Consumer Reports Revamps Print, Digital
Diane Salvatore was promoted to editor-in-chief of Consumer Reports magazine to replace Ellen Kampinsky, who exits after a year leading its re-design. She joined in 2013 as senior director of content strategy and development after leading Prevention and Ladies' Home Journal.
The hire was among several moves by the publisher in a shift away from smaller print publications and greater focus on digital.
CR is pulling the plug on ShopSmart magazine and the newsletter Money Adviser.
Also, Wendy Bounds, who leads Consumer Reports' video unit, has been named executive director of content to oversee editorial strategy and content creation for all of its print and digital properties.
She was previously a managing editor and deputy at the Wall Street Journal.
CR, which counts 3.6M magazine subscribers and more than three million online subscribers, also tapped Erle Norton, ABC News alum, as executive editor, digital, to oversee its digital properties, including the Consumerist blog.
Finally, IBM director of social media Kevin Winterfield takes the reins of CR's social media offerings.
Losee Heads Politico Content Marketing Push
Stephanie Losee, managing editor for Dell in charge of content marketing, has joined Politico to lead a branded content unit.
Losee serves as executive director of brand content to launch Politico Focus, billed as a data studio and brand journalism operation. She has held content posts at AxiCom, Say Media and Red Consultancy, after staff positions at Fortune and PC Magazine.
Losee also co-authored "Office Mate" (Adams Media 2007) and "You've Only Got Three Seconds" (Doubleday 1997).
Vox Acquires ReCode
Digital publisher Vox Media is acquiring tech news site ReCode in an all-stock deal.
ReCode will continue to publish under its name and leadership, including veteran journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg.
Vox said ReCode will complement its existing tech news unit, The Verge, and will eventually move on its content platform, Chorus.
Swisher and Mossberg, who will be in charge of editorial for Recode and report to Vox editorial director Lockhart Steele, noted that while The Verge has focused on tech from a consumer, lifestyle perspective, ReCode is zeroed in on the "business of tech."
They noted ReCode will benefit from Vox's marketing, communications, audience development, sales and production capabilities, as well.
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.
Conservative outlets Fox News, Newsmax and the Daily Caller are holding back from signing Pete Hegseth’s edict restricting press access in the Pentagon... CBS News sees the first executive departure of the Bari Weiss era as head of standards and practices Claudia Milne exits... Indiana University shuts down the print version of The Indiana Daily Student.
Rothschild family plans to unload 26.7 percent stake in The Economist... STAT, a digital media company that focuses the life sciences, brings back Damian Garde, who anchored its biotech newsletter and podcast from 2016 to 2024... High Times officially resumes print publication (following its 2024 shutdown) with the release of a limited-edition, collectible 50th anniversary issue. 
