Axios

Former Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren takes in on the chin in a new feature in Bloomberg Businessweek, which quotes one retail consultant as saying that Lundgren's 2005 decision to double Macy's size with the purchase of May Department Stores, was "one of the top 5 worst decisions in retail history."

Why it matters: Amazon aside, Macy's has made numerous mistakes — like doubling down on department stores the same year Amazon Prime debuted — which have hastened the retailer's decline and put it in a position to see its profits halved over the past three years.

Both CBS and PBS fired Charlie Rose today after several women accused him of sexual harassment, per AP. He was quickly suspended by the networks, as well as Bloomberg, following the Washington Post's report. CBS News President David Rhodes said in a statement, "Despite Charlie's important journalistic contribution to our news division, there is absolutely nothing more important, in this or any organization, than ensuring a safe, professional workplace."

Go deeper: Read about the allegations against Rose and the full list of men in media who have been accused of sexual misconduct.

Private equity persistence is the theory that a firm's future returns can be predicted by its past returns. But persistence is declining, and it could threaten the entire asset class.

Why persistence matters: Limited partners in private equity funds are asked to invest in blind pools, so persistence gives them greater confidence. Particularly if they are new to the asset class. Moreover, persistence enables industry growth, as top performers are able to raise larger and larger funds.

Wonder Workshop, maker of the kid-friendly, programmable robots dot and dash, which were runaway hits two Christmases ago, is back with a new offering this year — and it tells the Wall Street Journal that it's going all-in on Amazon's Launchpad program in the hopes of making the 2017 holiday shopping season a success.

Why it matters: Toy manufacturers used to rely on their relationships with brick-and-mortar retailers — and the negotiated placement and display of their products on store shelves — to drive sales during the all-important holiday season. But Amazon's dominance of the growing share of online sales has made adopting an Amazon-first strategy a no brainer for many toymakers.

A wave of consolidation in every sector of the media industry shows how much media companies are struggling to keep up with the pace and scale of technology companies.

Why it matters: Tech giants, aided by decades of minimal regulation, have scaled to the point at which they are able to adjust their advertising models and adapt to consumer demands faster than most media companies can keep up with.Digital media companies that rely mostly on digital advertising revenue are struggling to keep up with Google and Facebook's advertising machines. Both companies reported record earnings last month, while many of even the biggest digital outlets still struggle to make profit or grow.BuzzFeed and Vice, both hoping to soon go public, will miss revenue projections for the year, The Wall Street Journal reports.Mashable, the tech and entertainment digital media outlet founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005, sold to Ziff Davis for just $50 million on Thursday, roughly $200 million less than its estimated prior valuation, per the WSJ.Univision, the Spanish language broadcaster, is looking for a minority investor to pour $200 million into Fusion Media Group, the company it purchased just last year that includes Deadspin, The Onion and Fusion TV, Recode reports. An email obtained by Axios from Fusion CEO Felipe Holguin last week says the company plans on being profitable in 2018, making the move less about cash and more about strategy.Oath, the Verizon-owned content behemoth that consists of Yahoo, AOL, HuffPost and more, will soon lay off 560 staffers, per Digiday.The Daily Beast president, emailed staff after a CNN report about sale talks, saying it often fields inquiries "from third parties looking to talk about purchases, sales, or investments." Defy Media and Uproxx Media are also considering sales, according to Bloomberg.The tech effect has also bubbled down to legacy media outlets that are trying to find ways to subsidize migrating user interest from linear TV and print to digital. In print:Meredith Inc., a lifestyle magazine group, has submitted a bid for Time. Inc., The Wall Street Journal reports.Conde Nast is laying off off staffers and reportedly shuttering print editions of some of its flagship publications, like Teen Vogue.Hearst acquired Rodale Inc. two weeks ago in an attempt to scale its lifestyle footprint.Rolling Stone legend Jann Wenner is finalizing an auction for his majority stake the magazine he founded in 1967, Recode reports.Forbes is cutting back from 14 annual issues to 10 in 2018 as it focuses more on digital and mobile, per Talking Biz News.In TV: Comcast and Verizon are both reportedly interested in acquiring 21st Century Fox's entertainment properties, per The Wall Street Journal. It's rumored that Fox's reported interest in divesting its entertainment properties comes in response to Netflix's dominance in the on-demand entertainment space.AT&T is preparing to fight the DOJ to win a merger with Time Warner. Discovery Communications acquired Scripps Networks for $14.6 billion in July, creating the largest lifestyle/entertainment TV merger this year.Sound smart: While the problems plaguing digital ad economics have existed for years, most of these consolidation efforts have emerged in a matter of weeks. There's no question that the media industry is facing unprecedented disruption at this moment.

"Yankees Are Crowdsourcing Their Manager Vetting Process: Most sports teams try to conduct coach or manager searches privately. The Yankees are parading their candidates in front of the news media, one by one," the N.Y. Times' Yankees beat writer, Billy Witz, writes:

"In professional sports, the search for a new coach or manager is typically done in the shadows, to protect a team's competitive advantage as well as the candidates' privacy. Private jets may be dispatched ... So far, each of the five people the Yankees have interviewed [to replace fired manager Joe Girardi] ... has been placed on a conference call with the news organizations that regularly cover the team."

Long-time television host Charlie Rose is the latest man in the media realm in the post-Weinstein era to be charged with sexual harassment. Eight different women have charged him with making unwanted sexual advances, groping and making lewd phone calls.

Why it matters: No industry or business is left out – not even news agencies reporting on these allegations. The incessant accusations from women show that we have a systemic problem — for too long we've allowed a culture where powerful men think they can get away with sexually harassing female colleagues and employees .

A decade ago, Cyber Monday was embraced by online retailers as a strategy to capture the business of shoppers who were using their office broadband to catch up on holiday shopping after Thanksgiving break.

• But what started as a way to attract the attention of small segment of shoppers has turned into a Frankenstein's monster that eclipses even Black Friday in terms of total sales and has strained the websites and logistics networks of some of America's biggest retailers, Bloomberg reports.

Why it matters: It's cheaper for retailers to spread out extra holiday traffic evenly throughout the prime holiday shopping season, so retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy have already initiated steep discounts on popular items, hoping to avoid surges in traffic that caused trouble for websites of Target, Macy's and Gap in 2015 and 2016.

The New York Times has suspended one of its most high-profile reporters, White House Correspondent Glenn Thrush, after several women accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior in a Vox report.

Why it matters: Thrush is the latest in a string of powerful men in media to be accused. Several Washington reporters told Vox they were disappointed by the news, as Thrush has repeatedly presented himself as an advocate for women journalists.

Microsoft is using vacant airwaves between TV stations to power broadband connections in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands that were severely damaged by hurricanes.

Why it matters: Almost 40% of cell sites are still down in the areas hit by the storms, which are still dealing with widespread power outages. Microsoft is also hoping to expand its white space technology in hard-to-reach areas of the U.S., so Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands serve as useful testing grounds.

Alibaba Group has agreed to invest around $2.87 billion for a 36.16% stake in Chinese hypermart operator Sun Art.

Why it matters: This is a major shot at both Amazon and Wal-Mart in the battle for global retail supremacy.