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| Kevin Merida |
Los Angeles Times editor Kevin Merida is exiting, effective Jan. 11. Merida was named executive editor at the Times in May 2021 after stints as EVP and editor-in-chief at ESPN and managing editor at the Washington Post. According to the New York Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, who bought the LA Times in 2018, said in a note that he and Merida “mutually agreed” that Merida should depart. According to the NY Times report, Merida and the Soon-Shiong family have been at loggerheads over such issues as editorial decisions and business priorities. Last June the LA Times axed more than 10 percent of its staff due to economic difficulties. Soon-Shiong said the search for Merida’s successor will include both internal and external candidates.
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| Arthur Bochner |
News Corp brings on Arthur Bochner, who most recently served as VP, strategic communications at the Walt Disney Company, as chief communications officer and EVP following the retirement later this year of Jim Kennedy, who has been with News Corp for over a decade. Kennedy’s decision to retire was announced last October. Bochner will begin at News Corp this month, working with Kennedy and his team during the transition. He will be based at News Corp’s headquarters in New York. “Arthur has vast and valuable experience at the highest levels of business and government, which will enable him to play a vital role in News Corp’s continuing growth,” said News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson.
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| Lindsay Horrigan |
Hearst Magazines names Lindsay Horrigan SVP, consumer growth officer, a new position at the company. Horrigan joins Hearst from Wayfair, where she served as chief marketing officer of Perigold, Wayfair's luxury home decor marketplace, and Birch Lane, a specialty brand. Before that, she was global head of consumer marketing and general manager of subscriptions at Bloomberg Media. With a focus on digital customer engagement, Horrigan will be responsible for leveraging data and insights to help drive growth across the company’s consumer revenue streams, including subscriptions, membership operations, commerce and licensing. “Her innovative approach to engaging consumers and strong business acumen will play a critical role in our long-term growth strategy,” said Hearst Magazines president Debi Chirichella.
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.
