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Producers at “Fox & Friends” allowed an aide to former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt to pre-approve a script for an interview with Pruitt on the program, according to email messages uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act request by The Sierra Club. The emails show that Fox contacted Pruitt’s staffers about his appearing on the show, and that those staff members had a say in determining what topics would be addressed in the interview. In addition, Diana Aloi, a “Fox & Friends” producer, sent an email to former EPA press representative Amy Graham with the lead-in that would be used, asking “Would this be OK as a setup to his segment?” The intro to the on-air interview held to the pre-arranged script. Fox says they are planning to discipline the employees behind the exchange.
 Laurene Powell Jobs |
Emerson Collective, the social-change focused organization run by Laurene Powell Jobs, has purchased Pop-Up Magazine Productions. The company operates Pop-Up Magazine, a “live magazine” that consists of events held in more than a dozen cities around the country, and California Sunday, whose print edition runs in the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle. “Both magazines have managed to create unique journalistic platforms that help foster empathy and a better understanding of the world,” Powell Jobs said in a statement. Emerson, which assumed majority ownership of the Atlantic last year, also supports such nonprofit journalism organizations as ProPublica, Mother Jones and the Texas Observer. It made a $10 million investment in Pop-Up last year.
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Bustle Digital Group is expected to soon close a deal to buy digital news site Mic, according to a report in the New York Post. The Post report says that the company laid off 60 to 70 employees Thursday morning, allegedly in preparation for the transaction. The move follows a decision by Facebook to call off a $5 million agreement with Mic to publish a news video series. Bustle owns several women’s lifestyle sites and purchased gossip site Gawker for $1.35 million in a U.S. Bankruptcy auction last year. Mic co-founders Jake Horowitz and company CEO Chris Altchek are expected to remain with the company.
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.
