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Forbes, which is going public through a partnership with Magnus Opus Acquisition Limited, is receiving a $200 million strategic investment from cryptocurrency and blockchain infrastructure provider Binance. Binance chief communications officer Patrick Hillman and Bill Chin, the head of its venture capital arm, are expected to join Forbes's board of directors on the closing of the deal. Forbes CEO Mike Federle said that following the transaction, "Forbes, already a resource for people interested in the emerging world of digital assets, can become a true leader in the field." In 2020, Binance filed a defamation suit against Forbes over an article about the company's corporate structure, but that suit was dropped In February 2021.
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Dotdash Meredith is ending the print version of six of its magazines. The April issue will be the last one in print for Entertainment Weekly, InStyle, Eating Well, Health, Parents and People en Español. The company says that about 200 employees—or five percent of its workforce—will lose their jobs as a result. In a memo, Dotdash Meredith CEO Neil Vogel claimed that the shutdowns are "not a cost-savings exercise" but are instead "about embracing the inevitable digital future for the affected brands." He added that the company has more than 100 open jobs across its divisions and that it hopes to fill some of those slots with the axed employees. The magazines were acquired when Dotdash, which is a subsidiary of Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp, bought Meredith Corporation for about $2.7 billion last year.
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The European Publishers Council, a group of chairmen and CEOs of leading European media corporations, has lodged a complaint with the European Commission against Google for its ad tech practices. The EPC says the complaint is part of its "bid to break the ad tech stranglehold Google currently has over press publishers, and all other business in the ad tech ecosystem." Since Google's acquisition of online advertising company DoubleClick in 2008, the organization says that Google controls as much as 90-100 percent of the market share in segments of the ad tech chain. It requests that the EU impose conditions to restore conditions of effective competition. "We call on the Commission to take concrete steps right now that will actually break the stranglehold that Google has over us all," said EPC chairman Christian Van Thillo.
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.
