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The Wall Street Journal is pulling the plug on its Greater New York section, which focused on local news, effective July 9. The section, which currently employs eight journalists, was launched in 2010. Those employees will “have the chance to apply for other jobs,” according to an internal memo from Journal editor-in-chief Matt Murray. The WSJ is also launching two new sections. Life & Work, which it says will be staffed by more than 60 journalists, will focus on education for personal lifestyle choices related to the economy, and “Speed & Trending,” which will cover breaking news.
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Condé Nast agrees to a contract with unionized employees at The New Yorker, tech platform Ars Technica and music website Pitchfork, ending over two years of negotiations and averting a threatened strike. In addition to placing a cap on healthcare cost increases and formalizing a 40-hour workweek, the contract also mandates that employees can only be fired for cause. The contract is the first labor agreement made by Condé Nast in the company’s history. At The New Yorker, it covers copy editors, fact checkers and designers, but not the magazine’s writers. Negotiations are still going on between Condé Nast and the unionized employees at Wired.
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| Jared Kushner |
Former first son-in-law Jared Kushner has signed a book deal with Broadside Books, a conservative imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Broadside says that Kushner’s book, which is scheduled to be published in early 2022, “will be the definitive, thorough recounting of the administration—and the truth about what happened behind closed doors.” It also noted that Kushner was a key player "in the administration's most significant accomplishments." The New York Post’s Keith Kelly writes that “more importantly, perhaps, for a publisher, [Kushner] and first daughter Ivanka Trump were also reportedly urging Trump as early as November 9 to concede the 2020 election to Joe Biden.” Kushner is just one of several Trump administration vets writing books. Ex-vice president Mike Pence is working with Simon & Schuster, and Post Hill Press planning to release former ex-press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s “For Such a Time as This: My Faith Journey through the White House and Beyond” in December.
Russia bans NYT, WSJ, WaPo journalists for being “liberal globalist media outlets involved in manufacturing and spreading fake claims" about the country... Florida-based Trump Media & Technology Group gets help from Nebraska Congressman... The California General Assembly passed a bill requiring internet browsers and mobile operating systems to let consumers easily opt out from the sharing and selling of their private data with websites that use it for targeted advertising. 
Formedics, the healthcare professional community and engagement platform, has acquired AMC Media, a healthcare publisher, digital marketer and events operation.
Condé Nast and OpenAI have reached an agreement that will give the AI company access to content from the publisher’s properties... ABC News names Almin Karamehmedovic, senior executive producer of “World News Tonight with David Muir,” to serve as its next president... Time magazine is laying off 22 staffers.
The Knight Foundation is investing $5.4 million to create the Knight Growth Challenge Fund in an attempt to support media outlets and open up access to local journalism... The New York Times will no longer make endorsements in the city’s elections... Playboy is headed back into print, with an annual print edition set to make its debut in February 2025.
Ziff Davis, which owns such tech publications as Mashable, IGN and Lifehacker, picks up CNET from Red Ventures in a deal valued at over $100M... Oliver Darcy, who took over CNN’s Reliable Sources newsletter when Brian Stelter exited the company in 2022, has left to start up Status, an independent, subscription-based news site dedicated to the media industry... Axios is handing out pink slips to about 50 staffers—or about 10 percent of its staff.
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Jun. 21, 2021, by Joe Honick
The intensley and long awaited(???) series of books from the Trump family and political siblings was to be expected. The themes of course will reflect the asserted innocence of all the authors and how they tried desperately to keep Trump on some version of ethical leadership while outsiders were unfairly firing verbal rockets.
No doubt the more uninteded humorous will be the one by Kayleigh McEnany that will be ample target practice for critics inside and outside the White House.
The larger question will be what agents will get for public appearances by Trump's kids who, like Daddy, will have to juggle legal stuff with making a living by talking and clever use of ghost writers.
Regarding Tucker Carlson et al at FOX, it must be remembered who "fuels" the nasty garbage that emanates from that "institution.": Rupe Murdoch and family. For millions per hate monger per year, Carlson and friends are only too happy to pour out their commentary that would make the old muckrakers of long ago blush. It has been rightly pointed out to me that much of the effectiveness of these folks can be traced to the evil genius of Frank Luntz, founder of the Luntz Research Copanies. Folks on the left and well meaning center might take time to read his The New American Lexicon. Hannity, Rove, the late Limbaugh et al sure had.