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The Knight Foundation is investing $5.4 million to create the Knight Growth Challenge Fund, which will support both non-profit and for-profit news outlets that have proven journalistic and business prowess and a solid business plan for sustainability. By supporting the efforts of these outlets to expand into new markets, the fund hopes to open up access to local journalism. The newsrooms included in the first group of recipients are: The Assembly (statewide in North Carolina), Cityside (Richmond, CA), The Post and Courier (Myrtle Beach and Columbia, SC), The Salt Lake Tribune (statewide in Utah), Spotlight PA (State College, PA) and Georges Media/Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate (Shreveport, LA). The effort, administered by the Miami Foundation, is supported by Blue Engine Collaborative, which will provide coaching, consulting and other resources to each of the selected publishers. “These first six organizations can prove that local news can find ways to grow to serve more communities, and we’re absolutely thrilled to help them reach their full potential over the next two years,” said Blue Engine Collaborative founder and CEO Tim Griggs.
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The New York Times will no longer make endorsements in the city’s elections, ending a policy it initiated in 1897. According to Times Opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury, while the paper will continue to offer “perspective on the races, candidates and issues at stake,” it will not take a position in this fall’s Senate, congressional or state legislative races, and also plans to stay on the sidelines in Mayor Eric Adams’ re-election bid next year. The announcement follows similar plans by the Baltimore Sun and Alden Global Capital, the country’s second-largest newspaper chain.
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Playboy is headed back into print, with an annual print edition set to make its debut in February 2025. Former Men’s Journal editor-in-chief Mark Healy will head up the new version. The previous print incarnation of the brand was shuttered in 2020. Not only will the magazine’s trademark interview appear in the new edition’s pages, the Playmate of the Year will return, as well as features dedicated to such emblems of the swinging lifestyle as cars and audio equipment. There will be a “new class” of Playboy Bunnies, who will represent the brand at events. The publication also says it has redesigned Playboy.com and launched ecommerce initiatives and features that embrace the creator economy. “Playboy is the quintessential iconic brand, and it has always been more than a magazine—it is the original creator business,” according to PLBY Group CEO Ben Kohn.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
Boston Globe Media acquires InstaTrac, a company that provides subscription-based services aimed at making government information easier to find, track, and understand... AARP names former New Republic CEO and publisher Michael Caruso as its SVP and chief content officer, unifying the organization's portfolio of media, live events and digital platforms... The Fund for American Studies, an educational nonprofit, awards its inaugural Journalism Excellence Fellowships.
Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. has replaced CEO and former California Congressman Devin Nunes with Kevin McGurn, a seasoned media sales executive.
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.
