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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.
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.
