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The Financial Times has picked up a minority stake in Business of Fashion, a media company with a website, daily newsletter and print magazine that cover the fashion industry. The FT is taking the lead in the company’s Series B funding round, alongside such current partners as Index Ventures and Felix Capital. Founded in 2007 by former McKinsey consultant Imran Amed, BoF’s annual sales rose more than 50 percent annually between 2013 and 2018. It currently has an international audience of about five million for its online, print and events business, with 35,000 paying members. Annual subscriptions run $240 per year in the U.S. While FT Strategies, the FT’s consulting division will be providing BoF with support and tech expertise, BoF and the FT will remain editorially independent. “This investment will give us greater presence in the B2B and industry agenda,” said FT Group chief executive John Ridding.
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Blogging site Tumblr, which was picked up by Yahoo for $1.1 billion in 2013, has been sold by Verizon (which acquired Yahoo in 2017) to Automattic, the owner of online-publishing platform Wordpress.com, for a price that several sources put at just $3 million. Automattic will take on Tumblr’s 200 employees. In an interview with tech website The Verge, Automattic chief executive Matt Mullenweg said that he is looking to increase the advertising revenue that Tumblr brings in. As regards the two platforms, he said that “there’s a lot of overlap in what both do. I would love for them to interoperate. I do believe that long-term, there’s an opportunity to merge backend technology so that Tumblr is actually powered by WordPress.” Mullenweg also plans to maintain the ban on adult content that was put in place at Tumblr last year.
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High Times is partnering with international awards competition Clio to launch Clio Cannabis. The new awards will recognize individuals and companies involved in marketing and advertising cannabis products. “Clio Cannabis is poised to set the bar for creative work in a rapidly expanding industry, help to build an understanding of a developing category and elevate the marketplace to solicit creative contributions from top talent and agencies,” said Clio president Nicole Purcell. Submissions in the following categories will be accepted starting Aug. 26: advocacy, brand design, digital/mobile, film/video, partnerships & collaborations, print & out of home, product design, social media and social good. Clio currently runs awards programs centering on the advertising, sports, fashion, music, entertainment and health industries. For more information about the awards, go to http://www.cliocannabisawards.com/.
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.
