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Civilized, a lifestyle brand aimed at the “bright, creative, hardworking people” who “enjoy cannabis responsibly,” is teaming up with Cannabis Club TV to distribute its original content via CCTV’s on-demand streaming service at 175 point-of-sale locations in 11 states. Cannabis Club currently features a lineup of over 13,000 unique videos that include talk shows, sports, comedy and reality TV. Civilized TV is launching a full slate of programming, with such entries as “Ask a Budtender” and “First High.” “The overarching goal is to change the narrative surrounding cannabis,” said Cannabis Club TV CEO Danny Keith. “Together we can deliver top-quality content directly into dispensaries across the United States.”
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Both Dish Network and DirecTV took a hit in their subscriber numbers in the fourth quarter of 2018. While Dish’s over-the-top internet television service, Sling TV, saw a rise of 50,000 subscriptions, its traditional satellite network shed 386,000 subscribers over the same period. The drop left the company with 12.32 million subscribers at the end of 2018, down from a total of 13.20 million at the end of Q3 2017. Dish cited its ongoing carriage dispute with Univision and HBO as a main source of the subscriber exodus. Things are no better at AT&T’s DirecTV. CNBC reports that DirecTV Now, the company’s streaming service, lost 14 percent of its base (267,000 subscribers) during the fourth quarter, down to 1.6 million subscribers. Its traditional system lost 391,000 customers. AT&T is currently preparing a new streaming service, which will feature HBO as a lead brand and will host all of WarnerMedia’s other properties, including movie and TV franchises.
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NewsMatch, a national matching-gift campaign to grow fundraising capacity in nonprofit newsrooms and promote giving to journalism among U.S. donors, says it helped to raise $7.6 million in 2018 for 154 nonprofit news organizations, representing 42 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The organization says it has raised more than $14 million for newsrooms since it was launched in 2016 by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. A grassroots-funding drive that ran from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31 resulted in donations from 240,000 people, with more than 50,000 of them being new donors. Small and medium-sized newsrooms were the biggest beneficiaries of the giving surge, with increases of more than 30 percent in both individual donors and dollars raised. “These results are a bright spot, showing how individuals from coast to coast are committed to supporting quality news,” said Institute for Nonprofit News executive director and CEO Sue Cross.
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.
