 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.
USA TODAY brings on Jamie Stockwell as VP of news, effective March 30. Stockwell was most recently deputy managing editor of news for the Washington Post... YouTube expands its likeness detection capabilities to a pilot group of government officials, journalists and political candidates... The AP Fund for Journalism adds 50 news organizations to its local news program, bringing the total number of participating newsrooms to 100. 
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. 
