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| Kevin Merida |
The Los Angeles Times names Kevin Merida executive editor, succeeding Norman Pearlstine, who stepped down from the role in December. Merida comes to the Times from ESPN, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Undefeated, a website that covers sports, race and culture, and oversaw the platform’s investigative/news enterprise unit. Before coming to ESPN in 2015, he spent over two decades at the Washington Post, whereas managing editor he oversaw much of the paper’s newsroom. He has also served as a reporter and editor at the Dallas Morning News. “Kevin possesses a clear understanding of the rigor necessary for independent journalism and how to translate that journalism to multiple platforms,” said Times owners Patrick and Michele Soon-Shiong in a written statement.
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Meredith Corp. reaches an agreement to sell its local TV stations to Gray Television for $2.7 billion. The company says that the deal will allow it to focus exclusively on its publishing division, which includes such titles as People, Entertainment Weekly and Martha Stewart Living. “We expect the transaction to unlock meaningful shareholder value as it advances all of the company’s financial priorities: reducing net debt, improving financial flexibility, allocating capital to fast-growing digital and consumer opportunities, and providing returns to shareholders,” said Meredith chairman and CEO Tom Harty. Once the transaction is completed in the fourth quarter of this year, Gray will become one of the top three local broadcasters in the U.S., along with Sinclair and Nexstar.
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| Van Scott |
Vice Media brings on ABC director of communications Van Scott as VP of communications. He will lead all U.S. communications for Vice, including its digital brands, the Viceland cable channel and a documentary program show on Showtime. At ABC News he led coverage around political issues and breaking news, as well as working on “World News Tonight with David Muir.” Before coming to ABC in 2014, he was communications manager at CNN. Scott exits ABC News just a few weeks before Kim Godwin steps in to lead the division.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
Boston Globe Media acquires InstaTrac, a company that provides subscription-based services aimed at making government information easier to find, track, and understand... AARP names former New Republic CEO and publisher Michael Caruso as its SVP and chief content officer, unifying the organization's portfolio of media, live events and digital platforms... The Fund for American Studies, an educational nonprofit, awards its inaugural Journalism Excellence Fellowships.
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.
