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Entertainment Weekly is the latest print magazine to go from being a weekly to publishing monthly. The Hollywood Reporter reports that the switch will result in the loss of 13 jobs. EW’s July 5 edition will be the last weekly issue to hit newsstands, with the August issue marking the start of its monthly run. The August issue is being released to coincide with Comic-Con, which will take place July 18-21 in San Diego. JD Heyman, who was previously deputy editor, entertainment at People, is taking over as editor-in-chief from Henry Goldblatt, who had held the job since February 2015. The magazine has also indicated that it plans to make new investments in “digital, social, video and experiential platforms.” Its SiriusXM radio channel is being discontinued June 7. EW was under the Time Inc. umbrella until Meredith purchased the company last year.
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Barnes & Noble is being acquired by Elliott Advisors (UK) Limited, the owner of Waterstones, the largest bookseller in the U.K. The all-cash transaction values B&N at $683 million, including the assumption of debt. Waterstones CEO James Daunt will also be CEO of Barnes & Noble following the completion of the transaction. Elliott says that each bookseller will continue to operate independently. With 627 stores, B&N is the largest bookseller in the U.S., and Waterstones operates 293 bookshops in the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands and Belgium. “Physical bookstores the world over face fearsome challenges from online and digital,” said Daunt. “Our purpose is to create, by investment and old fashioned bookselling skill, bookshops good enough to be a pleasure in their own right and to have no equal as a place in which to choose a book.” The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.
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Almost all of Esquire’s senior staff is out the door in the wake of Jay Fielden’s May 30 exit from the magazine’s editor-in-chief slot, the New York Post reports. Features editor Bruce Handy, executive director of editorial Michael Hainey, design director Emily Poenisch and entertainment features editor Matthew Marden are among those leaving the magazine. Hearst Magazines, under the leadership of Troy Young, who became president of the division in July 2018, has cut the magazine’s print schedule from monthly to eight issues per year, and the Post report says there are rumors that it could be cut further, perhaps to six issues per year.
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.
