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| Shepard Smith |
Shepard Smith, who exited Fox News last October, has moved to CNBC, where he will host “The News with Shepard Smith,” a one-hour program running weekdays at 7 p.m. Smith will also serve as CNBC’s chief general news anchor. He had become an increasingly vocal critic of president Trump while at Fox and had criticized fellow Fox host Tucker Carlson. Smith had been with Fox News since it started up in 1996, and served as managing editor of its breaking news division in addition to anchoring “Shepard Smith Reporting,” “The Fox Report” and “Studio B.”
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| Michael Pace |
Voice of America CEO Michael Pack has indicated that VOA does not plan to renew the J-1 visas of up to 100 foreign citizens who translate its content into such languages as Swahili or Mandarin, as well as report in those languages, according to reports in the New York Times and on NPR. The U.S. Agency for Global Media, which operates VOA, says the move is part of an effort to “determine that hiring authorities and personnel practices are not misused.” Pack assumed his new position in June, following Senate confirmation, and has since fired the heads of several USAGM news organizations. He also dismissed its board of directors. Among the employees who could lose their visas are Chinese, Cambodian and Thai nationals, and there are concerns that they could face retaliatory measures on returning to their home countries. Before coming to the VOA, Pack ran Manifold Productions, a film and television production company. He also produced, wrote and directed Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words, which was broadcast on PBS in May.
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Omnicom Media Group is making a big bet on the future of podcasting. According to the Wall Street Journal, OMG is planning to spend $20 million over the second half of 2020 on ads to run in podcasts available on Spotify. Podcast spending still lags far behind that of digital video, with tech site Axios reporting that 2022 ad revenues for podcasts are expected to reach $747 million, versus $127.4 billion for Internet, and $74.9 billion for TV. But it’s podcasting rate of growth that has ad buyers interested, with an expected 102 percent jump from 2018-2022, topping all other media.
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
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