As Social Media Swirl Around It, Supreme Court Sticks to Its Analog Ways

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Media Decoder: Hollywood’s Passion for Guns Remains Undimmed

Hollywood’s Passion for Guns Remains Undimmed

LOS ANGELES â€" Almost a year after the theater shootings in Aurora, Colo., and a half-year after the killings in Newtown, Conn., one of the things that hasn’t changed is Hollywood’s enchantment with the gun, at least when it comes to selling the big movies.

The poster for “2 Guns” from Universal, with Denzel Washington, left, and Mark Wahlberg, featuring realistic weaponry.

As the blockbuster film season unfolds, every major studio has firearms of one sort or another in its marketing arsenal. At Sony Pictures Entertainment, Channing Tatum clutches a sidearm the size of Wyatt Earp’s as he walks Jamie Foxx to safety on the poster for “White House Down.”

At Paramount Pictures, Brad Pitt, zombie hunter, has an even bigger piece of personal artillery slung across his back in the promotional art for “World War Z.”

Johnny Depp packs a pistol in his pants on the poster for Disney’s “The Lone Ranger.” Melissa McCarthy grips what appears to be a full-blown grenade launcher in the advertisements for 20th Century Fox’s “The Heat.”

The glowing handguns on the art for Universal’s “R.I.P.D.” have a preternatural look; but what really gets your attention are those chillingly real guns being flashed by Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, standing back to back, on the poster for the same studio’s “2 Guns.”

Warner Brothers, whose “The Dark Knight Rises” was playing in Aurora during last July’s shootings, has been soft-pedaling weaponry on its posters lately (unless you count the robots and helicopters pounding each other in the ads for “Pacific Rim”).

Still, Ken Jeong had some hot handgun moments in the red-band trailer for “The Hangover Part III.”

After the discussion of gun violence and pop culture at a January meeting between Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and a number of entertainment executives, the Motion Picture Association of America, an industry trade group, bolstered its ratings system with a campaign to remind parents of the content advisories that accompany a movie’s letter rating.

But don’t look for any move to change the movies, or the high-caliber images used to sell them. “We believe our role is to help parents be informed of a film’s content, not to dictate the content in any way,” Kate Bedingfield, an M.P.A.A. spokeswoman, said in an e-mail last week.

MICHAEL CIEPLY

Media Decoder: Tavis Smiley to Be an Anchor for Online Radio Network

Tavis Smiley to Be an Anchor for Online Radio Network

BlogTalkRadio, the seven-year-old Web service that lets anyone host a radio program online, is teaming up with Tavis Smiley, the public television and radio host. Starting Tuesday, Mr. Smiley will anchor a weekday show on BlogTalkRadio, varying from 20 minutes to however long he wants to talk, and produce programs from other contributors under the Tavis Smiley Network.

Tavis Smiley called Internet radio “the wave of the future,” adding, “those numbers are worthy of being wrestled with.”

The deal, to be announced Monday, signals a strategic change for BlogTalkRadio as it forms its first partnership with a national media personality and adds branded networks.

Mr. Smiley, who expects to drive listeners to the shows through his tens of thousands of Twitter and Facebook followers, will be paid a fee, a first for BlogTalkRadio, said Alan Levy, its co-founder and chief executive, by telephone.

The two will also split any ad revenue, which is BlogTalkRadio’s current model. The service says it has 15,000 registered contributors and attracts 18 million unique monthly visitors who listen 40 million times.

Mr. Smiley, by telephone, called Internet radio “the wave of the future,” adding, “those numbers are worthy of being wrestled with.”

His new venture follows the cancellation by some prominent public radio stations of one of his weekly one-hour shows, “Smiley & West,” hosted with Cornel West, a professor at Union Theological Seminary. The trade publication Current reported in October 2012 that 13 stations, including Boston’s WBUR-FM and Chicago’s WBEZ-FM, had dropped the program since June 2011, citing declining listenership and the show’s political advocacy.

Mr. Smiley attributed the cancellations to politics and his outspoken criticism of President Obama, and said two commercial AM stations later picked up the program in Chicago. The show, he said, is now more widely distributed than before. Its distributor, Public Radio International, declined to provide figures.

