Participant Media — founded by Jeff Skoll to invest in such movies as The Help and Lincoln, as well as documentaries, including An Inconvenient Truth, that inspire social action — is launching a cable TV channel in summer 2013 aimed at the Millennial Generation, according to an announcement Monday by Skoll and CEO Jim Berk. Evan … Read more
When I was a kid, I read a lot. By the time I was a teenager I formed a view that the world of the future might not be pleasant, with overpopulation, competition for resources and terrible new weapons and wars. I wanted to be a writer and tell stories to get people interested in … Read more
Continuing to expand on its promise of offering entertainment content that aims to make the world a better place, Participant Media is acquiring the digital entertainment company SoulPancake. The transaction gives the financial backer of feature films like “Spotlight,” “The Help,” and “Lincoln” control of a maker of short-form videos and inspirational programs. Actor Rainn … Read more
Jonathan King will step down from his role as president of narrative film and television at Participant Media to pursue independent production. King, who expects to announce his first project “imminently”, has been with Participant Media for 12 years, working alongside documentary film and television chief Diane Weyermann. In that time he has assembled a … Read more
Los Angeles, CA, June 27, 2014 /3BL Media/ – Participant Media, the global entertainment company dedicated to entertainment that inspires social change, today announced the launch of a social advocacy campaign, in collaboration with the Project on Government Oversight, around key issues in the company’s new documentary, The Internet’s Own Boy, encouraging audiences to demand … Read more
Participant Media is scaling back and rebranding its TakePart division in a bid to re-orient its strategy with the changing digital landscape. Several layoffs are expected at the TakePart division as a result. The revamp will fold TakePart into the Participant Media brand and focus more resources on original video as well as new forms of storytelling, such as … Read more
“The more we know, the more likely we are to do the right things.” That’s scientist and researcher Peter Gleick, speaking toward the end of “Last Call at the Oasis,” a galvanizing documentary about water and its impending urgencies — the harrowing lack of it and the deadly contamination of what remains. Gleick’s valedictory serves … Read more
Speaking this weekend at the Zurich Summit (29), Participant Media president Jonathan King explained why Alfonso Cuaron’s Golden Lion winning awards season contender Roma is bypassing a conventional theatrical release in favour of going down the Netflix route. King revealed that Participant, which financed and produced the feature “didn’t really tell anyone” that the company … Read more
EXCLUSIVE: After finishing a year in which it backed awards bait films Roma, Green Book, RBG and America To Me, and starting 2019 with American Factory and The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind premiering here at Sundance, Participant Media has elevated three of its key executives. Christina Kounelias has been elevated to President of Worldwide … Read more
Participant Media CEO Jim Berk (left) and founder, chairman and owner of Participant Media Jeff… [+] Skoll (Image credit: Getty Images For AFI via @daylife) Jeff Skoll, the former eBay executive who is dedicated to solving the world’s big problems, has just taken a step to expand his movie company Participant Media – the company … Read more