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Metro New York, a free daily distributed in the New York City area, has been acquired by Schneps Media, which already owns the paper’s main competitor, amNewYork. The two papers are being consolidated into a single edition, which will be known as amNewYork Metro. Schneps has also purchased the assets of Metro Philadelphia, which will continue to be published. According to the New York Post, the staffs of both papers were laid off on Jan. 3 by Metro US, the former owner of the papers. Schneps told the Post that some of those staffers will be offered positions with Schneps. amNewYork editor-in-chief Robert Pozarycki is editor of the combined New York paper. Schneps says that the combined paper will have a daily weekday circulation of 175,000. Schneps also publishes many other papers in the New York City area, including the Queens Courier, Park Slope Courier, Bronx Times Reporter and Long Island Press. Metro Boston, which was not part of the deal, ceased operations on Jan. 8.
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| Sheryl Sandberg |
An attempt by Facebook to shore up its reputation through a piece of sponsored content on the Teen Vogue website touting the company’s efforts to safeguard political speech appears to have backfired. The piece, which includes interviews with five female Facebook managers (along with a group portrait), discussed what Facebook is doing to avoid the spread of disinformation and propaganda. When the article first appeared on teenvogue.com on Jan. 8, it was not labeled as sponsored content. Soon after, a “sponsored editorial content” label appeared above the article, and shortly after that, the piece was taken off the site completely. A Condé Nast employee told the New York Times that the article had been commissioned as sponsored content. While it was up Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg shared it, calling it a “Great Teen Vogue piece about five incredible women protecting elections on Facebook.”
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| Michelle Obama |
Former First Lady Michelle Obama is coming to a smartphone near you with an IGTV series that focuses on the daily struggles of college freshmen. “A Year of Firsts,” is the result of a partnership between digital media company ATTN: and Reach Higher, an initiative founded by Obama during her time at the White House to inspire and support students to pursue higher education. The series is set to start streaming on Instagram’s video app later this month, and a trailer for it was released on Jan. 7. The series is the latest of the efforts by the Obamas to produce civic media projects on a variety of platforms. In June, their production company Higher Ground said it would begin working with Spotify to produce podcasts, following its 2018 deal with Netflix to produce TV shows and films on such issues as race, class, democracy and civil rights.
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.
