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| Ron Meyer |
NBCUniversal has axed vice chairman Ron Meyer. Meyer had disclosed to the company that he paid hush money to a woman with whom he said he had “a very brief and consensual affair with many years ago.” According to the Los Angeles Times, Meyer made the disclosure after others became aware of the secret payments. A Variety report alleges that the woman at the center of the controversy is actress Charlotte Kirk, whose extramarital affair with former Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara in 2013 and 2014 prompted his resignation from the company in 2019. “Based on Ron’s disclosure of these actions, we have mutually concluded that Ron should leave the company, effective immediately,” NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said in a statement. A co-founder of Creative Artists Agency, Meyer came to Universal Studios in 1995, serving as its president until 2013, when he became NBCUniversal vice-chairman.
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Vice’s Motherboard tech vertical, is launching The Mail, a weekly pop-up newsletter about the United States Postal Service, which will start up on Aug. 25 and run through the end of November. While access to the main newsletter will be free, there will be an $8 per month paid membership that will include three monthly printed zines that will be mailed out via USPS. The Mail will be written by Motherboard senior staff writer Aaron Gordon, and in addition to producing stories about the USOS, it will report on topics including digital security, hacking and labor. “It's time to talk about the Post Office because it is the thing that binds us together, both metaphorically in terms of its mission—to deliver every piece of mail every day to every American, a mission under attack by the new postmaster general—and because it is one of the few things, if the polls are to be believed, Americans overwhelmingly approve of,” said Gordon in a Vice post announcing the launch.
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Meredith Corp. has sued theMaven, the new owner of Sports Illustrated, for more than $1 million, a report in the Des Moines Register says. Meredith acquired the magazine as part of its January 2018 purchase of Time, Inc. It sold Sports Illustrated’s assets to Authentic Brands Group in May 2019, and ABG licensed the magazine's publishing rights to theMaven shortly after that. As part of the deal, Meredith agreed to provide the magazine with services including accounting, human resources, IT and website support. Meredith’s attorneys claim now claim that theMaven ignored invoices related to those services for months and are still $1.1 million behind on bills.
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.
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. 
