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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.
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.
