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| Kristine Coratti Kelly |
The Washington Post promotes Kristine Coratti Kelly to chief communications officer, a newly created role at the paper. The Post’s PR blog says that the move is intended to “reflect the increased role the communications team is playing in The Post’s national and global expansion.” Kelly has been with the paper since 2009, most recently serving as vice president of communications and general manager of Washington Post Live, the newsroom’s live journalism platform. Taking on the vice president of communications role is Shani George, who most recently served as director of communications. “With their combined experience, we look forward to their continued dedication to growing The Post’s audience around the world,” said Post publisher and CEO Fred Ryan.
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Sinclair Broadcast Group is axing about five percent of its workforce (approximately 500 employees), in a move that the company says is due to the effects of COVID-19. “No component of our business’s ecosystem has been fully shielded from the impact of the global pandemic. In response to this, we are currently undergoing enterprise-wide reductions across our workforce, including corporate headquarters, to ensure we are well-positioned for future success.” according to a statement from a Sinclair spokesperson. Employees were notified of the layoffs in a Wednesday evening memo sent from Chris Ripley, the company's president and chief executive officer. Sinclair, which runs 186 TV stations in the U.S., reported a seven percent dip in total revenue for Q4 2020, compared to Q4 2019.
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Facebook is lifting the ban on political advertising that it instituted after the November elections. The company says that it will now permit advertisers to buy ads about “social issues, elections or politics,” from March 4, according to a report in the New York Times. The ban had been temporarily lifted in Georgia prior to that state’s senatorial runoff elections in January. Also, an article on Politico claimed that some political advertisers had been making their way around the regulations throughout the course of the ban. For now, political advertisers can either submit new ads to the platform, or reactivate existing ads. Ads will appear with a disclaimer noting that the ad was paid for by a political organization. Facebook has as yet said nothing about the “indefinite” ban placed on the account of former president Trump.
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. 
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.
