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Vice Media is moving forward with a deal to be acquired by a group of buyers including Fortress Investment Group, one of the company’s lenders. A bankruptcy auction that had been set for June 22 was called off. While several bidders competed for the company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May, Fortress’s offer was the only one that met the criteria Vice had set for potential buyers, according to a report in the New York Times. Vice co-CEOs Hozefa Lokhandwala and Bruce Dixon wrote in a Thursday memo to staffers that they would forward the bid to bankruptcy court for approval. Fortress recently upped its initial $225 million bid to $350 million—a far cry from the $5.7 billion valuation Vice had in 2017. The Fortress deal beat out an offer from Latino digital media company GoDigital. The Times says that Fortress has already received buyer interest in several of Vice’s business units, the proceeds from which could cover its investment.
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| Zenia Mucha |
TikTok has signed up former Disney chief communications officer Zenia Mucha as chief brand and communications officer. Since leaving Disney last year, Mucha has led communications consultancy company ZM Strategies. She has also worked as a consultant for TikTok. Before coming on board at Disney in 2001, Mucha led communications for New York Governor George Pataki and Sen. Alfonse D’Amato. “Zenia will focus on advancing the strategic vision of our brand and advising key businesses,” TikTok CEO Shou Chew said in an announcement to employees.
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Meta is responding to a law passed by Canada’s Senate on June 22 by ending the availability of news on its Facebook and Instagram platforms. The Online News Act requires Meta, along with Google, to enter into agreements with news publishers to pay them for news content appearing on their sites if that content generates revenue for the company. “We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18, which was passed today in Parliament, content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada,” said Lisa Laventure, head of communications for Meta in Canada.
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.
