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Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' PR branch is changing its name, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The new name, the Marketing and Public Relations Branch, recognizes the marketing professionals who have long been a part of the branch alongside publicists. The 455 active members of the branch represent about six percent of the Academy’s membership of 7,902. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who served as president of the Academy from 2013 to 2017, comes from the marketing side of the business, as did Sid Ganis, who was the Academy’s president from 2005 to 2009. The decision about the new name must be reviewed by the Membership and Administration Committee, but according to the Reporter, many regard that as little more than a procedural formality.
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Tribune Publishing newspapers fell prey to a cyber attack last weekend. A report in the Los Angeles Times said that in addition to the Tribune papers (the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, and Baltimore Sun, among others), several other dailies that share the company’s production platform saw their Saturday editions delayed due to the presence of computer malware in the system. The LA Times and San Diego Union-Tribune, both former Tribune papers, were affected, as were the West Coast editions of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. A spokesman for the LA Times said the attack is believed to have come from outside the U.S.
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Verizon and Disney have reached an agreement that will keep Disney’s programming running on Verizon’s FiOS system. The standoff threatened to bar consumer access to the ABC channels in New York and Philadelphia, as well as The Disney Channel, Freeform and ESPN. The agreement comes as the college bowl season hits high gear, with the NFL playoffs just days away. A tweet from Verizon News said that details of the agreement “will be released in the coming days.” FiOS shed nearly 63,000 subscribers in Q3 2017, bring its current subscriber total to about 4.6 million.
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.
