Top News:
Katie Robertson / New York Times:
Baltimore Banner parent The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism acquires the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Block Communications to run it as a nonprofit — The Venetoulis Institute of Local Journalism, which operates The Baltimore Banner, has bought The Post-Gazette.
Discussion:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Associated Press, The Banner, The Guardian, CNN, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Media Nation, Washington Times, Neil Brown on LinkedIn, Newser, @crampell.bsky.social, Tim Franklin on LinkedIn, Baltimore Business Journal, The NewsGuild, @emilymullin.bsky.social, @newsguyusa@flipboard.social, Michael Sallah on LinkedIn, Straight Arrow News, @pittbandphoto.bsky.social, @audacityofdespair.bsky.social, Axios, Pittsburgh Business Journal, @pras_s, @pittbandphoto.bsky.social, @lisafung.bsky.social, Bob Cohn on LinkedIn, @producertory.bsky.social, @lenfestinstitute.org, @katie_robertson, @lawrencehurley.bsky.social and Dave Lee
Rob Maaddi / Associated Press:
NFL reporter Dianna Russini resigns from The Athletic after photos of her with New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel prompted an internal investigation — NFL reporter Dianna Russini has resigned from The Athletic less than a week after published photos of her and New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel …
RELATED:
Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:
Nielsen releases its February Gauge reports after a delay over a methodology dispute; NBCUniversal-Versant dethroned YouTube for the largest TV viewing share — A dispute over methodology changes pushed the release of February's summary back several weeks.
Discussion:
MediaPost, Media Play News, Nielsen and The Wrap
RELATED:
Ali Lyon / City A.M.:
Axel Springer says it received approval from the UK Department for Culture, Media, and Sport to proceed with its £575M deal to acquire the Telegraph Media Group — The years-long saga over the Daily Telegraph's ownership is poised to reach a conclusion, after the government announced …
Discussion:
Telegraph, The Independent, The Standard, @bron_maher, Axel Springer SE, Press Gazette, The Wrap, Financial Times, Politico, Irish Independent and RTÉ
Leo Marchandon / Reuters:
Publicis reports Q1 net revenue organic growth of 4.5% YoY, meeting company-provided consensus, and reaffirms its FY 2026 net organic growth outlook of 4% to 5% — Publicis (PUBP.PA) on Tuesday reported first-quarter net revenue organic growth of 4.5%, meeting company-provided consensus …
Discussion:
Publicis Groupe, Financial Times, Niel Bornman on LinkedIn, Marketing Dive, PR Week UK, BMI, campaignlive.com, Adweek, Ad Age, Adweek, The Drum and Wall Street Journal
Caroline Davies / The Guardian:
Gary Neville's soccer media group The Overlap acquires Mark Goldbridge's The United Stand and That's Football YouTube channels, a source says for seven figures — Exclusive: Neville has criticised “those bloody YouTubers” - but The Overlap has now acquired channels with 3.7m subscribers for seven-figure sum
Discussion:
The Sun, @mikekeegan_dm, @footiewriter, RTÉ, The Athletic, Elliot Renton on LinkedIn, Daily Mail, Broadcast, Global, Mirror, GB News, BBC and City A.M.
Corbin Bolies / The Wrap:
Sources: Paramount pulls ads from The Ankler and tells staff to freeze out the outlet after an Ankler columnist was seen with bags of “Block the Merger” buttons — The company's move followed a conference call with The Ankler's top executives, sources say
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Memo: Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro informs staff of layoffs; source: around 1,000 jobs are expected to be eliminated as the company unifies marketing — “Given the fast-moving pace of our industries, this requires us to constantly assess how to foster a more agile and technologically-enabled workforce …
Discussion:
Reuters, Adweek, Business Insider, Glenn Moss on LinkedIn, The Wrap, Leonardo Fontes on LinkedIn, Variety, New York Post, Los Angeles Times, Deadline and Bloomberg
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Omdia: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok now capture over 90% of social media ad revenue, with Meta accounting for 70% of the total — Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok “capture over 90 percent of social media advertising revenues,” an Omdia analyst tells the StreamTV Europe gathering in Lisbon.
Discussion:
Barchart.com, Search Engine Land, Marketing Dive, The American Bazaar, MediaPost, MediaNews4U, BMI, Mobile World Live, B&T, AdNews News, Mediaweek, eMarketer, Blockonomi, Reuters and Sherwood News
Lever for Change:
Reid Hoffman and Lever for Change award $9M to CalMatters to scale its Digital Democracy tools, which give access to legislative data and use AI for analysis — Reid Hoffman and Lever for Change have awarded $9 million to CalMatters through The Trust in American Institutions Challenge …
Discussion:
Reid Hoffman on LinkedIn, Neil Chase on LinkedIn and CalMatters
The Wrap:
Sources: Ted Sarandos met with several heads of exhibition at CinemaCon in Las Vegas and discussed the possibility of putting more Netflix films into theaters — The co-CEO's pursuit of Warner Bros. seems to have marked a change of heart — Ted Sarandos might be changing his tune when it comes to theatrical exhibition.
Discussion:
IndieWire, Associated Press, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, @mrericmartin, Screen and New York Times
Ted Alcorn / @tedalcorn:
[Thread] A dashboard shows the past 25+ years of NYT coverage, across 1.5B words, 2.2M articles, and 26K reporters; Israel-Gaza dominates international coverage — I built a dashboard to explore the last 25+ years of @nytimes coverage. 1.5B words, 2.2M articles, 26K reporters. It's fascinating to look at the world's preeminent news organization not as daily stories but as patterns of attention, ebbing and flowing. https://tedalcorn.github.io/ nyt/
