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Donald Trump’s campaign got a sneak preview of the questions for a Fox News town hall in January 2024, according to an upcoming book from POLITICO national political reporter Alex Isenstadt. “Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power” claims that “about thirty minutes before the town hall was due to start, a senior aide started getting text messages from a person on the inside at Fox.” Those messages allegedly included images of all the questions that Trump would be asked, along with the planned follow-ups. Trump had initially been hesitant to participate in the town hall, due to coverage from Fox that was deemed to be “antagonistic.” A Fox spokesman said that no evidence has been obtained for the allegations, claiming that there is a “sophisticated and extensive digital footprint of all editorial material.” Isenstadt counters that his reporting was based on multiple people with direct knowledge of what took place. Another revelation to be found in the book’s pages: Before JD Vance entered the picture, former CNBC “Money Honey” Maria Bartiromo was high on Trump’s list of potential VP candidates.
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The Washington Post laid off roughly 100 employees across its business division on Jan. 7. Although newsroom employees were not affected, the cuts will result in the loss of about 4 percent of the paper’s staff. The Post’s financial and staff-related woes have been piling up since owner Jeff Bezos blocked its endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. Following that decision, about 250,000 WaPo subscriptions were cancelled. The paper suffered another black eye on Jan. 3, when Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes announced her resignation after it refused to publish a cartoon showing Bezos on bended knee before President-elect Trump. “The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry, build a more sustainable future and reach audiences where they are,” a Post spokesperson told CNN. “Changes across our business functions are all in service of our greater goal to best position The Post for the future.”
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Getty Images and Shutterstock plan to merge under the corporate name of Getty Images Holdings, Inc. While the merger awaits regulatory approval, as well as a thumbs-up from Getty Images and Shutterstock stockholders, each company will continue to operate independently. In an email to customers, Getty CEO Craig Peters says that “we expect this merger to allow for simplified access across our combined offerings and increased investment in new content and coverage.” Shutterstock, which was founded in 2003 by programmer and photographer Jon Oringer, has a library of around 200 million royalty-free stock photos and vector graphics. Getty’s holdings of visual assets number close to 500 million items.
MSNBC president Rashida Jones is stepping down, after close to four years in the job... Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is preparing for what he says will be “an intense year” by dumping staffers that he terms “low performers.” ... CBS News is putting Susan Zirinsky, who served as its president from January 2019 until April 2021, back in the driver’s seat as its interim executive editor.
ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery have called time on Venu Sports, their proposed joint sports streaming service, before its kickoff... Piers Morgan, via his Wake Up Productions media company, is acquiring “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” the talk show that started broadcasting on Rupert Murdoch’s TalkTV in 2022 before moving to YouTube... HuffPost cuts 39 staffers. E-I-C Danielle Belton quits in protest.
President-elect Donald Trump has sued pollster J. Ann Selzer, her polling firm, The Des Moines Register and Gannett, the Register’s parent company for poll that predicted he was going to lose Iowa's presidential vote... Forbes, which has been in the magazine business since 1917, is launching a private members’ club in Madrid’s financial district... “Sesame Street” seeks new distribution partner after it is dropped by Warner Bros. Discovery. 
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... Paul Krugman, who has written on political and economic topics for the New York Times for nearly 25 years, has retired... 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. 
With streaming platforms growing, half of young adults in the United States now say they don't watch any traditional TV at all, according to Statista.
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