 Steven Swartz |
Hearst today announced it agreed to pay $2.8B cash to acquire the remaining 20 percent stake in Fitch Group (credit ratings, financial data) held by France’s Fimalac, holding company of French billionaire Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere.
Fitch, which competes in the ratings business with the larger Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, will become Hearst’s largest wholly-owned business.
Hearst made its initial Fitch investment in 2006 and increased the holdings to 80 percent in 2015.
CEO Steven Swartz is eager to grow Fitch’s ratings, solutions and learning services business. “Hearst and Fitch share a commitment to innovation and helping clients utilize information to make smarter decision,” he said in a statement.
Hearst publishes San Francisco Chronicle, Cosmopolitan, Albany Times Union, Elle, Car and Driver, Harper’s Bazaar, owns 31 TV stations and investment stakes in ESPN, Buzzfeed and Vice.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
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.
