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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.
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.
