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Digital First Media has placed the top bid of $11.9 million to purchase the Boston Herald in a bankruptcy auction. The bid must be approved by a bankruptcy court judge before the deal can go through, with a hearing scheduled for Friday. The Herald filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 8. Denver-based Digital First, also known as MediaNews Group, owns publications across the country, from the Orange County Register in Anaheim, CA, to the Lowell Sun and Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise in Massachusetts. According to a report in the New York Post, job cuts at the Herald are likely. The paper’s current employee headcount is approximately 240, and previous bidders have indicated that they would move that number closer to 175.
 Nicole Carroll |
USA TODAY has named Nicole Carroll editor-in-chief, effective in March. Carroll joins USA TODAY from the Arizona Republic, where she was editor and VP-news. She has also been southwest regional editor for the USA TODAY Network since 2016. Carroll joined the Republic in 1999, and has held positions at the paper ranging from city editor to planning editor to managing editor for features. She received The National Press Foundation’s 2017 Benjamin C. Bradlee “Editor of the Year” award and in the last six years the Republic/azcentral.com has twice been named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News. In January, she was elected to the board of the American Society of News Editors.
 Alex Treadway |
Alex Treadway, who was managing director for strategic client services at Atlantic Media’s National Journal from 1999-2009, is returning to the company as associate publisher for Route Fifty, Government Executive Media Group’s digital publication connecting state and local government officials. Treadway joins Route Fifty from conservative website The Daily Caller, where he most recently was chief revenue officer. He has also served as vice president of leadership sales at the Washington Post. “Alex brings more than 20 years’ worth of high-level digital sales experience with him, which will prove invaluable to our clients as they look to engage state and local government decision-makers,” said GEMG chief executive officer Tim Hartman. Route Fifty saw significant growth in 2017, with a 13 percent hike in monthly unique visitors. The site’s database circulation has grown over 300 percent in the past 18 months, and revenue is up 23 percent year-over-year.
Underscore Media, a new creator-led media venture dedicated to New York sports, is built around three established New York sports personalities, Sal Licata, Jimmy Traina, and John Jastremski.
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost. 
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
