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Hightimes Holding Corp., whose stable of cannabis-focused publications includes High Times, Dope and Culture, has announced the signing of a letter of intent to acquire California-based cannabis holding company Humboldt Heritage Inc. and its subsidiaries Humboldt Sun Growers Guild and Grateful Eight LLC. Hightimes says the acquisition gives them cannabis growing, processing and product manufacturing capabilities, and will make the company one of California’s largest vertically integrated operators. “High Times’s mission is to connect consumers to cannabis—not only the best access and experience, but by producing the best products available for our consumers across the country, and eventually the world,” said Hightimes Holding Corp. executive chairman Adam Levin.
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Lee Enterprises, which owns such newspapers as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Arizona Daily Sun, has launched Health Bright Marketing, a full-service marketing company that specializes in healthcare organizations. Health Bright is headquartered in Michigan alongside Sunny Media, a Lee Enterprises-owned agency specializing in marketing services for the automotive industry. “Health Bright is equipped to provide broad-reaching, impactful marketing solutions to healthcare organizations of all sizes,” said Lee operating vice president and vice president of advertising Ray Farris. The company also announced that it has named Mark McDowell vice president of Health Bright Marketing. Lee closed a deal on March 16 to buy 31 daily newspapers, including the Buffalo News, from Berkshire Hathaway and its BH Media Group.
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W magazine, which Condé Nast sold to Future Media Group in June, is going on hiatus. The magazine’s next print issue, which had been set to publish in May, is being postponed indefinitely. A report in the New York Times said that editor Sara Moonves called her staff on Monday to inform many of them that they were being furloughed. Those who work on the publication’s online content are staying on, but their salaries will be cut back. While Future Media Group chief executive Marc Lotenberg told the Times that the coronavirus pandemic was partly to blame for the hiatus, he also acknowledged that W’s payments to its vendors have been late since January. The Times report noted that people on the editorial team remain hopeful that another buyer might emerge to take the title.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
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.
