 Katrina vanden Heuvel |
Katrina vanden Heuvel, who has been editor of The Nation since 1995, is stepping down as of June 15. One of the publication’s owners, vanden Heuvel will remain publisher and editorial director. Her successor is D. D. Guttenplan, who has been with The Nation since 1997, most recently as editor-at-large. In 2015, he co-edited the magazine’s 150th Anniversary issue with vanden Heuvel. He has also served as editor-in-chief of the London-based Jewish Quarterly. The Nation’s circulation is currently about 132,000—down from a peak of 186,000 in 2006, according to the New York Times. Under vanden Heuvel’s leadership, The Nation transformed itself into a multi-platform operation, with a Twitter feed it says has more than 1.24 million followers. In addition, over 30 percent of its online audience (theNation.com along with Facebook and Instagram pages) consists of readers between 18 and 34 yeard old.
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The Zagat New York City restaurant guide is set to reappear in print. The guide, which produced its last print version in fall 2016, has been an online entity since then. According to the New York Times, Zagat.com is issuing its 2020 survey this fall. Google acquired Zagat from founders Tim and Nina Zagat in 2011 for $151 million. Restaurant rating and guides platform The Infatuation bought it from Google for an undisclosed sum last year. The Infatuation founder and chief executive Chris Stang told the Times that “it didn’t take long to understand how much the community wanted the guide back.” As in the past, that community will be a central part of the guide. Voting for the restaurants that are to appear in the new guide is open through May 5. The New York City guide is the only version currently scheduled for a print comeback.
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The Hearst Foundations have awarded $125,000 to the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications to support the Hearst Data Deserts Project, which is intended to improve the quality of civic data. “With the Hearst Foundations’ support, we’ll be able to shine a bright spotlight on the ‘data deserts’ where public agencies are falling short in their duty to gather and report reliable, apples-to-apples data about essential public concerns." said Frank LoMonte, Brechner Center director. The grant will support two visiting fellow positions for experienced practitioners in media and technology to spend a residency working at the center on projects that work to advance the accessibility of high-quality data. It will also provide stipends and expense allowances for journalism and law students to develop and publish in-depth data journalism projects.
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.
