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| Courtney Coupe |
LinkedIn signs up Courtney Coupe, who was most recently SVP of content strategy and operations at CNN Digital, as its first head of original programming. The social media platform, which recently launched a podcast network, has been investing in original content. Coupe is charged with leading a newly formed original programming team that will bring its efforts together, overseeing the strategy, development and production of all original video and audio content. "Courtney has spent her career creating high-quality, economy and career-focused audio and video content for some of the top brands in media," said LinkedIn editor-in-chief Dan Roth. LinkedIn's editorial team currently numbers more than 180 employees across 16 countries.
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Apple Music has signed on as the sponsor for the Super Bowl halftime show, taking over from Pepsi, which has backed the event for the past 10 years. According to Sports Business Journal, the five-year deal is worth approximately $50 million per year. Apple is reportedly in talks with the NFL on a possible deal to carry the Sunday Ticket out-of-market package and buy part of the NFL Media properties. The lineup of performers for next year's halftime show is still to be announced. Last year's Emmy-winning edition, which featured Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar, averaged 103.4 million viewers, up seven percent from the previous year.
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Parade magazine, the Sunday newspaper supplement that was launched in 1941, will cease print publication after its November 6 issue. The magazine will now only appear in the digital editions of the newspapers that run it. According to a report on MediaPost, Parade currently appears in about 700 newspapers. The Arena Group, which also owns such brands as TheStreet and Sports Illustrated, acquired Parade's parent, AMG/Parade, earlier this year for $16.3 million. "We are infusing fresh energy across our brands in all formats to make sure they can meet both the moment and the needs of their readers in new and innovative ways," Kevin Craig, Arena's senior vice president for newspaper relations, said in an email to newspapers last week. The company said it was also ending its Relish and Spry Living magazines after their October issues.
Symbolic.ai forms a partnership with News Corp to begin using the company’s AI-native publisher platform in the newsrooms of News Corp publications to augment research, writing and publishing... Mediaite launches a newsletter that promises to give readers a summary of—media newsletters... The Fund for American Studies launches the Journalism Excellence Fellowship, a program that will provide promising young journalists the opportunity to work alongside top writers, reporters, and media professionals.
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.
