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Hearst Magazines launches its holiday season by axing close to 200 staffers. Zach Lennon-Simon, co-chair of the company’s union, told New York magazine that a Nov. 21 round of cuts resulted in 192 people being laid off. A memo to staff from Hearst president Debi Chirichella said the cuts “will enable us to take care of our business for the long term. We’ll prioritize areas where we can deliver the highest impact and drive growth and continue to focus on producing the highest-quality storytelling, advertising solutions and digital experiences.” Last month, Hearst signed an agreement with ChatGPT under which Hearst content will be used to answer queries in ChatGPT. However, the agreement notes that those answers will “feature appropriate citations and direct links” to the original sources. Chirichella chimed in that the arrangement will “help us evolve the future of magazine content.” Writers Guild of America East director Sam Wheeler was, expectedly, highly critical of the developments. Terming the layoffs “needless, irresponsible and cruel” he pointed out that “readers go to Hearst because of the talent and craft of its editorial employees. These workers make Hearst what it is.”
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President-elect Trump is angling to keep the Protect Reporters from Exploitative State Spying Act (PRESS Act) from ever seeing the light of day. Trump has issued marching orders to Republicans in the Senate to prevent the act, which is meant to give reporters a greater ability to protect confidential sources, from reaching the Senate floor before the end of the current session of Congress. He issued those orders via a Truth Social post, which said “REPUBLICANS MUST KILL THIS BILL!” The demand comes even though the House passed the bill unanimously, and such Trump supporters as Jim Jordan and Tucker Carlson are in favor of it. Freedom of the Press Foundation co-founder and executive director Trevor Timm told the New York Times that “the PRESS Act protects conservative and independent journalists just as much as it does anyone in the mainstream press. Democratic administrations abused their powers to spy on journalists many times. The bipartisan PRESS Act will stop government overreach and protect the First Amendment once and for all.”
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| Peter Welch |
A newly introduced Senate bill aims make it easier for human creators to find out if their work was used to train artificial intelligence without their consent. Under the Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks (TRAIN) Act, copyright holders could subpoena training records of generative AI models as long as the holder can declare a “good faith belief” that their work was used to train the model. Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), who introduced the bill, said the US needs to “set a higher standard for transparency” as AI increasingly becomes a part of Americans’ lives. In a news release, Welch said the TRAIN Act has been endorsed by such organizations as the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), the American Federation of Musicians, and the Recording Academy, in addition to major music labels including Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Group.
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. 
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.
