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| Mike Bloomberg |
Bloomberg News is suspending its editorial board following Mike Bloomberg’s announcement of his entrance into the 2020 presidential campaign. The site is suspending all unsigned editorials for as long as Bloomberg remains a candidate. David Shipley and Tim O'Brien, executive editors of Bloomberg Opinion, are taking leaves of absence as they join the campaign. “Members of the editorial board will write and edit in other capacities within Bloomberg Opinion,” said Bloomberg News editor-in-chief John Micklethwait. He also said that Bloomberg would "continue our tradition of not investigating Mike (and his family and foundation) and we will extend the same policy to his rivals in the Democratic primaries."
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| Derek Jeter |
The Players’ Tribune, the website which was founded by ex-New York Yankee Derek Jeter and features first-person stories from professional athletes, has been acquired by Minute Media, an Israel-based digital publishing platform. According to a post from Jeter on the site, he will remain involved in its operations, maintaining his seat on its board of directors. “We will continue to operate independently,” he said, “powered by Minute Media’s technology and global scale.” Minute Media is behind such sites as the entertainment-focused 12up.com; esports-centered DBLTAP.com and 90min.com, which covers soccer. It also acquired sports site the Big Lead from Gannett earlier this year and purchased mentalfloss.com last year. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company has raised $116 million from such investors as Goldman Sachs and Battery Ventures, though it is not yet profitable.
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Condé Nast is getting rid of the non-recyclable plastic wrapping it uses for magazine subscriptions and newsstands. The move is part of a pledge the company has made as part of its participation in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation New Plastics Economy Global Commitment. Condé says it started to remove the plastic wrapping this year and plans to do the same for all its US publications in 2020. The company’s goal is to totally eliminate the use of plastics or to replace it with recycled and bio-based alternatives. Condé Nast has also signed on to the UN Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action. According to industry website Packaging Gateway, the company said both of those partnerships are part of an overall drive to push higher standards and systemic change in addressing climate change.
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.
Boston Globe Media acquires InstaTrac, a company that provides subscription-based services aimed at making government information easier to find, track, and understand... AARP names former New Republic CEO and publisher Michael Caruso as its SVP and chief content officer, unifying the organization's portfolio of media, live events and digital platforms... The Fund for American Studies, an educational nonprofit, awards its inaugural Journalism Excellence Fellowships.
