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Gannett is setting a wave of cost-cutting measures in motion. The company says the mix of "temporary and permanent actions" includes requiring that employees take five days of unpaid leave in December, offering voluntary buyouts, suspending 401(k) contribution matches and freezing all but essential hires. Gannett's stock price has slid 70 percent for the year, and the company has more than $1B in debt from its 2019 merger with Gatehouse Media. The publisher slashed 400 jobs earlier this year following weak second-quarter earnings and also paused hiring for 400 more. In addition to USA Today, Gannett publishes more than 220 dailies.
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| Kevin Gentzel |
Newsweek is bringing over Gannett chief revenue officer Kevin Gentzel to serve as the publication's global chief commercial and growth officer. At Gannett, Gentzel led all advertising and marketing solutions revenue in North America. At Newsweek, he will oversee the entire commercial business side of the operation, including direct sales and programmatic advertising programs, consumer and B2B events, the development of innovative digital marketing solutions, and other key revenue streams. "He joins Newsweek at a critical juncture. The company's successful digital transformation has turned us into a profitable enterprise, and Kevin will be instrumental in propelling our dramatic growth even further," said Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad.
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Netflix is launching "Basic with Ads," an ad-supported tier that will run $6.99 a month, on November 3. The new tier will start in 12 countries, including the US, UK and Canada, with plans to expand the program over time. Priced $1 a month less than Disney+ and Hulu with commercials and $3 less than HBO Max with ads, Basic with Ads is set to run four to five minutes of commercials per hour with spots of 15 to 30 seconds in length. Another difference is that while Netflix's premium tier streams at 1080p resolution, viewers with ads will be downgraded to 720p resolution. According to the Wall Street Journal, Netflix will also collect the date of birth and gender of ad-tier subscribers, more information than it now asks customers for, and plans to eventually use that information for ad targeting.
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. 
CBS News is set to hand over its reins to The Free Press co-founder Bari Weiss as Paramount acquires her site for $155M... C-SPAN comes on board as an official media partner of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which is charged by Congress to lead the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence... A new Gallup survey says that the level of trust that US audiences have in the media has hit a new low.
