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| Kevin Delaney |
Kevin Delaney, who left his position as editor and co-CEO of Quartz in October, is joining the New York Times Opinion department, where he will lead what Times editorial page director James Bennet is calling “the department’s next big project.” Before helping to launch Quartz in 2012, Delaney was a reporter in Paris and San Francisco for the Wall Street Journal, and also served as managing editor of WSJ.com. He remains a senior advisor to Quartz. Taking the editor-in-chief slot at Quartz is Katherine Bell, who most recently served as editor-in-chief of Barron’s magazine and was previously the top digital editor at Harvard Business Review.
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| Mike Bloomberg |
Mike Bloomberg is on track to become the biggest buyer of advertising in the history of U.S. presidential campaigns. A Politico report from last week said that the former New York City mayor has already spent over $120 million since declaring himself a candidate in November. The ad buys include $13 million each in California, Texas and Florida. “We’ve never seen spending like this in a presidential race,” Jim McLaughlin, a Republican political strategist who worked as a consultant for Bloomberg’s mayoral bids, told Politico. “He has a limitless budget.” Bloomberg’s advertising bill is more than twice the amount of all other Democratic candidates, with the exception of fellow billionaire Tom Steyer, who has shelled out $83 million.
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Comcast is in negotiations to buy Xumo, a free, ad-supported over-the-top video app that has more than 190 content channels, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The potential deal comes ahead of the April launch of Comcast’s Peacock streaming service, which will reportedly offer a free version with ads as well as subscription-based options. Peacock joins an increasingly crowded field of streaming services, which includes recent entrants Disney+ and AppleTV+. Xumo was formed in 2011 by Viant Technology LLC, then known as Interactive Media Holdings. One of its shareholders is magazine and TV company Meredith Corp.
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.
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. 
