 Cyma Zarghami |
Cyma Zarghami is stepping down as president of Nickelodeon Group. Zarghami, who joined Nickelodeon in 1985, has served as president since 2006. With her departure, the leadership of every Viacom cable network has changed hands since Bob Bakish became Viacom president and CEO in December 2016. Debra Lee, chairman and CEO of BET Networks, exited last week. While Viacom conducts a search for a successor to lead Nickelodeon, Sarah Levy, COO of Viacom Media Networks, will lead the network on an interim basis. Levy has had oversight of both Nickelodeon and BET since February. Viacom is currently in contentious merger negotiations with CBS.
 Gerard Baker |
Gerard Baker is leaving his post as editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal. Baker, who worked for the BBC, Financial Times and Times of London before coming to the Journal in 2009, is to remain with the paper as editor-at-large, with duties that will include writing a weekend column and hosting a Journal-themed show on the Fox Business Network. Baker will be replaced as editor-in-chief by Matt Murray, who has been with the Journal since 1994, most recently serving as executive editor. While Baker oversaw an upswing in readership at the Journal, he also came under fire from staffers for being soft on President Trump. There has also been a steady stream of reporters who have left the Journal to work for other papers, with 10 of them heading to the Washington Post.
 |
Bob Brody, a senior VP and media strategist at Powell Tate, has a new book out, in time for Father’s Day, that talks about mothers, fathers, parenting, work and growing up. “Playing Catch with Strangers: A Family Guy (Reluctantly) Comes of Age” expands on essays that Brody has written for the New York Times, Washington Post and Atlantic, among other publications. It describes his experiences of being raised by deaf parents, starting his own family and leaving the freelance world behind to enter the full-time workforce, “finally resembling an adult.” The book has been excerpted in Reader’s Digest, and is available on Amazon.
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.
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.
