TV network and video entertainment company Starz has plugged in Glover Park Group for communications and government relations focused on Washington.
Publicly traded Starz wants to engage government officials and the influential DC market about its programming and interest in the multichannel video sector, which is undergoing consolidation and faces scrutiny by regulators.
Starz claims 24.2M subscribers in the US and nearly 32M with the Starz Encore network. It has moved into original programming in recent years with shows including "Power" and "Survivor's Remorse" that have gained particularly strong viewership among African-Americans.
Starz last year engaged Venable to lobby officials on the importance of preserving diverse programming, as well as to advocate against industry consolidation.
GPG is part of WPP.
Underscore Media, a new creator-led media venture dedicated to New York sports, is built around three established New York sports personalities, Sal Licata, Jimmy Traina, and John Jastremski.
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost. 
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
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.
