 Laurene Powell Jobs |
BuzzFeed’s news division may be the latest target of the Emerson Collective, the non-profit organization led by Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs. A report in Thursday’s Financial Times cites two sources who say that BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief Ben Smith has had discussions with an Emerson representative concerning a possible investment by Emerson in the company. Emerson already has substantial investments in other media organizations, including The Atlantic, news and information website Axios, film production company Anonymous Content, and non-profit journalism endeavors ProPublica and the Marshall Project. BuzzFeed has been going through a difficult period. A November Wall Street Journal report said that the company expected to miss its 2017 revenue target by approximately 15% to 20%, and it subsequently laid off several dozen employees and engaged in a series of organizational changes.
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Viacom’s board of directors has formed a special committee of independent directors to evaluate a potential combination with CBS Corporation. According to a Viacom press release, the committee has retained independent legal counsel and independent financial advisors in connection with this evaluation. If the union takes place, it will bring back together the two companies that Sumner Redstone split up in 2006. The companies had explored a merger in 2016 on the recommendation of Redstone and his daughter Shari, who control CBS and Viacom through privately held National Amusements Inc. The press release warned that “there can be no assurance that this process will result in a transaction or on what terms any transaction may occur.” News of the possible merger sent Viacom shares up 1.5 percent to $33.70 in after-hours trading, and CBS shares rose 0.5 percent to $59.25.
 Siobhan O'Connor |
Siobhan O’Connor, who was most recently executive editor at Time magazine, is heading to Medium, the online publishing platform founded by former Twitter CEO and publisher Evan Williams. She will take the position of vice president of editorial at the company. O’Connor leaves Time in the wake of Meredith’s takeover of Time Inc., which was finalized on Feb. 1. Time has also seen the recent exits of editor-in-chief Nancy Gibbs and deputy managing editor Michael Duffy. At Medium, O’Connor will be charged with commissioning paid writers to generate content that will encourage readers to pay $5 to get past the site’s paywall.
 Asif Satchu |
Billboard-Hollywood Reporter Media Group, dick clark productions and film and television studio MRP have joined forces and will now be known as Valence Media. Asif Satchu and Modi Wiczyk, the co-founders and co-CEOs of MRC, will serve as co-CEOs of Valence, and Todd Boehly will serve as chairman. Each of the other two divisions within Valence will maintain its individual brand and current leadership team. At dcp, Allen Shapiro will become executive chairman, and Mike Mahan will become CEO. Billboard-Hollywood Reporter president John Amato will become CEO. The combined company will have divisions or investments in television, film, live entertainment and digital media, and an enterprise value approaching $3 billion. Valence anticipates growing both organically and through acquisitions. WPP, an early investor in MRC, will remain a strategic investment partner in Valence.
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.
Trump Media & Technology Group is discussing a spin-off of the Truth Social platform following the expected closing of its $6B merger deal with TAE Technologies... Condé Nast sells off Them, the digital LGBTQ-focused platform it launched in 2017, to Equalpride, publisher of Out, The Advocate, Out Traveler, Health PLUS Wellness and Pride.com... CBS News has parted ways with longevity influencer Peter Attia, one of the 19 contributors that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss brought on as part of her plan to present a wider variety of voices on the platform. 
Symbolic.ai forms a partnership with News Corp to begin using the company’s AI-native publisher platform in the newsrooms of News Corp publications to augment research, writing and publishing... Mediaite launches a newsletter that promises to give readers a summary of—media newsletters... The Fund for American Studies launches the Journalism Excellence Fellowship, a program that will provide promising young journalists the opportunity to work alongside top writers, reporters, and media professionals.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has roots going back to 1786, is going out of business, the paper’s owners, Block Communications, announced on Jan. 7... GQ editor Will Welch is stepping down to take on a new Paris-based role with the musician Pharrell, who is also men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton... Semafor says it has raised $30 million on a $330 million valuation, following its first profitable year. 
The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI reach an agreement that will make a set of more than 200 animated, masked and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars available for use by Sora, OpenAI’s short-form generative AI video platform... CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has moved Tony Dokoupil, a co-host at “CBS Mornings” since 2019, into the anchor’s chair for the “CBS Evening News,” following the departure of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois... USA Today editor-in-chief Caren Bohan has left the paper.
