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Sports Illustrated has shed is 35 to 40 percent of the publication’s editorial staff, following the transfer of control of SI’s operations to Maven Media Brands, according to a report in the Washington Post.
A statement from Maven management put the number slightly lower, saying that “over 74 percent of the people who worked at SI a week ago are still working at SI.”
While Maven says rumors that the laid-off employees are going to be replaced with freelancers are false, it does say that an expansion of a series of “team-specific destinations,” including 32 NFL team destinations, will be operated by “independent, third-party business that are provided access to Maven’s digital platform.”
SI, which was formerly owned by Time Inc., was one of the TI brands acquired by Meredith last year.
Meredith sold the title to brand management company Authentic Brands Group in May.
At the time of that sale, Meredith agreed to run the publication for the next two years, but the deal with Maven cut that short.
Underscore Media, a new creator-led media venture dedicated to New York sports, is built around three established New York sports personalities, Sal Licata, Jimmy Traina, and John Jastremski.
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost. 
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