For BlogTalkRadio, Mr. Smiley will interview guests â€" the actress Helen Hunt, the author Walter Mosley and the hip-hop group the Sugarhill Gang are set to appear â€" and take calls from listeners at least twice a week. “I just love being in conversation with people,” he said.

The half-dozen other hosts on the Tavis Smiley Network include Rolonda Watts, talking about relationships, and Kenneth Braswell, who will focus on mentoring. While BlogTalkRadio is “not veering away from letting bloggers host their own platforms,” Mr. Levy said, it is looking to add networks in areas like sports and the arts, and expects to announce others in coming months.

Hulu, Seeking a Buyer, May Shift Course

This year Hulu reached a milestone: viewers streamed more than one billion videos on the site in a single three-month period.

But the valedictory lap did not last long. Even as the number of views were adding up, so were concerns within the company about the site’s future.

That’s because Hulu, the Web streaming service that is jointly owned by the Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal, and News Corporation, is up for sale. And each of the potential buyers brings with it a different vision for what Hulu should become.

The interested parties include Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, the Chernin Group â€" an investment firm owned by the former News Corporation president Peter Chernin â€" and two private equity firms, Guggenheim Digital Media and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

Yahoo, which completed its $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr on Thursday, had also expressed interest with an exploratory offer of $600 million to $800 million, according to several people briefed on the sale, who, like several others in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity because negotiations for the sale were continuing.

The eventual value of Hulu (which would include the brand, its accessible interface and the rights to many of the television shows it offers) is expected to be roughly $1 billion. Binding bids are due by Friday, though one person familiar with the process said the deadline could be delayed until next month.

Web sites change hands all the time, but Hulu’s sale could signal something more fundamental: the end â€" at least in its current form â€" of one of the pioneers of online streaming, which in recent years has become an increasingly popular way to view content.

Hulu has a free Web site, with streams of TV episodes supported by ads, and a subscriber-only section, called Hulu Plus,which offers additional episodes at a cost. In 2012, Hulu had $695 million in revenue and the Hulu Plus service had four million paying users, according to the company.

Depending on the buyer, Hulu could be used to foster the further growth of online streaming as an alternative to the cable TV bundle. Or the site could be kept under lock and key, exclusively for the use of cable subscribers.

Time Warner Cable, for instance, would like to use Hulu to create an industrywide “TV Everywhere“ hub in which subscribers could have access to network and cable shows on-demand. A distributor like DirecTV could use Hulu â€" both its brand name and its technology â€" to sell a new service that streams a bundle of television channels to subscribers over the Internet. Intel is trying to create a similar type of service; if it succeeds, then traditional distributors may feel the need to sell something similar.

For cable or satellite distributors, Hulu is also a prize for an existential reason: as an executive at one distributor put it, “It’ll make us look like we’re ready for the future.”

But that option concerns some Hulu employees who are fond of the company’s quirky Silicon Valley-meets-Hollywood culture. They see the site as an innovative service that untethers shows from the television, not as another piece of a costly cable bill.

“Can Hulu remain Hulu if a cable company buys it?” asked one person close to the company.

Several Hulu executives have already left the company, amid worries about the future, and it is possible there could be an exodus of creative and engineering employees if a cable operator wins the auction and the site loses its start-up identity.

Jason Kilar, the founding chief executive of Hulu, left in March and was temporarily replaced by Andy Forssell, the senior vice president for content and now the acting chief executive. Richard Tom, the former chief technology officer at Hulu, left after Mr. Kilar, as did Johannes Larcher, the former senior vice president for international operations. Later this summer, Pete Distad, Hulu’s senior vice president for marketing and distribution, also plans to depart. A spokeswoman for Hulu declined to comment.

Mr. Chernin has the most personal connection to Hulu, as he championed the start-up from its inception when he was still at News Corporation. This year, Mr. Chernin reportedly bid about $500 million for the company. The Chernin Group receives financial backing from Providence Equity Partners, which until October owned a 10 percent stake in Hulu. (Providence is not directly involved in the bid.)

