 Pamela Wasserstein |
New York Media, the parent company of New York magazine, is shedding 16 staff employees and 16 freelancers as part of what chief executive Pamela Wasserstein is calling “an effort to most effectively organize our resources around our business strategy.” Wasserstein said that the cuts, which represent about five percent of the company’s staff, are primarily affecting the company’s video department, audience development teams and copy and fact checking staffs. New York magazine implemented a paywall on its website in November. In addition, company staffers unionized with the NewsGuild in December and longtime editor Adam Moss announced his departure in January. While the company said in August that it was exploring “strategic options” that included a possible sale, any plans for a sale are off for now, according to a report from Business Insider.
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The Yankees, Amazon and Sinclair Broadcast Group have reached a deal to buy the YES Network from Disney for $3.47 billion, according to the New York Post. The Yankees already own 20 percent of the network. YES is one of the regional sports networks that Disney must unload to secure regulatory approval for its purchase of 21st Century Fox. The Post reports that Amazon is seeking to extend its reach into streaming sports events, and the deal will let it stream Yankees and Brooklyn Nets basketball games. It also cites a source that says Sinclair plans to use YES to help it sell other programming it owns, such as the Tennis Channel, to New York cable companies. The YES deal won’t need Federal Communications Commission approval.
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Facebook is lining up a roster of publishers including BuzzFeed, Complex Networks and Condé Nast to produce shows for its Facebook Watch video-on-demand service, according to a report on online trade magazine Digiday. Tentatively called “Facebook match,” the new project will fund collaborations between publishers and video creators. The videos are to feature a range of celebrities and influencers including singer Keke Palmer and actress Angela Kinsley. While Facebook says it intends to spend up to $200,000 per show, the company will not own the videos that result from the venture. Rather, it will license the programming for a specified period of time, after which producers will be permitted to distribute their content on other platforms.
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.
Trump Media & Technology Group is discussing a spin-off of the Truth Social platform following the expected closing of its $6B merger deal with TAE Technologies... Condé Nast sells off Them, the digital LGBTQ-focused platform it launched in 2017, to Equalpride, publisher of Out, The Advocate, Out Traveler, Health PLUS Wellness and Pride.com... CBS News has parted ways with longevity influencer Peter Attia, one of the 19 contributors that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss brought on as part of her plan to present a wider variety of voices on the platform. 
Symbolic.ai forms a partnership with News Corp to begin using the company’s AI-native publisher platform in the newsrooms of News Corp publications to augment research, writing and publishing... Mediaite launches a newsletter that promises to give readers a summary of—media newsletters... The Fund for American Studies launches the Journalism Excellence Fellowship, a program that will provide promising young journalists the opportunity to work alongside top writers, reporters, and media professionals.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has roots going back to 1786, is going out of business, the paper’s owners, Block Communications, announced on Jan. 7... GQ editor Will Welch is stepping down to take on a new Paris-based role with the musician Pharrell, who is also men’s creative director at Louis Vuitton... Semafor says it has raised $30 million on a $330 million valuation, following its first profitable year. 
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.
