 Michael Brunt |
The Economist Group has combined its sales and circulation teams to form a new publisher team. This structure brings together the circulation division, now the largest contributor of profits to The Economist Group, and the sales, marketing solutions, events and analytics divisions into one cross-functional team. Michael Brunt has been appointed chief operating officer and publisher of The Economist and will lead the new team. Brunt, who has been with The Economist Group since 2006, most recently served as managing director and chief marketing officer for circulation. “The publisher team combines the strongest parts of our business to ensure that we are creating the best products and services for our readers as well as our clients and that The Economist will be here for the next 175 years,” said The Economist Group CEO Chris Stibbs.
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Talent agency ICM Partners is now representing global media platform HuffPost (formerly known as the Huffington Post). ICM Partners will work with HuffPost to create multi-platform opportunities for its intellectual property. In addition to its client list in the film, television and music worlds, ICM represents many authors and journalists, including Thomas Friedman and Ken Auletta. “ICM’s partnership with HuffPost will allow us access to their impressive roster of great writers, thinkers, and thought leaders,” said Rich Green, head of media rights for ICM Partners. HuffPost says it serves an average of 155 million viewers on a monthly basis, spanning 17 editions around the world. It is part of Oath, the Verizon Communications digital content subsidiary that includes Yahoo! and AOL.
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The National Press Club on April 11 featured three trauma surgeons who made their case for a ban on assault-style weapons such as the popular AR-15, which was the gun used by the Parkland, FL, shooter. Dr. Ernest “Gene” Moore, Dr. Tom Scalea and Dr. Dennis Vane, all former presidents of the Western Trauma Association, discussed why the physician's group unanimously passed a resolution calling for a ban last year. “They’re not designed to hunt,” said Vane, former chair of pediatric surgery at Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center. “They’re designed to hurt people." Moore, editor of the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery and a former NRA member, emphasized that such weapons are meant for military use. Scalea, physician-in-chief at R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, said the wider injury caused by assault-style weapons means more blood loss, and that a person shot only in an arm or leg can bleed to death in as little as four or five minutes. The doctors said they are not seeking to restrict other weapons or change the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which the Supreme Court has said guarantees Americans the right to own firearms. The National Rifle Association opposes restrictions on assault-style weapons and is challenging state bans in court.
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.
