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| Jim Rich |
Former New York Daily News editor-in-chief Jim Rich has been tasked with the job of bringing sports-related site Deadspin back to life, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Rich will take the helm of the site, which has had no staffers since early November, on Jan. 27. He will be based in Chicago. Last year’s mass exodus followed a demand from the management of G/O Media, which owns Deadspin, that editors limit their coverage to sports-related topics. Rich says that he would consider re-hiring writers and editors who had walked out. He also told the Journal that he made no promises to G/O Media chief executive Jim Spanfeller that the revived site would stick solely to sports. G/O Media was formed when private-equity firm Great Hill Partners acquired the Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion from Univision last April.
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Meredith Corporation has sold fan-focused sports and entertainment site FanSided to Minute Media. FanSided and its platform of individual sites will remain standalone properties and operate within the Minute Media family of publishers. FanSided’s staff will join Minute Media. The acquisition is the fourth for Minute Media over the past 18 months. In December, the company announced it would acquire Derek Jeter’s The Players’ Tribune, which follows the company’s purchase of The Big Lead and Mental Floss. Launched in 2007 as a site centered on coverage of the Kansas City Chiefs, FanSided eventually encompassed 300 individual communities dedicated to bringing together fans of many teams. In 2015, the company was acquired by Time Inc., which was subsequently acquired by Meredith in November 2018.
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| Bill Abbott |
Bill Abbott, the president and chief executive of Crown Media Family Networks (owner of the Hallmark Channel), is stepping down after 11 years in the position. His departure follows the controversy generated by the Hallmark Channel’s decision to pull ads for wedding-planning firm Zola featuring a wedding between two brides. The ads were yanked after One Million Moms, an arm of the conservative American Family Association, circulated a petition asking Hallmark to “reconsider airing commercials with same-sex couples.” Mike Perry, the CEO of Hallmark Cards, which owns Crown Media, said he had begun a search for Abbott’s replacement.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
CBS News Radio will go off the air on May 22, part of the axe-swinging managerial plan put into play by CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss... The Economist, which was first published in 1843, is changing hands. Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith has agreed to acquire a 26.9 percent stake in the publication from Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, her family and family foundation... Nexstar Media Group says it has closed its acquisition of TEGNA, the broadcast, digital media and marketing services company that was formed in 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.
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. 
