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| Edith Chapin |
NPR top editor and interim chief content officer Edith Chapin is planning to exit later this year, according to a report in the New York Times. Chapin’s decision follows the decision by Congress to cut all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports NPR, PBS and their member stations. While NPR relies on direct federal funds for only a small portion of its budget, many of its member stations are more dependent on funds received from CPB. The Times report says that Chapin notified NPR CEO Katherine Maher before the budget cuts were approved. While Chapin’s departure will leave two of NPR’s top roles vacant, she says she will remain at the organization through the transition.
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| Jonathan Capehart |
The Washington Post, which is refocusing its opinion section on “personal liberties and free markets,” loses yet another member of the section’s staff as Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jonathan Capehart takes a buyout. Capeheart’s decision comes in the wake of a steady stream of exits from the paper, the most recent including “Federal Insider” writer Joe Davidson and reporter and writer Philip Bump. Post CEO Will Lewis recently called on veteran staffers to take a voluntary buyout if they weren’t “genuinely enthusiastic about the new direction and focus” that have been set by owner Jeff Bezos. Capehart will continue to co-host MSNBC’s “The Weekend” and serve as a political analyst for PBS.
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Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong plans to take the paper public during the next year, he said in an interview on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.” Soon-Shiong said the move would let the TImes “be democratized and allow the public to have ownership of this paper.” He bought the LA Times, San Diego Union-Tribune and several community newspapers in a $500-million deal with Tronc (formerly—and currently—known as Tribune Publishing) in 2018. He offloaded the Union-Tribune to MediaNews Group in 2023. The Times reportedly lost $50 million in 2024, laying off more than 20 percent of its newsroom staff. Soon-Shiong has not provided information on how the deal would work.
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.
