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The Irish Voice, a New York-based newspaper that focuses on news and stories from an Irish-American perspective, put out its last print edition on July 5. First published in the fall of 1987, the paper was targeted at Irish immigrants who were then moving to the US in large numbers. Its editorial content, along with founder Niall O’Dowd’s twice-weekly column, will now appear on IrishCentral.com. The Voice’s other publication, Irish America, remains in print, and its event management side, which includes the Irish Legal 100 and Wall Street 50, continues to operate. “We have been a crusading paper,” O’Dowd wrote. “We are, indeed, an activist paper; we don’t believe in journalism that uses phrases like, ‘On the one hand and the other.’ Have an opinion and defend it!”
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| Pablo Rodrguez |
Canada's federal government plans to pull all its advertising from Facebook and Instagram in the wake of Meta's move to restrict news content for Canadians. That move followed the passage of a law by Canada’s parliament that will force tech firms to pay media outlets for news that appears on their platforms. Canadian officials say they are still attempting to avert a similar situation with Alphabet, which has also announced plans to block news content for users in Canada. Canadian heritage minister Pablo Rodriguez says that suspending government advertising will cost Facebook and Instagram about 10 million Canadian dollars ($7.5m) per year.
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Meta also unveils its rival to Twitter. Threads, a companion app to the company’s Instagram, went live on July 5, snagging 10 million users in its first seven hours of operation. Meta has what would seem to be a built-in audience for the app, since users will access Threads via their Instagram account, and Instagram has more than 2.35 billion users. Twitter trails far behind, with more than 360 million worldwide users. Threads is currently available in more than 100 countries for iOS and Android, but users in the European Union are going to have to wait while a series of issues involving user privacy are hashed out.
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.
Trump Media & Technology Group is discussing a spin-off of the Truth Social platform following the expected closing of its $6B merger deal with TAE Technologies... Condé Nast sells off Them, the digital LGBTQ-focused platform it launched in 2017, to Equalpride, publisher of Out, The Advocate, Out Traveler, Health PLUS Wellness and Pride.com... CBS News has parted ways with longevity influencer Peter Attia, one of the 19 contributors that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss brought on as part of her plan to present a wider variety of voices on the platform. 
