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Microsoft is spending $68.7 billion in cash to acquire Activision Blizzard, the game development company behind such high-profile games as “Warcraft,” “Call of Duty” and “Candy Crush.” Microsoft says that after the deal closes, it will be the third-largest gaming company in the world by revenue, trailing Tencent and Sony. The company has nearly 10,000 employees, with studios around the world, and has nearly 400 million monthly gaming users. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will remain in his role, reporting to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer. “Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” said Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella. With Washington pushing to limit the power of tech giants, the deal may face some headwinds from legislators.
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| Jodie Ginsberg |
The Committee to Protect Journalists appoints Reuters veteran Jodie Ginsberg as president. Ginsberg was most recently CEO at Internews Europe, a nonprofit organization that supports independent media. Before that, she was CEO at Index on Censorship, a UK-based organization that reports on and campaigns against threats to free expression. Ginsberg was at Reuters for over a decade, holding positions that included bureau chief, UK and Ireland. She replaces Joel Simon, who has led CPJ since 2006. “We wanted to find someone who had experience as a journalist and as an advocate,” CPJ chair Kathleen Carroll said in an interview with the New York Times. “You really need granular on-the-ground experience if you are going to be the head of an organization protecting journalists.”
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| Goli Sheikholeslami |
Politico names New York Public Radio president and CEO Goli Sheikholeslami to succeed Patrick Steel, who stepped down last year, as its chief executive. Sheikholeslami will take the company’s reins in February. Politico was purchased for more than $1 billion in 2021 by German publishing company Axel Springer, part of an effort to raise its profile in the American news media. Before arriving at New York Public Radio in 2019, Sheikholeslami was president and CEO of Chicago Public Media, and she has also served as chief product officer at Everyday Health; vice president and general manager, digital at the Washington Post; and a senior vice president and managing director at Condé Nast. Her arrival will “further our vision to build the global news and information leader on politics, policy and regulation in power center across the world,” according to Axel Springer president of news media Jan Bayer.
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. 
The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI reach an agreement that will make a set of more than 200 animated, masked and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars available for use by Sora, OpenAI’s short-form generative AI video platform... CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss has moved Tony Dokoupil, a co-host at “CBS Mornings” since 2019, into the anchor’s chair for the “CBS Evening News,” following the departure of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois... USA Today editor-in-chief Caren Bohan has left the paper.
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. 
