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The National Geographic Society has launched an emergency fund to support journalists around the world who are working to provide COVID-19 coverage in their communities. The organization says that the primary focus of the initiative is to deliver evidence-based information to “underserved populations” (including children, the elderly and immigrant or refugee communities) on a local or hyper-local basis. Grants provided through the program will range from $1,000 to $8,000, and those eligible include writers, photographers, audio journalists, filmmakers and data visualization experts. To apply for the program, or to make a contribution to the fund, click here.
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Gannett is instituting pay cuts and furloughs throughout the company as it contends with the current crisis, according to a report in the New York Post. The furloughs will apply on a rolling basis to staffers who make over $38,000 a year through June. The company also says that future layoffs are possible. In addition, company executives will take a 25 percent pay cut and CEO Paul Bascobert said in a memo that he will forgo his salary entirely until the pay reductions and furloughs end. He added that the increase in digital traffic and online subscriptions from readers seeking information about the coronavirus was not enough to offset ad losses. Gannett, the country’s biggest newspaper chain, publishes USA TODAY, in addition to such papers as the Detroit Free Press, Arizona Republic and Des Moines Register. In November, the company merged with New Media Investment Company, which owns Gatehouse Media.
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Slate is joining the ranks of digital news outlets that are asking readers to assume a greater role in funding the company. Joining the site’s Slate Plus membership program ($35 for the first year) will now be necessary to read much of its content. The number of articles that can be read for free before the paywall kicks in is to be determined. (Slate stresses that its content about the coronavirus crisis will remain free.) “Going forward, we think the way we will truly thrive is by continuing to diversify our revenue,” Slate editor-in-chief Jared Hohlt said in a March 25 post on the site. According to MediaPost, Slate Plus currently has 60,000 members.
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.
