 Jere Hester |
The City, a local news website set to launch later this year, has formed a partnership with New York magazine. Readers will be able to access The City through the magazine’s website, and the New York website will also post content from The City on its pages. The new site is intended to fill in at least part of the gap left in New York City coverage by the demise of such outlets as the Village Voice and DNAinfo. It is slated to cover topics including transportation, immigration, housing and criminal justice. The City will be led by Jere Hester, who was city editor at the New York Daily News before becoming director of the NYCity News Service at CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. The chairman of the site’s board of directors will be BuzzFeed News editor Ben Smith. The City will start operations with nearly $8.5 million in funding, which includes $2.5 million each from the Leon Levy Foundation, the Charles H. Revson Foundation and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark.
 Richard Parsons |
CBS has named Richard Parsons, the former chairman of both Citibank and Time Warner, interim chairman of its board of directors. Parsons succeeds Les Moonves, who resigned Sept. 9 following a string of sexual misconduct charges. Parsons had been nominated for a spot on the CBS board earlier this year, officially joining the board as one of six new members this month. According to a report in the New York Times, he is an ally of Shari Redstone, who is vice chairman of the CBS board as well as controlling shareholder in the company. Redstone had been involved in a legal battle with Moonves over a possible merger between CBS and Viacom, but all parties have agreed to dismiss the lawsuit. “We have a distinguished and independent Board that is steadfast in its commitment to serve the best interests of all shareholders,” Parsons said in a statement issued by CBS. “I think I speak for all Board members when I say I look forward to learning more about CBS’ compelling opportunities and how we can help guide and support the Company's growth.”
 |
21st Century Fox, after losing out in its quest to purchase European pay-TV company Sky, is selling its 39 percent stake in Sky to Comcast, the top bidder in the auction for the company. According to Variety, the purchase price is $15 billion. The planned sale will allow Comcast to take full control of Sky. “In light of the premium Comcast has agreed to pay for Sky, we and Disney have decided to sell 21CF’s existing 39 percent holding in Sky to Comcast,” 21st Century Fox said in a statement Wednesday. In July, Comcast abandoned its efforts to purchase a large portion of 21st Century Fox’s assets, paving the way for Disney to acquire them. "The sale of Fox's Sky holdings will substantially reduce the cost of our overall acquisition and allow us to aggressively invest in building and creating high-quality content,” said Disney chairman and CEO Robert Iger.
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
Have a comment? Send it to 
No comments have been submitted for this story yet.