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Barry Diller

Hot Source: Barry Diller Spent Millions to Feed a Dying Beast

The Daily Beast was on track to lose $9 million this year and was “hours away” from being sold to private equity, according to its new CEO and publisher Ben Sherwood, who delivered the startling news to shell-shocked staffers during an all-hands call last week. Sherwood and chief content and creative officer Joanna Coles took the reins of the […]

5 Big Hollywood Donors No Longer Supporting Biden (And 5 Who Remain Silent)

"If Biden does not step down, the Democrats will lose." Several top celebrity donors call on Biden to drop out, while some stay silent.

Jamie Kellner, Architect of the Fox Broadcast Network and The WB, Dies at 77

Jamie Kellner, the charismatic and crafty executive who expanded the broadcast television landscape by helping hatch the Fox and WB networks in 1987 and 1995, respectively, had died. He was 77. Kellner died Friday at his Montecito, California, home after a battle with cancer, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. While still riding high atop The […]

‘Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge’ Review: Iconic Designer Reflects on Her Life and Loves in Vivid Tribeca Opener

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Trish Dalton's documentary, streaming on Hulu from June 25, presents a largely first-person portrait of the woman behind the wrap dress.

IAC’s Dotdash Meredith Inks Deal With OpenAI, Will Bring People, Food & Wine to ChatGPT

Barry Diller’s IAC has cut a deal with one of the biggest players in artificial intelligence, OpenAI. Dotdash Meredith, the IAC-controlled publishing company that owns publications like People, Food & Wine, Better Homes & Gardens, InStyle, Southern Living and Real Simple, has cut a “strategic partnership and licensing agreement” that will bring DDM’s content to […]

Jonathan Dolgen, Longtime Viacom Entertainment Group Chairman, Dies at 78

Jonathan Dolgen, the tough-minded dealmaker and skillful numbers-cruncher who spent a decade at Viacom working for Sumner Redstone and alongside Paramount Pictures head Sherry Lansing, has died. He was 78. Dolgen died Monday evening of natural causes at UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his family, a publicist announced. He had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in […]

Barry Diller Says Studios Should Split From Netflix and Amazon by Cutting Their Own Deals With Guilds

IAC mogul Barry Diller thinks that the Hollywood studios need to “reorient” their businesses, and fast, or else face potential “catastrophic” consequences. The former studio executive, speaking to journalist Kara Swisher for her podcast, also expressed pessimism about the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, and suggested that the legacy Hollywood studios should split with Netflix […]

Barry Diller Says Executives and Top-Paid Actors Should Take a 25 Percent Pay Cut, Warns of Industry Collapse If Strikes Not Settled by Sept. 1

Barry Diller, chairman and senior executive of IAC and Expedia Group and former Hollywood studio chief, says that top executives and the highest-paid stars should take a 25 percent pay cut to narrow the gap between their salaries and those of the folks at the lower end of the pay scale. “There’s no trust,” he […]

The ‘Top Chef’ Oral History: “How Is This Going Off the Rails on Day One?”

Over two decades, Bravo’s Top Chef has introduced viewers to nearly 300 food luminaries — making and breaking careers with what the culinary community has come to regard as the most prestigious (or at least the most taxing) cooking competition. THR spent months speaking with dozens of the executives, producers, talent and chefs who’ve worked […]

Barry Diller Thinks Publishers Should Sue Over Generative AI

IAC chairman Barry Diller thinks the media business cannot afford to make the same mistake twice. Twenty-five years ago, publishers saw the rise of the internet and made a fateful choice. “When the internet first began, everything was free. And it was kind of decreed at that time that everything was free, and therefore all […]

Activision Blizzard Cooperating With Regulators’ Asks About Alleged Insider Trading

Activision Blizzard is cooperating with a federal lawsuit and investigation into suspected insider trading that allegedly may have been facilitated by chief executive Bobby Kotick just days before the video game publisher was acquired by Microsoft, according to a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Activision Blizzard received a voluntary request for information from […]

IAC’s Dotdash Acquires People Magazine Publisher Meredith Corp. in $2.7B Deal

Meredith Corp., the publisher of brands like People magazine, Entertainment Weekly and InStyle, has sold to Dotdash, a digital publishing subsidiary of Barry Diller’s IAC, in a deal valued at $2.7 billion, the companies said Wednesday. The deal is expected to close Dec. 1, with the newly combined company called Dotdash Meredith and led by […]

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