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WarnerMedia slates overhaul that will likely result in thousands of job cuts, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. There was a previous round of cuts in August, which sliced more than 500 positions at Warner Bros. The new cuts, which are part of a drive by the company to reduce its costs by up to 20 percent, will also affect such TV channels as HBO, TBS and TNT. The moves come as WarnerMedia tries to shift its focus toward subscription streaming video through HBO Max, a competitor to Netflix, which has seen a slow start. The app drew 4.1 million subscribers in its first month, while Disney+, which launched in November, has more than 60 million paying customers.
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The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is also getting ready to hand out a sizeable number of pink slips. The Hollywood Reporter says that Canada’s public broadcaster is set to cut 130 jobs as part of a "resizing." While the CBC said a number of positions will be eliminated through "attrition, collapsed vacancies and retirement," around 40 jobs, mostly based in Toronto, would be cut. The cost-cutting will fall on unionized members associated with the Canadian Media Guild and the Association of Professionals and Supervisors union. In an internal email obtained by THR, CBC vice president of English services Barb Williams said that the job cuts were the result of falling advertising and subscription revenues, made worse by the COVID-19 crisis.
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| Dean Baquet |
New York Times editor Dean Baquet may be heading back to the Los Angeles Times, where he served as editor before a clash with the Tribune Company (which then owned the paper) led to his departure in 2006. The New York Post reports that Baquet is at the top of the list of contenders to replace Norman Pearlstine, who is stepping down after two years as LA Times executive editor. In 2018, Baquet turned down a request to return to the paper from owner Patrick Soon Shiong, who purchased it from Tribune for $500 million. The New York Times has a mandatory retirement age of 65, and Baquet turned 64 in September.
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.
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. 
