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A hack that affected News Corp, as well as several of its publications, has been linked to China. The cyberattack, which was discovered on Jan. 20, was disclosed in a Feb. 4 securities filing, according to the New York Times. Targets of the hack included the Wall Street Journal, News UK (publisher of the Times and the Sun) and the New York Post. The company said it does not believe that any financial or user data had been affected, and that the threat has been contained. After the hack was uncovered, News Corp enlisted digital security firm Mandiant to investigate it. In an email to staff, News Corp chief technology officer David Kline said “Mandiant assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus and believes they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China’s interest.”
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The New York Times, aided in large part by its recent acquisition of sports news website The Athletic, has crossed the 10-million subscriber line—well ahead of their original target date of 2025. The Athletic adds 1.2 million subscribers to the 8.8 million that the Times’ other platforms registered by the end of December. Of those subscriptions, about 5.9 million were for digital news; more than two million were for other digital products (including Games, Cooking, product-recommendation site Wirecutter and audio-news platform Audm) and 800,000 were for the print newspaper. The Times has also purchased the popular online word game Wordle, which will be part of the Games platform. And it has given itself another goal—15 million subscribers by 2025.
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NBC says that it has sold out all advertising inventory during Super Bowl LVI across NBC, Telemundo and digital platforms including Peacock. The broadcast’s 30-second commercial spots are going for as much as $7.1 million—a record price. According to the Hollywood Reporter, only “a handful of ad spots in the pregame programming” are still available. NBC says that 40 percent of the companies running ads during the game are new, with the biggest growth coming in the automotive, technology, entertainment, travel and health & wellness sectors. “The NFL has never been stronger and has led us to new records this year,} said NBCUniversal president of advertising and partnerships Mark Marshall in a statement.
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.
