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Gray Television and Raycom Media have entered into an agreement to combine the two companies. Gray will acquire Raycom for $3.647 billion in total proceeds. Gray currently owns 100 stations across 57 television markets, while Raycom owns and/or provides services for 65 television stations and two radio stations in 44 markets. The combined entity would have the third-largest portfolio of stations and markets in the U.S., according to a joint press release from Gray and Raycom, serving 92 markets and reaching 24 percent of U.S. television households. In addition to acquiring Raycom’s television stations, Gray will pick up several additional assets, including Raycom Sports and RTM Productions, an automotive programming production and marketing company. Nine television stations in markets where the two companies have been competitors will be divested, as will Raycom’s Community Newspaper Holdings, which owns over 100 titles in 23 states.
 Dan Ingram |
Dan Ingram, whose career as a disc jockey included more than 20 years at New York City’s WABC-AM during rock radio’s heyday and over a decade at classic rock station WCBS-FM, died Sunday at his home in Florida. Known for his wisecracking on-air personality, Ingram would give his own slightly warped interpretations of song titles before playing a record, or add a bit of offhand irreverence to a weather report. Alongside Bruce Morrow (aka Cousin Brucie), Chuck Leonard and Scott Muni, Ingram was an integral part of WABC’s lineup from 1961 until 1982, when the station switched over to a talk-radio format. He landed at WCBS in 1991 and remained there until his retirement in 2003. While Ingram was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2014, his death resulted from choking on a piece of steak. He was 83.
 Suzanne Scott |
Following a string of controversial on-air remarks made by Fox News hosts and panelists, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott is pushing the network’s producers to play a greater role in monitoring what is said on the network’s programming. According a report published on POLITICO, Scott said producers would be held accountable for anything said during their programs, adding that it was their job to head off inappropriate remarks. “You are responsible for protecting the talent, protecting the brand,” she said during a video conference from Washington, D.C. to Fox employees, according to POLITICO’s sources. In addition to former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski’s belittling of a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome who was separated from her mother, other recent statements made on the network include Laura Ingraham referring to child detention centers as “summer camps” and Ann Coulter’s charge that children being held at the U.S.-Mexico border were child actors.
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
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