CBS

CBS News Radio, which transmits reports to subscriber stations around the country, 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. Overall, CBS News is laying off about six percent of its entire workforce (about 60 employees), with executives calling the cuts a difficult but necessary reallocation of newsroom resources. Founded in 1927, CBS News Radio is the last of the three original national U.S. radio networks (the others are NBC Radio Network and Mutual Broadcasting System) still operating and still owned by their original parent companies. CBS sold its owned and operated stations in 2017. “It’s no secret that the news business is changing radically, and that we need to change along with it,” Weiss and CBS News president & executive editor Tom Cibrowski wrote in a memo. “That means some parts of our newsroom must get smaller to make room for the things we must build to remain competitive,” pointing to “new audiences … in new places.”

Economist

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. The transaction, which includes a price tag estimated around £300M ($400M) and shares carrying 20 per cent of The Economist Group’s voting rights, marks the first change in its ownership for a decade. Smith co-founded Toronto-based First National Financial in 1988. His piece of The Economist is his first large media investment. “This investment reflects Mr. Smith’s full support for The Economist’s longstanding tradition of rigorous editorial independence and will see The Economist’s strategy and operations continue unaffected,” Smith Financial, his family holding company, said in a statement.

Nexstar

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. The transaction was approved by both the Federal Communications Commission and U.S. Department of Justice. However, a group of state attorneys general headed by California AG Rob Bonta filed suit to block the acquisition. Bonta said that it would put “more broadcast programming in the hands of fewer people, removing control from the communities they report to, cutting local jobs, and significantly impacting the delivery of news and other media content to Americans nationwide.” The other states joining the suit are New York, Colorado, ‌Connecticut, ⁠Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia. Nexstar founder, chairman and CEO Perry Sook as might be expected, objected to that claim, saying “this transaction is essential to sustaining strong local journalism in the communities we serve.”