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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. That transaction will create one of the world’s largest publicly traded nuclear fusion companies. According to The New York Times, a Trump Media statement said a Truth Social spinoff would “create shareholder value through the creation of pure play companies, each with distinct strategies.” While TMTG named Texas Ventures Acquisition III, a Cayman Islands-based SPAC, as the company with which Truth Social would potentially merge, it stressed there is no guarantee that a spin-off will take place. Donald Trump, who owns 52 percent of TMTG, has 11.8M followers on Truth Social. TMTG’s shares are trading at $10.62. Their 52-week range is $9.89, $27.78.
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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. Them says it has a strong readership among Gen Z and millennial audiences with 1.1 million Instagram followers. A spokesperson for Equalpride told The Hollywood Reporter that the acquisition of Them is designed to expand the company’s portfolio and strengthen its position “as the most comprehensive and influential platform for LGBTQ+ news, entertainment, culture and community connection.” The acquisition follows the layoffs of several senior staffers, including Advocate editor-in-chief Alex Cooper and Pride.com editor-in-chief Rachel Shatto. According to the Washington Blade, Equalpride has not indicated if Them staffers would fill any of its vacant positions.
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| Peter Attia |
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. Attia informed CBS that he would be leaving after a series of exchanges between him and Jeffrey Epstein were made public through the release of the Epstein Files by the Department of Justice. According to a New York Times report, Attia said that he had not known about Mr. Epstein’s trafficking and abuse of women or underage girls. However, in an exchange from 2017 that was quoted by the Times, Attia encouraged Epstein to follow his medical recommendations — if only to “keep up with the 23-year-old beauties.” A CBS spokesman said that Attia “stepped back to ensure his involvement didn’t become a distraction from the important work being done at CBS.”
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
Boston Globe Media acquires InstaTrac, a company that provides subscription-based services aimed at making government information easier to find, track, and understand... AARP names former New Republic CEO and publisher Michael Caruso as its SVP and chief content officer, unifying the organization's portfolio of media, live events and digital platforms... The Fund for American Studies, an educational nonprofit, awards its inaugural Journalism Excellence Fellowships.
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.
