 Greta van Susteren |
Greta van Susteren, who hosted programs for CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, has now set up shop at Voice of America, the US government-funded enterprise that provides news, information, and cultural programming to a worldwide audience. A contributor at VOA since last fall, she will head up Plugged in with Greta van Susteren, a 30-minute weekly program that will look at US policy by talking to “policy makers” and “opinion shapers,” according to VOA. The show will be televised outside the US and can be streamed in the US. The first segment, a pre-Olympics examination of US policy in North Korea, features Vice President Mike Pence, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley. Van Susteren will be doing the program on a volunteer basis.
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Twitter turned its first-ever profit in the fourth quarter of 2017. According to financials released today, the company recorded net income of $91 million for Q4, resulting in a net margin of 12 percent. The profit comes as Twitter’s user numbers experience a holding pattern. For Q4, it registered 330 million monthly active users, even with the third quarter. Its MAU numbers in the US, took a slight dip, from 69 million to 68 million. Daily active users, however, were up 12 percent year-to-year for Q4. The platform also saw slight upticks in advertising revenue ($644 million for Q4 2017 vs. $638 for Q4 2016) and total revenue ($732 million for Q4 2017 vs. $717 million for Q4 2016). The letter said that the revenue growth was due to “continued strong engagement growth, improved revenue features, improved ROI, and better sales execution.”
 Eric Eyre |
Pulitzer Prize-winning content was not enough to keep the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia from filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A combination of legal costs that resulted from the 2004 merging of the Charleston Gazette and the Charleston Daily Mail as well as continuing circulation and advertising losses prompted the move. The paper, which was known for its critical coverage of both politicians and industry, particularly the coal industry, won the Pulitzer last year for Eric Eyre’s reporting on West Virginia’s opioid crisis. Ogden Newspapers Inc., which has roots in West Virginia, placed a $10.911 million bid to purchase the Gazette-Mail, making it the primary contender to acquire the paper at the time of the bankruptcy filing. US Bankruptcy Judge Frank Volk ruled Wednesday that bids for the paper will not need to include any provisions outlining what will happen to the paper’s employees. The auction for the Gazette-Mail will take place on March 8, and the successful bidder will be announced that day.
 Lyndsay Harding |
United Talent Agency has hired Lyndsay Harding as its new CFO, according to The Hollywood Reporter. UTA says that the appointment makes Harding the first woman to hold that position at a major talent agency. She succeeds Jeff Dalla Betta, who has been the agency’s CFO for 20 years. Harding comes to UTA from Amblin Enertainment, where she had held the CFO slot since September 2014. At Amblin, her accomplishments included helping the company secure a distribution partnership with Universal Pictures, as well as facilitating the sale of a minority stake to Universal. “As we continue to take advantage of the tremendous transformation taking place in an increasingly complex industry, Lyndsay's role will be pivotal to our further diversification and growth," UTA COO Andrew Thau said Wednesday in a statement.
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.
