Industry News
Discovery and Warner Media Close Merger Deal
Media conglomerates Discovery and Warner media closed their merger deal April 8th. The two companies will combine television, movie and news operations that draw revenue of nearly $50 billion, forming one of the biggest media companies in the country. The new company will be called Warner Bros and will be led by David Zaslav, Discovery’s current CEO.
The Decline of Newspaper Print
In an ongoing trend, newspaper’s largest publisher chain, Gannett, is scaling back on print and directing subscribers to e-news editions. Last month, Gannett eliminated one day of print per week at 136 of its newspapers and will do the same at 50 more newspapers by June.
News Organizations Are Not Participating in Industry Diversity Survey
In journalism’s nonprofit, News Leaders Association, most recent internal diversity and inclusion survey within newsrooms, only 303 news organizations responded to the survey out of the organization’s goal to reach 2,500. However, there were positive notes within the survey including strong participation from newspaper chains and the Associated Press participated for the first time. In a proactive measure, The New York Times and The Washington Post self-publish diversity stats.
CNN+ Rollout Struggling to Gain Momentum
Subscription news service CNN+ is struggling to gain momentum since its launch with only 10,000 daily subscribers. Following the merger of Discovery and Warner Media (parent company of CNN), new leadership is expected to make significant cuts in investment for the service.
VICE Media Group Growing Its Presence as an Established News Outlet
As VICE Media Group continues to grow, the company hired Rich Santiago as SVP, Brand Strategy and Creative Experience. Prior to joining VICE Media, Santiago was a creative leader at BBDO Worldwide, Meta, Live Nation, the Obama administration and MullenLowe.
NPR Prioritizes Diversity in Leadership
More than half of the company’s 14 top leaders are now people of color. However, NPR union members state that the same representation has not been seen at the managerial level. Former and current employees also say that while the nonprofit has pushed to hire and elevate people of color in recent years, structural and cultural issues at NPR prevent the nonprofit from being able to hold on to top talent including salary inequity and lack of career development.
CBS News and Weather Channel Strike Climate Conference Alliance
CBS News is teaming with The Weather Channel to bring more reporting on weather and climate to CBS News programs including “CBS Mornings” and “The CBS Evening News.” The new partnership will also be for CBS viewers to see augmented-reality technology that helps depict what a specific community might look like in the midst of severe weather. This new partnership rival’s ABC’s continued Climate Change focus.
Industry Career Moves
Jenn Psaki’s Potential Move to MSNBC
White House press secretary is reportedly stepping down from her role this spring and moving to MSNBC. At MSNBC, Psaki will host a show through the network’s streaming service, Peacock. If Psaki left, she would join another former Biden administration employee at MSNBC, Vice President Kamala Harris’s former spokeswoman, Symone D. Sanders.
Reena Mehta Moves to ABC News VP of Streaming and Digital Content
In a newly created position, ABC News hires Reena Mehta to oversee the slate of unscripted documentaries and narrative non-fiction series and specials across platforms, as well as the teams at ABC News Live, ABC News’ digital portfolio and ABC Audio. Mehta was previously Vice President of Content Strategy and Planning at HBO Max.
Inside Higher Ed Reporter Moves to Forbes
Former Inside Higher Ed reporter, Emma Whitford, is now a Senior Education Reporter at Forbes where she will cover K-12 and higher education.
This Week’s Publication Snapshot
Fortune CEO Daily
During this week in Fortune CEO Daily, topics spanned across the unprecedent labor marketing that is causing the great resignation, the difficulty of defeating COVID-19, how CEOs are joining together to help refugees in Ukraine, and the 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2022 with Cisco and Hilton taking the top two spots.
Featured CEOs in the newsletters include:
- Albert Bourla, Pfizer
- Julie Sweet, Accenture
- Joanne Crevoiserat, Tapestry
- Steve Rusckowski, Quest Diagnostics
- Arvind Krishna, IBM
- Anne Klibanski, Mass General Brigham
