 |
Gannett agrees to sell the Austin American-Statesman to Hearst. Hearst, which also publishes the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News, is expected to close the purchase by the end of Q1 2025. The proceeds of the sale are expected to be used by Gannett for debt reduction, according to a report in the American-Statesman. Gannett announced in September that, through other sales, it had expected to pay down at least $110 million in debt by the end of 2024. As of Dec. 31, the company’s total debt exceeded $1.1 billion. The American-Statesman sale includes the newspaper’s community publications: Bastrop Advertiser, Lake Travis View, Pflugerville Pflag and Round Rock Leader. Related digital offerings such as Austin360 and Hookem.com also are part of the sale. Gannett will retain ownership of its seven other newspapers in Texas, which include the El Paso Times, Corpus Christi Caller-Times and Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. “The sale of the Austin American-Statesman from our portfolio is a strategic decision that will complement the Hearst brand while positioning Gannett and the USA TODAY Network of more than 200 local publications for future growth,” said Gannett chairman and CEO Michael Reed.
 |
Fox News and Newsmax are among the 40 major news organizations that issued a letter to the White House this week asking the Trump administration to lift its ban on The Associated Press, which was barred from several official press events over the past week. The reason for the restriction: AP has not renamed the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America,” as demanded by the president in a Jan. 20 executive order. Other outlets signing the letter include CNN, the New York Times, NBC and the Wall Street Journal. “The First Amendment prohibits the government from asserting control over how news organizations make editorial decisions,” the letter said. “Any attempt to punish journalists for those decisions is a serious breach of this constitutional protection.”
 |
ESPN is pulling the plug on its coverage of Major League Baseball after the 2025 season. While the MLB and ESPN signed a seven-year deal in 2021 that averaged $550 million per season, the organizations decided to opt out of the contract prior to a March 1 deadline. MLB pulls in an average of $729 million per season from Fox and $470 million from Turner Sports, in deals set to end after the 2028 season. ESPN has carried MLB games since 1990, reaching a peak of 90 regular-season contests, but under the current contract that number dwindled to 30. The change comes as the number of platforms interested in running MLB games increases. In a statement MLB noted "significant interest from both traditional media companies and streaming services who would like to obtain rights to MLB games.”
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.
