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| Neeraj Khemlani, Wendy McMahon |
CBS is consolidating its news operations into one unit and has tabbed Neeraj Khemlani and Wendy McMahon to serve as presidents and co-heads of the newly formed division. The unified division will bring together CBS News, streaming news service CBSN, 10 CBSN Local platforms, cbsnews.com and 28 CBS-owned stations in 17 major U.S. markets. McMahon and Khemlani assume their new roles early next month and will partner in managing all aspects of the division. Khemlani, who was most recently executive vice president and deputy group head at Hearst Newspapers, was a producer for CBS’s “60 Minutes” and “60 Minutes II” from 1998 to 2006. McMahon, who was named president of the ABC Owned Stations in 2017, previously served as creative services director at CBS owned and operated WBZ in Boston and WCCO in Minneapolis. Susan Zirinsky will continue as president of CBS News until the new leadership has started and will assist with the transition. She is in talks with CBS about taking a role at a new CBS News Content Studio to be launched later this year.
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| Kim Godwin |
ABC has signed up longtime CBS News producer and executive Kim Godwin to run its news operations. Godwin will be the first black woman to lead a broadcast news division. At CBS, Godwin was executive vice president of the news division. She succeeds James Goldston, who stepped down as president of ABC News earlier this year. Godwin joins ABC as it faces allegations of poor communication and a lack of diversity.“Throughout Kim’s career in global news organizations and local newsrooms, she has distinguished herself as a fierce advocate for excellence, collaboration, inclusion and the vital role of accurate and transparent news reporting,” said Peter Rice, chairman of Disney general entertainment content.
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Reuters is putting up a paywall. Access to Reuters.com will cost $34.99 per month, after a free preview period, during which users will have to register after reading five stories. The company has not said when the fee will kick in. The price is in line with the $38.99 per month fee charged by the Wall Street Journal and the $34.99 tab for monthly access to Bloomberg. An article on Reuters.com says that the move is part of a move to attract a professional audience looking for “a deeper level of coverage and data on industry verticals that include legal, sustainable business, healthcare and autos.”
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. 
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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.
