Warner Bros. is set to release its entire 2021 film slate to streaming service HBO Max on the same day the films are released in theaters. A total of 17 films – including "Dune," "The Matrix 4," "The Suicide Squad," and "Space Jam: A New Legacy" – will debut on the streaming service as well as theatrically. WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar told Vox's Peter Kafka the move is intended as somewhat of a compromise to please fans, distributors, filmmakers, and talent.

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• The hybrid theatrical/streaming plan will only be for inside the U.S. HBO Max is not currently available internationally.
• The plan could give a major boost to HBO Max's lackluster subscriber numbers. The streaming service has fewer than 9 million paying subscribers and 28 million existing HBO users (via a paid cable subscription) have not yet activated available HBO Max accounts. For comparison, Netflix has 73 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, and 195 million worldwide. Disney+ has 74 million subscribers worldwide.
• In November, WarnerMedia announced that "Wonder Woman 1984," which was originally set to open in theaters earlier this year, will hit both theaters and HBO Max on Christmas Day.

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• AMC, the largest theatrical chain worldwide, said WarnerMedia "intends to sacrifice a considerable portion of the profitability of its movie studio division, and that of its production partners and filmmakers, to subsidize its HBO Max startup." The chain said it would pursue the best possible "economic terms to preserve our business" in negotiations to screen Warner Bros. films.
• Though WarnerMedia's Kilar says "this one is for the fans" in his announcement, former Hollywood Reporter editorial director Matthew Belloni says "let's be real: this one's for Wall Street."
• Julia Alexander, who writes a Substack newsletter about Disney, believes a number of other studios are about to follow suit. Disney already moved a few tentpole releases ("Mulan," Pixar's "Soul") to Disney+, so she expects a few more announcements on Dec. 10, Disney's investor day.
• English barrister and writer Rupert Myers believes this signals "the end of cinema as we know it," with most new films premiering in the home, and going to a theater existing as a "niche concern."
• Inside Streaming writer Lon Harris and filmmaker Freddie Wong believe that studios will have to reconsider why Americans go to movie theaters. It may not be as much about an exemplary technical experience (high picture and sound quality) since they can now get that at home. Rather, theaters will have to emphasize the social experience of seeing a movie with a big crowd.

Nicholas Thompson is leaving his position as editor-in-chief at Wired to become the CEO of The Atlantic. Thompson announced the news on Twitter on Thursday, saying he'd "read and been inspired by The Atlantic my whole life." It's somewhat rare for an editor to move to managing a publication's business operations, though The Atlantic's ownership team and editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg heaped praise on Thompson. "Nick is one of the great innovators in journalism," Goldberg said.

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• Thompson will leave Condé Nast-owned Wired for The Atlantic in February.
• Thompson said he's proud of helping Condé Nast launch (mostly) successful paywalls at Wired and The New Yorker. He argued that a subscription model forces a publication to consistently generate high-quality content, to provide "stuff your readers love — not just stuff they click."
• Thompson says he does not plan to immediately report or write for The Atlantic, and suggested a line would be drawn between the outlet's journalism and business operations.
• The Atlantic instituted its own paywall in 2019, though much of its highly-praised coronavirus coverage has been free to all readers.

More than 100 staff members at Meredith Corporation, the company that owns Entertainment Weekly (EW), Martha Stewart Living, and other publications, have moved to form a union with the NewsGuild of New York. The announcement comes only days following the ouster of EW editor-in-chief JD Heyman, whom employees had accused of making "inappropriate" and "racially insensitive" comments. A Meredith spokesperson told The Wrap that company policy is "to not voluntarily recognize a union."

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• EW writer Maureen Lenker told The Daily Beast that staffers at several Meredith publications had discussed forming a union after online writers at Meredith-owned People Magazine announced plans to unionize earlier this year.
• Employees said the move also felt necessary after Meredith instituted pandemic-related pay cuts in April.
• Employees at several major outlets have formed company-wide unions this year, including those at Hearst Magazines and Bustle Digital Group.

Time Magazine has named 15-year-old Gitanjali Rao as its first Kid of the Year. Rao invented a mobile device to test for lead in drinking water and also developed a web tool that uses AI to track early signs of cyberbullying. She was selected from over 5,000 nominees and interviewed by Angelina Jolie for the inaugural award. "Kid of the Year" is the result of a partnership between Time Magazine and Nickelodeon.

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• Time will introduce Rao as part of a "Kid of the Year" special on Nickelodeon tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET.
• Time's Person of the Year will be revealed on a broadcast on NBC on Dec. 10 at 10 p.m. ET.

A number of employees were laid off at ABC News yesterday as part of Disney's overall restructuring plan. It's unknown exactly how many layoffs occurred, though a source told Deadline the number was a "low single digit" percentage of the division's 1,400 employees. A number of unknown cuts were also made across Disney's General Entertainment divisions. This likely included cuts at Radio Disney and Radio Disney Country, which announced that they would cease operations in early 2021.

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• Disney-owned ESPN announced in November it would lay off 300 employees, 6% of its global workforce. ESPN host Dan Le Batard, who has criticized the network and his superiors this year, will depart in January.
• Disney will lay off an additional 32,000 employees in its Parks, Experiences and Resorts division by March.

The U.S. Senate unanimously voted to approve the "Fallen Journalists Memorial Act," which will allow the construction of a memorial in D.C. to honor journalists killed on the job. The news was first reported by the Capital Gazette, where five reporters were killed by a gunman in 2018. The Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation will now have to raise tens of millions of dollars and settle on a location. It is expected that the memorial will be completed in about seven years. The bipartisan bill was introduced by Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA) and Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) in June 2019. President Trump is expected to sign the legislation.

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