 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.”
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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.
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.
