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| Edward O'Keefe |
| Photo: David Burnett |
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 after nearly two decades in the role. O’Keefe most recently served as President and CEO of the newly opened Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, where he led the successful launch of the $450 million institution honoring the nation’s 26th President. He has also held leadership posts at ABC News, CNN, and NowThis. During his journalism career, he earned numerous honors, including a Primetime Emmy Award for his work with Anthony Bourdain, two Webby Awards, an Edward R. Murrow Award, and a George Foster Peabody Award as part of ABC News’ coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks. “He is uniquely qualified to lead our organization at a pivotal moment for public media. Ed brings the vision, energy, and strategic leadership needed to build on WNET’s extraordinary legacy while positioning the organization for the future,” said James Attwood, chairman of the WNET Board of Trustees.
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| (L-R) Laurel Lee, Valerie Foushee |
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). This bill would require all bots to identify themselves and their purpose, giving news publishers and other content providers the information they need to protect their work. Currently, bots are free to mask their identities. "AI companies are using disguised bots to scrape and steal original journalism with zero accountability. They use our work to train and operate their systems that then directly compete with us,” said Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch. “The bipartisan Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, requiring bots to identify themselves and their purpose, is a practical step toward helping publishers preserve the integrity of our journalism and trust with audiences.” Over the last year AI transparency legislation has been proposed in states like Missouri, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, and the New York State Legislature recently passed the “New York Stealth Crawler Prohibition Act,” which functions similarly to the Stealth Bot Prohibition Act.
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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. Regulators in Brussels said Google had used its position to unfairly boost its services in such areas as shopping, travel, games and language translation. Google displayed its own services more prominently at the top of search results, while putting competing services farther down the page, they said. In addition, the European Commission, which conducted the investigation, said the tech company used unfair restrictions on its Google Play app store that prevent app developers from communicating with users, or conducting transactions that could reduce the fees Google can collect. “The best products should succeed because they’re better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine,” Teresa Ribera, the executive vice president of the European Commission overseeing competition policy, said in a statement on July 23.
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.
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. 
