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Meredith is giving 180 employees (about 3.6 percent of its workforce) pink slips, according to a report in the New York Post. About 130 of the job losses will come from the company’s television stations, with the other 50 hitting its national media group, which includes such magazines as People and Better Homes & Gardens and their related websites. Meredith’s TV operations will consolidate at its Atlanta location, where all graphic and creative services will be centralized. The move follows last week’s proposal of a change to Meredith’s corporate charter that will allow the company to divide its magazine holdings and TV stations into two separate businesses.
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| Chris Spadaccini |
Chris Spadaccini is exiting his post as chief marketing officer at WarnerMedia Entertainment. Spadaccini is the latest in a wave of departures from WarnerMedia resulting from a major revamp of the company led by CEO Jason Kilar, who came on board in May. Before assuming the CMO spot in 2019, Spadaccini had been with HBO since 1999, most recently serving as EVP, marketing. His duties will be divided up between several company employees. Kilar’s restructuring is intended to merge WarnerMedia’s content creation into one operation, with “efficiencies” expected to follow. It will also create a separate focus on HBO Max, which is expected to assume a pivotal role in the company’s future.
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Penske Media, which runs Variety, Rolling Stone, WWD and Deadline, has formed a partnership with The Hollywood Reporter parent company MRC. The partnership will create two joint ventures, with both companies holding significant ownership stakes in each. The first venture, PMRC, will be led by Penske Media and encompass trade and consumer brands from both companies. The second is a content partnership managed by MRC and operating out of its office. Intended to “activate the power of the production infrastructure and expertise of MRC across PMRC intellectual property," the partnership will include television, film and event production. No leadership changes at either PMC or MRC are expected to result from the partnership, and both companies will continue to operate independently.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is being bought by the Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit that is the parent organization of the Baltimore Banner... The British Broadcasting Corporation is axing approximately 2,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force... Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is also succumbing to layoff fever, announcing plans to lay off 16 percent of its employees, about 1,000 people.
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.
