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The New York Times is acquiring sports media platform The Athletic in an all-cash deal that values the company at $500 million. Launched in 2016 by Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann (who will be staying on after the deal). The Athletic employs approximately 600 people, with around 400 editorial staffers. The subscription-based platform says that it has more than 1 million subscribers. Adding those subscribers is a plus for the Times as it works toward the goal of 10 million paid digital-only subscribers by 2025. According to Axios, The Athletic was being pressed to sell due to the amount the cash it has lost in the last two years.
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WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS are putting the CW Network up for sale. Nexstar Media Group which is the largest owner of WB affiliate stations following its 2019 acquisition of Tribune Media, is said to be the main candidate to pick up the network. However, Deadline reports that several other suitors are in the mix. In a memo to staff, CW chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz said that “ViacomCBS and Warner Bros. are exploring strategic opportunities to optimize the value of their joint venture in The CW Network.” The CW has never been profitable on its own, but there is considerable value in the shows it produces for its studio parents, which are also distributed internationally and on streaming platforms.
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| Deborah Turness |
The BBC hires former president of NBC News International Deborah Turness as CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs. Turness joins the BBC from Independent Television News, where she has served as CEO since April. At NBC, she was the first woman in the US to serve as president of a network news division. Turness succeeds 40-year BBC veteran Fran Unsworth, who has led the network’s news division since January 2018, and is retiring at the end of this month. BBC chief executive Tim Davie called Turness “a passionate advocate for the power of impartial journalism and a great believer in the BBC and the rolw we play, in the UK and globally.”
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.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has named Kenneth Weinstein, former head of the conservative Hudson Institute, as ombudsman for CBS News.