Now, AT&T is in talks to join the Chernin Group in a bid for Hulu, a pairing that would give Mr. Chernin’s media, technology and entertainment investment group the financial heft to go up against major corporations. (The technology Web site AllThingsD first reported on the partnership. An AT&T spokesman declined to comment.)

For AT&T, Hulu could present the opportunity to expand its “U-verse Screen Pack,” a $5-a-month option that lets U-verse television subscribers stream videos.

Michael J. de la Merced contributed reporting.

Webdenda: Accounts and People of Note in the Advertising Industry

Accounts and People of Note in the Advertising Industry

The Ad Club, Boston, is observing its 100th anniversary with, among other things, a dinner-dance that will include a fireworks display, scheduled for Wednesday, and a television program, “The Ad Club: Boston’s Legends of Advertising,” to be broadcast by two Boston stations, WBZ and WSBK.

Nancy Cohen joined Up, Atlanta, formerly GMC TV, in a new post, senior vice president for ad sales, based in the New York office. She had been director for women at NBCUniversal Sales, part of the NBCUniversal division of Comcast.

Randie Dalia, associate group publisher at the Palm Beach Media Group, West Palm Beach, Fla., was named publisher of Palm Beach Illustrated. She succeeds the late Ronald J. Woods, who was also the owner of the Palm Beach Media Group.

Nathan Daschle joined Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, part of CC Media Holdings, in a new post, executive vice president for political strategy, based in Washington; he and a team he will oversee will be focused on working with political advertisers, issue advertisers and advertising agencies to develop customized campaigns. Mr. Daschle, whose father is the well-known Democrat Thomas A. Daschle, had been chief executive at Ruck.us, a company he founded, and before that was executive director of the Democratic Governors Association.

Peter Drakoulias, who joined DraftFCB as global chief of staff in November 2011, based in the agency’s New York office, is leaving after the departure of the chief executive for whom he worked, Laurence Boschetto, who is being replaced by Carter Murray. Mr. Boschetto is now a senior adviser to the DraftFCB parent, the Interpublic Group of Companies.

Jason Elm joined DDB California, San Francisco â€" part of the DDB North America unit of DDB Worldwide, a division of the Omnicom Group â€" as chief creative officer. He succeeds Lisa Bennett, who is now executive vice president for creative at DDB North America. Mr. Elm had been executive vice president and group creative director at Deutsch L.A., which is the Marina del Rey, Calif., office of Deutsch, part of the Lowe & Partners unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies.

Henry Engleka joined Porter Novelli, New York, part of the Omnicom Group, in a new post, as a senior vice president in the global health and wellness practice. He had been chief executive at the P4 Strategy Group, New York.

Joanne Forster joined Bolt Public Relations, Irvine, Calif., a division of Bolt Enterprises, in a new post, general manager and public relations director of the Irvine office. She had been running her own boutique agency, the Forster Group.

Jason Gingold rejoined Creature, Seattle, in a new post, director for strategy. He had been a senior brand strategist at the New York office of Wieden & Kennedy.

Patrick Glorieux, a copywriter, and Cecilia Azcarate Isturiz, an art director, who serve together as a creative team, joined Johannes Leonardo, New York, part of WPP. The pair had previously worked as a creative team at Happiness Brussels, where Mr. Glorieux was a copywriter and concept provider and Ms. Isturiz was the head of art.

Michael Greve joined the New York office of We Are Social in a new post, senior analyst. He had been consumer insights and strategy supervisor at J. D. Power & Associates.

Emmanuel Lallevé and Florent Imbert, a creative team, will join JWT New York, part of the JWT division of WPP, as executive creative directors. Their arrival, in August, will bring the total number of executive creative directors at JWT New York to seven. Mr. Lallevé and Mr. Imbert had been executive creative directors, serving as a team, at Marcel Worldwide, Paris, part of the Publicis Groupe.

Wolfgang Maasberg joined Turn, Redwood City, Calif., in a new global post, senior vice president for sales and field operations. He had previously held posts that included chief executive of Lyris and senior vice president for sales at Omniture, now part of Adobe Systems.