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The New York Daily News has eliminated the position of sports editor. Eric Barrow, a 15-year veteran of the paper who had served in the position since January 2016, was fired Jan. 3. In a memo to his staff, Barrow said that he was not being replaced. Instead, according to the New York Post, the department will now be run by Kyle Wagner, who is taking on the title of director of digital audience development for sports. Wagner comes to the Daily News from FiveThirtyEight, where he was senior editor, sports. Barrow had reportedly been a vocal critic of the decision by Tribune Publishing, owner of the paper, to operate all the company’s papers from one design and copy desk, located in Chicago. That move meant that the Daily News was often unable to get stories and scores from late games into the paper. Poynter cites sources that say the Daily News is currently losing between $20 million and $30 million per year.
 William Kristol |
Several staffers from The Weekly Standard, which ceased publication last month, have been enlisted to work for The Bulwark, a conservative news aggregator site. The Bulwark is run by the Defending Democracy Together Institute, a non-profit organization helmed by former Weekly Standard editor-at-large William Kristol. The Wrap reports that radio host and MSNBC contributor Charlie Sykes will serve as the site’s new editor-in-chief and that former Weekly Standard writers, including Jonathan V. Last, Hannah Yoest, Ben Parker and Rachel Larimore, are coming on board. “TheBulwark.com will transform from an aggregator of news and opinion from a right-wing bent into a website that provides original opinion items, analysis and reporting,” Jim Swift, a former Weekly Standard deputy online editor who has joined The Bulwark, told The Wrap. The site’s “About Us” page says the mission of the revamped site is to “be a forum for rational, principled, fact-based conservative commentary.”
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PWxyz, the parent company of Publishers Weekly, has acquired online magazine the Millions, along with its website TheMillions.com. The Millions offers coverage of books, arts and culture aimed at a consumer audience. It was founded in 2003 by Max Magee. Although Magee will no longer be involved with the Millions, its writing and editorial staffs will remain largely unchanged. Adam Boretz, a PW editor who had also served as an associate editor at the Millions, will now be editor of the Millions, as well as being promoted to senior editor at PW. PW will focus on beefing up the magazine's advertising efforts under the direction of publisher Cevin Bryerman.
Underscore Media, a new creator-led media venture dedicated to New York sports, is built around three established New York sports personalities, Sal Licata, Jimmy Traina, and John Jastremski.
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost. 
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
