 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.
 |
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.
 |
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.
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.
