AABA Altaba Inc

By Mike Shields 

YAHOO ON THE VERIZON: In a story that will surprise almost no one in the media industry -- but might have blown your mind in the late '90s -- Yahoo has found a new home, and it's inside Verizon Communications, alongside old rival AOL. The $4.83 billion acquisition of Yahoo's core internet business and some real estate is a dramatic ending for the beleaguered web company once valued at more than $125 billion, reports The Wall Street Journal. The combined group is expected to mount on all-out assault on digital ad giants Google and Facebook, particularly in mobile. It's an anticlimactic end for the Marissa Mayer era at Yahoo, given there's no question that much of Yahoo's core business is in decline. Monday morning's statement made no mention of Ms. Mayer's role, or lack thereof, after the deal, but it did quote her as saying, "It's poetic to be joining forces with AOL and Verizon as we enter our next chapter." She stands to walk with more than $50 million if she's terminated as part of the sale.

HILLARY'S TURN: Last week, the Republican National Convention provided a rare four-night summer ratings bonanza for the broadcast and cable news networks. There were allegations of speech plagiarism and delegates booing Ted Cruz for his non-endorsement, and it was all capped off with a whopping 32.2 million viewers tuning in to see Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump talk up his promises to restore law and order (not the NBC show). Can the Democratic convention offer anything to match all that drama as Hillary Clinton is formally nominated as their candidate? They've lined up speakers including President Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and even Mike Bloomberg, who hasn't been a Democrat since 2000. But the real interest may stem from the behind-the-scenes scandal that erupted over the weekend when a trove of hacked emails were leaked showing that Democratic National Committee officials had worked to undermine Bernie Sanders's campaign, leading to the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz as chairwoman of the DNC.

DNC DRAMA: The political intrigue and fallout from WikiLeaks releasing a database of more than 19,000 emails from DNC officials may certainly lead to more interest in this week's convention. But it's not just ugly politics. The slew of leaked emails indicate the DNC may have a heavy hand in press coverage of the campaign -- with a reporter from Politico even sending over an advanced copy of an article for the DNC to review before it was edited and published, reports the Huffington Post. Politico, for its part, said that sharing the full article "was a mistake and not consistent with our policies," but the outlet also notes there were no substantive changes to the story. Still, this is not the kind of overly press-friendly image the Democrats are looking to project this week as they try and paint the party as serious and professional compared with Team Trump, nor does it help counter Mr. Trump's allegations of a liberal bent to the media.

REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMATIC: This year, the TV "upfront" market where advertisers make spending commitments in advance of the new season was the strongest it has been in years. That resilience may have put a halt to a common argument from the "TV is dead" faction of the media industry that TV advertising quickly must adopt the data and technology methods of digital advertising in order to survive. Instead, despite all the chatter in recent years that the big networks were earnestly adopting all sorts of web-like "programmatic" ad-selling tactics, those offerings mostly took a back seat this year given the robust ad market, reports CMO Today. Simply put, if you're a major network and you're pulling in billions in ad sales doing things the way you've always done them, why risk the golden goose by forcing a bunch of unproven digital-like ad deals? That is put programmatic TV on the slow track.

Elsewhere

Many advertisers have decided to become content creators, but not many receive artistic acclaim. Guitar manufacturer C.F. Martin & Co. recently released a 40-minute documentary created by its ad agency that has been selected for six film festivals. [ CMO Today]

Time Inc. has reorganized its editorial structure into four distinct groups, each of which will be led by an editorial director. [ Adweek]

Guardian Media Group is expected to reveal this week a record 173 million pound full-year loss as the newspaper giant continues to enact cost-cutting measures. [ FT]

The high-cost music-streaming business is increasingly being led by technology giants like Apple, Alphabet's Google and Amazon, which use music streaming to lure people to other products and services. [ WSJ]

New York Magazine surveyed 113 journalists and media executives to examine what ails the industry and what media organizations can do to win back more of the public's trust. [ New York Magazine]

A former North Carolina Supreme Court judge has filed complaints with both the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and a New York state ethics panel alleging that a series of taxpayer-funded ads for New York state potentially affected a recent set of elections in North Carolina by referencing the state's so-called transgender bathroom law. [ WSJ]

Pro-Hillary Clinton super PACs are spending heavily on TV and radio ads in 10 key markets in crucial 2016 swing states, while Republican candidate Donald Trump largely eschews advertising. [ Ad Age]

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Write to Mike Shields at mike.shields@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 25, 2016 12:16 ET (16:16 GMT)

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