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CBS Television Studios and the NAACP are forming a multi-year partnership to acquire, develop and produce premium content intended to increase the visibility of Black artists. Under the partnership, CBS creative leaders will work with the NAACP to establish both a dedicated team of executives and the infrastructure necessary to support the initiative. In addition to developing content for the CBS Television Network, the partnership will also have the ability to sell programming to third-party platforms. “Programming and content have the power to shape perspectives and drive conversations around critical issues,” said NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson. “This partnership with CBS allows us to bring compelling and important content to a broad audience.”
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Vox Media, citing the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, is shedding 72 employees, six percent of its staff. Vox publishes New York magazine, Recode, SB Nation and Eater, among other titles. Most of those getting pink slips had already been furloughed by the company earlier this year. About 30 percent of the furloughed staffers will be brought back. Employees who were subjected to salary cuts in May will see their pay return to its earlier level, Vox CEO Jim Bankoff said in a staff memo. According to CNBC, Vox met its revenue targets for the first two months of 2020, but the company’s second-quarter earnings were 40 percent less than had been forecast, and it plans to miss its full-year target by 25 percent. Vox merged with New York Media last year.
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Despite increased competition from such newcomers as AppleTV, HBO Max and Disney+, Netflix added 10.2 million subscribers in the second quarter, exceeding expectations by over 20 percent. That number is more than three times the amount of subscribers the platform normally picks up in a quarter and brings its year-to-date increase to nearly 26 million. The company earned $720 million on revenue of $6.15 billion, according to an AP report. However, Netflix projects that it will only add 2.5 million subscribers in the third quarter, down from 6.8 million in Q3 for 2019. The news comes as the company promotes chief content officer Ted Sarandos to co-CEO, serving alongside founding CEO Reed Hastings.
Michael Kaminer, who was responsible for the Observer’s “Power List” for the past 13 years, has cut ties with the publication... The New York Times Company continues the march toward its goal of 15 million subscribers by the end of 2027... The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is providing more than $6 million in funding to eight organizations working to address the challenges local news and information environments face along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Conservative outlets Fox News, Newsmax and the Daily Caller are holding back from signing Pete Hegseth’s edict restricting press access in the Pentagon... CBS News sees the first executive departure of the Bari Weiss era as head of standards and practices Claudia Milne exits... Indiana University shuts down the print version of The Indiana Daily Student.
Rothschild family plans to unload 26.7 percent stake in The Economist... STAT, a digital media company that focuses the life sciences, brings back Damian Garde, who anchored its biotech newsletter and podcast from 2016 to 2024... High Times officially resumes print publication (following its 2024 shutdown) with the release of a limited-edition, collectible 50th anniversary issue. 
CBS News is set to hand over its reins to The Free Press co-founder Bari Weiss as Paramount acquires her site for $155M... C-SPAN comes on board as an official media partner of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which is charged by Congress to lead the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence... A new Gallup survey says that the level of trust that US audiences have in the media has hit a new low.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has named Kenneth Weinstein, former head of the conservative Hudson Institute, as ombudsman for CBS News.
