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.
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.
