Media Maneuvers: Vox Media Acquires Preet Bharara's Cafe Studios
Tue, Apr. 13, 2021
By Steve Barnes
Vox Media acquires Cafe Studios, the podcast-focused publisher co-founded by former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara... Reuters names Alessandra Galloni editor-in-chief, the first female leader in the company’s 170-year history... Bonnier Corp., which publishes magazines Working Mother, Yachting and Sailing World, launches Seramount, a diversity, equity and inclusion platform
Fox News signs former secretary of state Mike Pompeo as a contributor... News Corp. plans to issue $1B in bonds to fund acquisition drive... Apple Studios hires feature film veteran Jessie Henderson.
Michael Tomasky, who was the first US editor of The Guardian as well as editor of The American Prospect, is taking the top editorial position at The New Republic... Medium CEO Evan Williams gives staffers option to walk... Quartz names NBC Universal's Daniel Alvarez chief product officer. 
The rise of competitor conservative news networks like Newsmax and OAN News has done little to slow the popularity of Fox News among both Republican and American audiences overall, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
Condé Nast parts ways with Teen Vogue editor Alexi McCammond over racist and homophobic tweets that she posted more than a decade ago and apologized for in 2019... Boston Globe and Boston University bring back The Emancipator, a pre-Civil War abolitionist newspaper, as a new media platform... NFL signs lucrative media deal.
For years, experts have debated the role Big Tech plays in the newspaper industry’s steady decline. Now, U.S. lawmakers are considering legislation that would give newsrooms the ability to negotiate payment for the news content that’s shared across these digital platforms.
The Washington Post promotes Kristine Coratti Kelly to chief communications officer, a newly created role... Sinclair Broadcast Group is axing about five percent of its workforce due to COVID-related financial woes... Facebook lifts its ban on political ads.
Kayleigh McEnany
AT&T is spinning off its DirecTV business, following the sale of a 30 percent stake in the unit to private equity firm TPG... Twitter slates what it calls a “super follow” feature for later this year... Washington Post names Cameron Barr, one of its four managing editors, to be acting executive editor following Marty Baron’s Feb. 28 exit. 
Bloomberg News will cut about 90 employees... Conde Nast withholds WTC rent... Google launches News Showcase, which pays publishers for news content.
The Philadelphia Inquirer is the latest news outlet to shut down comments on most of its stories, following similar decisions by platforms including NPR, The Atlantic and NJ.com... The New European is purchased by former New York Times CEO and FT editor... Microsoft is offering to fill in the digital gap that would be created in Australia if Google pulls its search engine there.
More than 40 percent Americans who no longer subscribe to cable TV service said they cancelled their service within the past year, and more than half of current cable customers said they plan to do so in 2021, according to new report.
Marty Baron announces that he is retiring from the executive editor slot at the Washington Post, effective Feb. 28... Joe Ricketts, who owned news sites DNAinfo and Gothamist, is getting back into the journalism business. Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade, is starting up Straight Arrow News in Omaha... WGN America is jumping on the “fact-based and unbiased” news bandwagon with its rebrand as NewsNation.
Big Tech giants Google and Facebook are the forces primarily responsible for the U.S. newspaper industry’s economic collapse, according to a report by the American Economic Liberties Project.
Facebook has hired Roy Austin, partner at Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis law firm, as VP-civil rights, a new position at the social media company. 
Right-wing media outlets began circulating wild conspiracy theories after a mob of Trump loyalists stormed the Capitol Building on Wednesday. In some cases, they’ve continued to publish these false claims even after they’ve been debunked by major media networks and federal law enforcement agencies.
Quibi, the short-form entertainment platform that was recently shuttered by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, will soon be available to stream for free on the ad-supported Roku Channel... Meredith unloads Travel + Leisure to Wyndham Destinations, a company that manages 230 timeshare resorts, for $100 million... Tampa Bay Times to close and sell its printing plant.