 Jen Wong |
Jen Wong has been named chief operating officer at Reddit, the social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website. Wong left her position as president of digital and chief operating officer at Time Inc. in January, when the company was acquired by Meredith. She had been Time Inc,’s highest ranking female executive, overseeing The Foundry, a studio which supplies advertisers with branded and native content for advertisers as well as consumer marketing and digital advertising for Time Inc.’s brand portfolio. Wong has also held executive roles at AOL and PopSugar. At Reddit, Wong she be tasked with building out the site’s advertising platform, as well as strengthening diversity and inclusion. Reddit, which was launched in 2005 by co-founders Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, says it has 330 million monthly global users.
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Following Apple’s purchase of digital newsstand business Texture in March, the company is now planning to launch its own premium news subscription service, according to a report from Bloomberg. The service, expected to be part of an upgraded version of the Apple News app, will share its revenues with the magazine publishers who are to supply it with content. Texture, which was owned by Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, Rogers Media and KKR before being bought by Apple, allowed readers to access around 200 magazines for a monthly fee of $9.99, with a premium $14.99-per-month subscription including some weekly titles. Bloomberg reported that around twenty Texture employees were let go following the acquisition, with the remaining staff and technology becoming part of the Apple News team.
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According to a report in the New York Post, the Justice Department is getting close to clearing the $6.6 billion acquisition of Tribune Media by Sinclair Broadcasting. The Post story cites sources that say DoJ antitrust lawyers have contacted colleagues at the Federal Communications Commission to advise them of the move. Following the merger, Sinclair stations would reach an estimated 72 percent of US households—a far cry from the 39-percent limit currently set by the FCC. The FCC is reviewing whether or not to allow Sinclair to exceed that limit, and is expected to make its decision in August. While the merger has its share of opponents on both the left and the right, it does have the enthusiastic backing of President Trump. “Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke,” he noted in a tweet earlier this month.
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. 
