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The Telegraph, a UK paper founded in 1855, reaches an in-principle agreement to be acquired by RedBird Capital Partners, a US firm that has invested in companies including Skydance Media, AC Milan, Fenway Sports Group and the Yankees Entertainment & Sports (“YES”) Network. RedBird is leading a consortium that also includes British investors. RedBird will serve as sole controlling owner of Telegraph Media Group (which includes the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph). One goal of the new ownership is to grow The Telegraph’s presence in the US. RedBird will also “remove barriers to growth and accelerate the transition to digital,” according to a press release. “RedBird Capital Partners have exciting growth plans that build on our success—and will unlock our full potential across the breadth of our business,” said Telegraph Media Group CEO Anna Jones.
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News/Media Alliance president and CEO Danielle Coffey has slammed Google for its new “A.I. mode,” which lets users interact with its search engine as if it were an A.I. chatbot, offering them information and answers to their queries minus the links provided in traditional Google search. “Links were the last redeeming quality of search that gave publishers traffic and revenue,” Coffey said in a statement. “Now Google just takes content by force and uses it with no return, the definition of theft. The DOJ remedies must address this to prevent continued domination of the internet by one company.”
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| Kimi Yoshino |
The Baltimore Banner editor-in-chief Kimi Yoshino is heading to the Washington Post, where she will start as managing editor on July 7. At the Post, Yoshino will oversee features, sports, local, investigations and data. The Banner now has the largest newsroom in Maryland. The platform won a Pulitzer Prize for local news earlier this month for a 2024 series, in partnership with the New York Times, on the opioid overdose crisis in Baltimore. “I think she’s going to bring a refreshing, creative, exciting approach to thinking about areas like features and sports,” said WaPo executive Matt Murray. “Thanks to The Banner, particularly, she understands the digitally evolving entrepreneurial state of the business.”
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.
USA TODAY brings on Jamie Stockwell as VP of news, effective March 30. Stockwell was most recently deputy managing editor of news for the Washington Post... YouTube expands its likeness detection capabilities to a pilot group of government officials, journalists and political candidates... The AP Fund for Journalism adds 50 news organizations to its local news program, bringing the total number of participating newsrooms to 100. 
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.
