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The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation pledges $20 million to support newsrooms and provide journalism infrastructure as part of its commitment to revitalize local reporting. The grants will provide general operations and flexible support for infrastructure and shared services, along with direct support for local newsrooms. They are part of the foundation’s Local News Program, which supports Press Forward, a national initiative led by MacArthur to strengthen communities and democracy by supporting local news and information. The program was launched last year with a commitment of at least $150 million in new grantmaking to local news over five years, and the potential of $25 million in additional impact investments. “These investments are part of a collective effort to ensure that local communities have steady access to reliable and trustworthy information,” said MacArthur director of local news Silvia Rivera.
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| Paul Krugman |
Paul Krugman, who has written on political and economic topics for the New York Times for nearly 25 years, is retiring. His final column ran in the Dec. 6 edition of the Times. Spanning five US presidencies, his columns (and blog) looked at a wide range of issues on both the national and global level. In addition to his journalistic duties (which also included work on such platforms as Fortune and Slate), Krugman has authored 27 books and served on the faculties of MIT, Princeton, Stanford and the London School of Economics. He was also a staff member of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Reagan Administration. Among the many honors he has received is the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on economic geography and international trade patterns. “Paul became an essential read in Opinion, helping countless readers become more fluent in and mindful of how trade, taxes, technology, the markets, labor and capital intersected with political leadership, ideology and partisanship to shape the lives of people across America and the world,” said New York Times opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury.
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The Onion now faces a major roadblock in its attempt to buy Info Wars, the hotbed of conspiracy theory founded in 1999 by Alex Jones. Global Tetrahedron, owner of The Onion, is in a battle with First United American Companies, which is affiliated with Jones, for control of the site. Judge Christopher M. Lopez offederal bankruptcy court in Houston ruled that the bankruptcy auction did not maximize the amount of money that the sale of Info Wars should provide to Jones’s creditors. Those creditors include the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, who won a $1.4 billion defamation lawsuit against Jones for using his site to claim that the shooting was a hoax. Lopez mandated that a court-appointed trustee come up with an alternate solution.
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.
Rothschild family plans to unload 26.7 percent stake in The Economist... STAT, a digital media company that focuses the life sciences, brings back Damian Garde, who anchored its biotech newsletter and podcast from 2016 to 2024... High Times officially resumes print publication (following its 2024 shutdown) with the release of a limited-edition, collectible 50th anniversary issue. 
CBS News is set to hand over its reins to The Free Press co-founder Bari Weiss as Paramount acquires her site for $155M... C-SPAN comes on board as an official media partner of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which is charged by Congress to lead the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence... A new Gallup survey says that the level of trust that US audiences have in the media has hit a new low.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has named Kenneth Weinstein, former head of the conservative Hudson Institute, as ombudsman for CBS News.
