 Edward Felsenthal |
Time magazine is keeping Edward Felsenthal on as editor-in-chief and is adding CEO to his job title. Felsenthal said that the magazine expects to hire 60 people, including 30 new editorial staffers plus executives in charge of revenue, technology and human resources. He also affirmed Time’s commitment to remaining a print publication. The magazine was purchased from Meredith by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and his wife, Lynne, in a $190 million deal that closed last week. Time’s connections with its previous owner will remain, however. The deal struck for the magazine included an arrangement for Meredith to keep on printing and distributing it.
 Kara Swisher |
Tech website Recode is being folded into Vox.com, whose parent company Vox Media purchased the site in 2015. Recode is expected to relaunch on Vox in early 2019. Dan Frommer will be leaving his post as editor of the site, but Recode founder Kara Swisher will remain a part of the company. According to the Wall Street Journal, the site drew 1.36 million unique viewers in September 2018, down 50 percent from 2.77 million unique viewers in September 2017. However, the other parts of Recode’s business—its podcasts, newsletters and conferences—have seen an uptick in their audiences, according to a Vox Media spokeswoman. In a piece on Recode, Swisher said that the site plans to “invest in more writers, more resources, more editorial reach with a more ambitious editorial vision.”
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Quad Graphics has acquired LSC Communications in an all-stock transaction valued at $1.4 billion. The move is the latest in a wave of printing industry consolidations that have greatly reduced the number of options that publications have. Quad and LSC rank No. 2 and 3 on Printing Impressions’ 2017 list of the 400 top printers serving the United States and Canada, trailing only printing conglomerate RR Donnelley. LSC, which serves the catalog, book and magazine printing space, was spun off from Donnelley in 2016. Quad says that the merger will bring about a series of “business efficiencies” that will result in $135 million in savings in less than two years.
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.
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. 
