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Nexstar Media acquires The Hill for $130M. Nexstar, which became the largest owner of local TV stations in the country following its 2018 acquisition of Tribune Media, says the deal will allow the company to expand its digital reach and political coverage. It also says that the combination of The Hill and Nexstar are used by a third of all US digital media viewers, with the transaction making Nexstar the fourth-largest digital news property in the country, ahead of Fox, ABC, CBS, the New York Times and BuzzFeed. The Hill owner Jimmy Finkelstein, who is leaving the company, says the platform is highly profitable, with revenue growing 50 percent annually. According to Comscore, The Hill had 48 million average monthly users and 2.2 billion total pageviews in 2020. “The accretive acquisition of The Hill’s independent, political digital media platform marks continued progress with Nexstar’s ‘content-first strategy’ and reflects our organization-wide commitment to deliver trusted, unbiased, fact-based journalism that engages and informs our audiences across all screens and devices,” said Nexstar president and COO Tom Carter.
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The Washington Post is bolstering its TikTok team. The company is looking for an associate producer and community editor to expedite the growth of the channel and focus its strategy on topics that resound with the audience. The Post says that the TikTok channel is its most popular channel, with more than one million followers. It currently produces 10 TikToks per week, addressing topics covered by the paper. “When we launched our TikTok channel two years ago, we saw an opportunity to deliver the news in a unique way and reach new audiences,” said director of editorial video Micah Gelman.
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ONYX Media launches EMPOWER ONYX, a diverse multi-channel platform celebrating the stories and transformative power of sports for Black women and girls. Each week, ONYX Media will create and distribute content on empoweronyx.com and social channels as well as distribute content to mission-aligned organizations. Produced in partnership with Sports Illustrated, the content will focus on and feature stories of Black women who are pioneers, innovators and creators, employing in-depth profiles, articles, podcasts and documentaries. “Our goal is to foster an environment allowing Black women and girls to share information, inspirational stories and intimate conversations about their successes, journeys, as well as their struggles,” said ONYM Media CEO Michelle Blake-Wilson.
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.
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.
