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Graydon Carter, former Vanity Fair editor, is starting up a newsletter this summer that will be aimed at a high-end, international readership. He will be collaborating on the new venture, called Air Mail, with Alessandra Stanley, who was a critic and reporter for the New York Times. The newsletter will feature magazine-length original articles that will be sent out to readers at 6 a.m. every Saturday. In addition, it will sample articles from selected European and Asian publications. Its content, as well as related podcasts, will also be available on a website, AirMail.news. While he is moving into the digital arena, Carter says that his new project will maintain the same editorial standards he held to in print. “These are fully formed narratives,” he told the Times. “Vanity Fair was in the excellence business, and I want to stay in the excellence business. We’re not after clickbait.”
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American Media, which owns the National Enquirer as well as Us Weekly and Men’s Journal, has purchased the Adventure Sports Network, a portfolio of 14 adventure and sports brands, from TEN: Publishing. The acquisition includes Bike, POWDER and SURFER, as well as the Dew Tour, an action sports event series. American Media chairman and CEO David J. Pecker says that the combination of the newly acquired titles with Men’s Journal creates “a significant digital network.” With the addition, the American Media Active Lifestyle Group is projected to reach more than 35 million social media fans and followers. The ASN brands also pull in a significant millennial audience with video, delivering more than 60 million monthly views across its portfolio. Last June, American Media, picked up 13 brands from Bauer Media USA, including the celebrity titles In Touch, Closer and Life & Style.
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The Local Media Consortium and the Local Media Association have announced a call for applications, inviting media organizations to apply to participate in a pilot project focused on helping local newsrooms develop revenue streams through branded content. Funded by the Facebook Journalism Project, this branded content project will provide grant money to three to five organizations that have achieved some success with their branded content program to expand their program while increasing revenue. For more information and to apply, local broadcast, digital and print media companies can visit the application page. Applications will be accepted through March 1.
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.
Michael Kaminer, who was responsible for the Observer’s “Power List” for the past 13 years, has cut ties with the publication... The New York Times Company continues the march toward its goal of 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027... The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is providing more than $6 million in funding to eight organizations working to address the challenges local news and information environments face along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Conservative outlets Fox News, Newsmax and the Daily Caller are holding back from signing Pete Hegseth’s edict restricting press access in the Pentagon... CBS News sees the first executive departure of the Bari Weiss era as head of standards and practices Claudia Milne exits... Indiana University shuts down the print version of The Indiana Daily Student.
Rothschild family plans to unload 26.7 percent stake in The Economist... STAT, a digital media company that focuses the life sciences, brings back Damian Garde, who anchored its biotech newsletter and podcast from 2016 to 2024... High Times officially resumes print publication (following its 2024 shutdown) with the release of a limited-edition, collectible 50th anniversary issue. 
CBS News is set to hand over its reins to The Free Press co-founder Bari Weiss as Paramount acquires her site for $155M... C-SPAN comes on board as an official media partner of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which is charged by Congress to lead the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence... A new Gallup survey says that the level of trust that US audiences have in the media has hit a new low.
