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CNN has pulled the plug on "Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter." The show’s last episode will be this Sunday. Stelter, who came to CNN from the New York Times in 2013, will be leaving the company. In addition to his on-air duties at CNN, Stelter served as a media writer for CNN.com. He also hosted a podcast and frequently wrote and oversaw a daily "Reliable Sources" newsletter with his fellow media reporter Oliver Darcy. The CNN digital media team and Reliable Sources newsletter will continue with Darcy leading the newsletter. CNN chief Chris Licht has been making cuts throughout CNN since taking the helm as part of Warner Bros. Discovery's takeover of the old Time Warner company.
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| Eric Caballero |
Conservative media outlet The Daily Wire brings on Walt Disney Company veteran Eric Caballero as chief marketing officer. Caballero, who was previously a vice president in Disney’s media and entertainment distribution group, will oversee all marketing for the company, which is expanding into the entertainment business. The Daily Wire is committing $100 million to produce family-friendly content. “Companies like Disney have betrayed their family-friendly and pro-America audiences because of outsize influence from activist shareholders and employees, leaving money and opportunity on the table in the process,” said Daily Wire co-CEO Jeremy Boreing.
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Cineworld Group, which owns the Regal Cinemas chain, the second-largest in the world, is planning to file for bankruptcy, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The company said that despite a recovery from the sharp drop in attendance caused by the pandemic, recent admissions have not met expectations, which it blames on a limited film slate. The WSJ report says that Cineworld is negotiating with its lenders to fund the bankruptcy process. Cineworld acquired Regal in 2018 for $3.6 billion.
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. 
