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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.”
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.
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.
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.
