rollup of its portfolio of technology companies under a single banner. As the company scouts new digital acquisitions, Raifman says it will leverage Nexstar Media Group’s broadcast size and footprint to find its edge in the market.

Advertising technology and business strategy executives Anthony Katsur and Michael Kestenbaum named SVP of platforms and SVP of strategy and corporate development, respectively.

As vice president of digital product management and design, Azza Elsheikh will lead the station division’s product and designs teams.

NBCUniversal has acquired a majority stake in Craftsy, the digital channel that serves up how-to videos on a range of cooking, decorating and lifestyle subjects.

A new, long-term agreement builds on an existing relationship to bring Getty Images’ premium creative content to social video creation platform Wochit’s users.

One year after transitioning to the role of a special adviser for CBS executives, former president of CBS Local Digital Media Ezra Kucharz has announced he’s left the company.

It didn’t take long to get NewFronts fatigue. The New York Times kicked off the two weeks of presentations with a more-than-two-hour pitch to agency executives and marketers parading its journalists in the way other digital publishers might show off their social influencers.

The Weather Co. is introducing major enhancements to its Max Engage solution for news stations, which will now include the power of IBM Watson, a cognitive digital solution. Using Watson […]

In addition to the new demands it places on ad sales teams, selling digital media also requires rethinking the roles by credit and collections departments during the sales process. Tony Pernice, a campaign specialist at Scripps Networks Interactive, explains the company’s comprehensive process for managing digital campaigns.

The NBC Entertainment chairman will be the keynote speaker in a Super Session on “Success in a Digital Age” on April 25 in Las Vegas.

In a newly created position, former Twitter exec Andrew Fitzgerald will work with the digital teams at the Hearst Television stations to produce and distribute content on multiple digital platforms.

Ezra Kucharz, a special adviser to CBS CEO Les Moonves on digital matters, spells out what his company is doing to succeed digitally. Among them are becoming adept at collecting and using data about media usage and hiring digital experts to run digital ventures, not legacy media experts.

Disney has laid off 80 employees in its digital media unit, which includes multichannel network Maker Studios, as part of a restructuring process that began last year. The firings are the result of redundancies that happened when Disney integrated Maker into its consumer products and digital media division in December.

In January, digital media advertising growth continued its slowdown to single-digit percentage gains — off from its big double-digit hikes in previous periods. Bright spots for digital came in the categories that are increasingly competitive to traditional TV.

A group of veteran media executives, including former Shine Americas CEO Emiliano Calemzuk as well as Sofia Vergara, is launching Raze, which aspires to build a digital content brand aimed at the U.S. Latino audience.

NATPE panelists describe how they are bridging the gap between legacy and digital sales. Training, hiring and compensation are among the areas of focus because their station groups understand that their digital efforts must grow, both in the creation of content and ad sales. “If you can’t adapt, you die,” said Sinclair’s Rob Weisbord.

Glenn Hower of Parks Associates, says that live digital streaming of sports content; the early authenticated and transactional VOD window; early and mid-subscription VOD window; and digital syndication are all affecting digital TV content distribution.

MACH, which will cover tech, science and innovation for NBC News, will be led by David Freeman, founding editor of HuffPost’s science section.  MACH is currently in beta with an early 2017 launch planned. Matthew Kitchen is deputy editor.

Discovery Communications has put down $100 million to become a minority shareholder in a new holding company called Group Nine Media.