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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.
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. 
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.
