 David Pecker with Donald Trump |
American Media CEO David Pecker may be using his ties with President Trump as a bargaining chip as he considers expanding his business into Saudi Arabia, according to the NewYork Times. The story notes the presence of Kacy Grine, a French businessman who has brokered deals between Saudi investors and companies in France, Senegal and the U.S., at a July White House meeting that included Pecker and Trump. American Media has put out a glossy magazine, “The New Kingdom,” that extols the virtues of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his country. The magazine, which includes an interview with Grine (who is pictured posing with Trump in the Oval Office), is being sold at outlets including Walmart. The National Enquirer, an American Media publication, has a long history of favorable coverage of Trump. In addition to giving Trump the first presidential endorsement the paper ever made, the Enquirer also paid a $150,000 kill fee to ensure that former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s account of her alleged affair with the President was not published. Pecker’s ties with the Saudis include a January attempt to secure Saudi funding for the potential acquisition of Time magazine.
 Laura Ingraham |
Laura Ingraham has formally apologized for a tweet mocking Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg, but she only did so after the success of a campaign by Hogg that called for advertisers on Ingraham’s Fox News show to pull their ads. TripAdvisor, Wayfair, Hulu, Nutrish, Nestle and Stitch Fix all agreed to remove their ads, and Expedia said it had also pulled its spots from the program. Ingraham then jumped back onto Twitter to post her apology. “On reflection, in the spirit of Holy Week, I apologize for any upset my tweet caused him or any of the brave victims of Parkland,” her tweet says. Hogg was unimpressed by the apology. “She’s only apologizing after a third of her advertisers pulled out and I think it’s really disgusting the fact that she basically tried promoting her show after apologizing — or ‘apologizing’ to me,” Hogg said in a CNN interview.
 Jacob Brogan |
Jacob Brogan is coming on board at the Washington Post as an editor for the paper’s Outlook/PostEverything digital team. Brogan currently hosts the Slate podcast “Working,” in addition to writing about culture, politics, and the natural world for the site., He has also written for publications including The New Yorker, Smithsonian and The New Republic, covering TV, literature, emerging technologies and Internet history, among other topics. He has also served as an editor at the think tank New America. Brogan will join the Post on April 9.
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.
Michael Kaminer, who was responsible for the Observer’s “Power List” for the past 13 years, has cut ties with the publication... The New York Times Company continues the march toward its goal of 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027... The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is providing more than $6 million in funding to eight organizations working to address the challenges local news and information environments face along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Conservative outlets Fox News, Newsmax and the Daily Caller are holding back from signing Pete Hegseth’s edict restricting press access in the Pentagon... CBS News sees the first executive departure of the Bari Weiss era as head of standards and practices Claudia Milne exits... Indiana University shuts down the print version of The Indiana Daily Student.
Rothschild family plans to unload 26.7 percent stake in The Economist... STAT, a digital media company that focuses the life sciences, brings back Damian Garde, who anchored its biotech newsletter and podcast from 2016 to 2024... High Times officially resumes print publication (following its 2024 shutdown) with the release of a limited-edition, collectible 50th anniversary issue. 
CBS News is set to hand over its reins to The Free Press co-founder Bari Weiss as Paramount acquires her site for $155M... C-SPAN comes on board as an official media partner of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which is charged by Congress to lead the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence... A new Gallup survey says that the level of trust that US audiences have in the media has hit a new low.
