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Yankee Global Enterprises is partnering with Sinclair Broadcast Group and Amazon to acquire the 80 percent of the YES Network currently owned by The Walt Disney Company, in a deal with an enterprise value of close to $3.5 billion. Yankee Global Enterprises already owns 20 percent of the network. The three companies say they will work together to enhance the network and position it strategically across all forms of distribution. Jon Litner will remain in his existing role as YES Network president. YES broadcasts games, programs and specialty content for the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Nets, Major League Soccer’s New York City FC and the WNBA’s New York Liberty. Sinclair also recently closed a $10.6 billion deal to buy 21 regional Fox Sports networks from Disney.
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Covering Climate Now, a project co-founded by the Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation has signed up more than 170 news outlets. The project, which aims to strengthen the media’s focus on the climate crisis, is led by CJR editor and publisher Kyle Pope and Nation environmental correspondent Mark Hertsgaard. Participating news outlets have committed to running a week’s worth of climate coverage in the lead-up to the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York on Sept. 23. At that meeting, the world’s governments will submit plans to meet the Paris Agreement’s pledge to keep global temperature rise “well below” 2 degrees Celsius. The Guardian is the lead media partner for Covering Climate Now, and international partners include Bloomberg; CBS News; Spain’s El País; Japan’s Asahi Shimbun; Getty Images; Agence France-Presse; national public TV broadcasters in Italy, Sweden, and the United States; the Harvard Business Review; HuffPost and BuzzFeed News. “The need for solid climate coverage has never been greater,” says Pope. “We’re proud that so many organizations from across the U.S. and around the world have joined with Covering Climate Now to do our duty as journalists—to report this hugely important story.”
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| Jason Miller |
Jason Miller, who served as chief spokesman during Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the subsequent presidential transition, then worked as a CNN correspondent, has lost his defamation suit against Gizmodo Media Group, according to a story in the Hollywood Reporter. Miller sued Gizmodo for $100 million over an article posted on Gizmodo’s Splinter news site. The article reported on court documents that alleged Miller had impregnated a woman and then gave her a smoothie containing an abortion pill, causing her to lose the child and suffer serious injury. Miller's suit claimed that since the accusation was taken from a sealed family court filing, the article was outside the bounds of immunity. The judge disagreed and dismissed the case. Miller was represented by Bajo Cuva Cohen and Turkel, a law firm that represented wrestler Hulk Hogan in his successful case against Gawker Media, which ultimately led to the sale of the company at a bankruptcy auction.
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.
