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The Washington Post is putting out the last edition of Express, its free commuter paper, Sept. 12. Express has been published by the Post since 2003. The Post says that the growth of WiFi in Washington’s Metro system means that more readers are consuming the paper’s content digitally, via such products as its mobile site, apps, newsletters and podcasts. The Post plans to offer Express readers a 60-day, free trial for unlimited digital access to the Washington Post.
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Snapchat is launching a news channel that will focus on the 2020 presidential debates, according to Axios. The curated "Democratic Primary Debate Channel" will kick off with live coverage of the debate in Houston Sept. 12. The channel will exist as a pop-up around each debate leading up to the election. The company began testing the idea during July's Democratic debates. Axios says that the channel will live within Snapchat's content arm, Discover, and will feature updates from the candidates that are on Snapchat, plus coverage of the primaries from vetted news providers and some vetted user content. All of the 10 candidates that qualified for the Houston debate have Snapchat accounts.
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The relaunching of progressive news site Think Progress as a “hub for expert analysis and commentary” has at least temporarily been called off, according to a report on The Wrap. The Center for American Progress, the independent nonpartisan policy institute which operates the site, had put it up for sale in July. However, the lack of a prospective buyer for the site led to the announcement of its closure on Sept. 6, putting its remaining reporters out of work. On Sept. 9, CAP announced that the site would come back to life as a source for “analysis of the news, policy, and politics,” but without original reporting. That announcement led to a backlash from the Writers Guild of America, East, which represents ThinkProgress writers. The WGA called the new plan “an affront to the ThinkProgress mission” and said that its members were exploring legal options. In response, CAP announced that there would be “no further posting” to the site.
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.
