 Barbara Jones |
21st Century Fox, in the wake of a $90 million settlement of shareholder claims arising from the sexual harassment scandal at Fox News Channel, has formed the Fox News Workplace Professional and Inclusion Council. The Council will advise Fox News and its senior management as the company works to put into place measures that it says are designed to “ensure a proper workplace environment for all employees and guests.” Those measures are to include bolstering employee training and furthering the company’s recruitment and advancement of women and minorities. The council’s four independent members include Barbara Jones, a former judge in the U.S District Court for the Southern District of New York, and Virgil Jones, who has served as vp, talent acquisition and diversity at the Gannett Company. “The Workplace Council gives our management team access to a braintrust of experts with deep and diverse experiences in workplace issues,” Jack Abernethy, co-president of Fox News Channel, said in a statement. “We look forward to benefiting from their collective guidance.”
 Eric Schmidt |
Google says that it plans to "derank" stories from Russian-sponsored news sites Russia Today and Sputnik in response to allegations that they have been used as a tool in U.S. election meddling by the Russian government. Google's move would de-prioritize the sites in search algorithms, making it less likely that users would see their content via search. In a statement published on RT by Sputnik and RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, she accuses Google of censorship. However, Eric Schmidt, the chairman of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, disputes the censorship claim. “I am strongly not in favor of censorship,” Schmidt said at the Halifax International Security Forum on Nov. 19. “I am very strongly in favor of ranking. It’s what we do.” RT has also been forced to comply with the requirements of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. That move has provoked a retaliatory effort by Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Sputnik, Putin has signed into law amendments that will allow international media outlets that operate in Russia to be listed as “foreign agents”.
 Warren Schlichting |
DISH Network has reached a multi-year agreement with CBS Corp. to carry its owned and operated local stations, as well as CBS Sports Network, Pop and the Smithsonian Channel. The channels will be restored to DISH customers. “We are grateful to our customers for their patience this holiday week as months of work has resulted in a deal that delivers CBS for years to come,” said Warren Schlichting, DISH executive VP of marketing, programming and media sales. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Versant Media Group, the NBCUniversal cable TV spin-off, today reported its first financial results as 2025 revenues dipped 5.3 percent to $6.7B and standalone EBITDA dropped 9.1 percent to $2.2B.
Trump Media & Technology Group is discussing a spin-off of the Truth Social platform following the expected closing of its $6B merger deal with TAE Technologies... Condé Nast sells off Them, the digital LGBTQ-focused platform it launched in 2017, to Equalpride, publisher of Out, The Advocate, Out Traveler, Health PLUS Wellness and Pride.com... CBS News has parted ways with longevity influencer Peter Attia, one of the 19 contributors that editor-in-chief Bari Weiss brought on as part of her plan to present a wider variety of voices on the platform. 
Symbolic.ai forms a partnership with News Corp to begin using the company’s AI-native publisher platform in the newsrooms of News Corp publications to augment research, writing and publishing... Mediaite launches a newsletter that promises to give readers a summary of—media newsletters... The Fund for American Studies launches the Journalism Excellence Fellowship, a program that will provide promising young journalists the opportunity to work alongside top writers, reporters, and media professionals.
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.
