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Hearst is chopping 145 heads at newly acquired Rodale, publisher of such titles as Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Prevention and Bicycling. The New York media combine finalized the $220M Rodale deal on Jan. 2. Hearst notified local officials in Emmaus, PA, Rodale’s home base, and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor on the layoffs in a letter dated Jan. 11. All but one of the laid off employees will work through March 10, and Hearst assumed responsibility for pension and severance payments, sources said. In addition to the 145 people losing their jobs, Hearst will also get rid of the Rodale name.
 Sheryl Sandberg |
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey are leaving the board of the Walt Disney Company, a statement from Disney said on Friday. The reason for the departure is the increasing level of conflicts of interest between the companies. As traditional cable becomes less popular, Disney has shifted its focus toward online delivery of its content, setting itself up as a competitor to Twitter and Facebook, which are also trying to attract audiences to video content on their platforms. "Given our evolving business and the businesses Ms. Sandberg and Mr. Dorsey are in, it has become increasingly difficult for them to avoid conflicts relating to Board matters, and they are not standing for re-election," the statement from Disney said.
 Lizzie Crocker |
Lizzie Crocker has left The Daily Beast after plagiarism allegations against her were confirmed by the site, according to a report on The Wrap. In a piece entitled “How Katie Roiphe Became Feminism’s Nemesis-in-Chief,” Crocker lifted a considerable amount of copy from an article on the same topic written by Alice B. Lloyd for the Weekly Standard. Both articles addressed the controversy surrounding an upcoming article written for Harper’s Magazine by Roiphe which was allegedly going to reveal the author of the “Shitty Media Men” list that has been making the rounds of the publishing and entertainment industries. Moira Donegan, the list’s creator, revealed her identity in a piece for The Cut. The issue first came to light through a series of Twitter posts by Thomas Chatterton Williams, a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, which showed several examples of Crocker using Lloyd’s material. “We take plagiarism seriously, and will not allow the hard-earned trust we’ve built with our millions of loyal readers to be compromised,” Daily Beast editor-in-chief John Avalon said in a statement to The Wrap. A notice on the site tells readers “The story published about author Katie Roiphe violated The Daily Beast’s Code of Ethics and Standards and has been removed.”
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
USA TODAY brings on Jamie Stockwell as VP of news, effective March 30. Stockwell was most recently deputy managing editor of news for the Washington Post... YouTube expands its likeness detection capabilities to a pilot group of government officials, journalists and political candidates... The AP Fund for Journalism adds 50 news organizations to its local news program, bringing the total number of participating newsrooms to 100. 
Versant Media Group, the NBCUniversal cable TV spin-off, today reported its first financial results as 2025 revenues dipped 5.3 percent to $6.7B and standalone EBITDA dropped 9.1 percent to $2.2B.
