For the Record

News Corp Acquires HMH's Consumer Division:

News Corp "clinched a deal to acquire Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's books and media segment for $349 million in cash, planning to combine the publisher with its HarperCollins Publishers subsidiary," Todd Spangler of Variety reported Monday. The publisher's "backlist of more than 7,000 titles" encompasses such notable books as J.R.R. Tolkien's oeuvre; "1984" and "Animal Farm" by George Orwell; and "All the King’s Men," the 1946 Pulitzer-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren.

Swiss Billionaire Joins Bainbaum Tribune Bid:

Billionaire philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss, the former chief executive of Synthes, "said in an interview on Friday that he had agreed to join with the Maryland hotelier Stewart W. Bainum Jr. in a bid for Tribune Publishing, an offer that could upend Alden Global Capital’s plan to take full ownership of the company," Marc Tracy of The New York Times reported Saturday. Although Bainum, the chairman of Choice Hotels International, made a bid on March 16 for all of Tribune that exceeded Alden's proposal after acquiring three Maryland-based Tribune newspapers, the media company "was not swayed by Mr. Bainum’s offer" for the remaining publications. "Maybe I'm naïve,” Wyss said of his personal interest in operating the Chicago Tribune, "but the combination of giving enough money to a professional staff to do the right things and putting quite a bit of money into digital will eventually make it a very profitable newspaper."

Larry McMurtry (1936-2021):

1986 Fiction winner Larry McMurtry died Thursday. He was 84. A spokesperson did not specify a cause or say where he died. Over a career that spanned five decades, McMurtry interrogated the vicissitudes and complexity of small-town life amid the legacy of America's westward expansion in dozens of novels, screenplays and essays, including the Pulitzer-winning "Lonesome Dove," "The Last Picture Show" (1966; notably adapted for the screen by Peter Bogdanovich in 1971) and the screenplay for Ang Lee's 2005 adaptation of 1994 Fiction winner E. Annie Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain," for which he and longtime collaborator Diana Ossana received an Academy Award. Although he resided to his hometown of Archer City, Texas for much of his life (where he operated a comprehensive antiquarian bookstore, Booked Up), McMurtry maintained a national profile throughout his career, serving as president of PEN in the early 1990s, frequently contributing to the New York Review of Books and teaching for several years in the 1960s at his graduate alma mater, Rice University. A lifelong friend of fellow writer Ken Kesey, McMurtry married his widow, Faye, in 2011, although "complete information on his survivors was not immediately available." 
 

New Republic Staff Returns to Washington:

The New Republic has named a new editor "and announced that it was moving back to Washington, its home city for most of its 107-year existence," Katie Robertson of The New York Times reported Thursday. Michael Tomasky, who edits the quarterly policy journal Democracy: A Journal of Ideas and writes a column for The Daily Beast, will take over as the magazine's top editor on April 19 while continuing his role at the former publication. Outgoing editor Chris Lehmann will stay on as an editor at large. The magazine has been based in New York since Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes acquired the publication in 2012. Two years later, "most of the staff quit after the top editor, Franklin Foer, departed," precipitating its sale to Mother Jones co-founder Win McCormack in 2016. The magazine's business operations team will remain in New York.

Axios, Athletic Enter Merger Negotiations:

Sports news organization The Athletic "is in merger talks with news startup Axios" as part of a plan "to build a larger online-publishing company that could include going public through a blank-check firm," Benjamin Mullin of The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Although "discussions are at an early stage and could fall apart," Athletic CEO Alex Mather approached Axios' Jim VandeHei about a week ago with the proposal. The chief executives have discussed other opportunities during the pandemic. The combined company may raise money for further acquisitions, including publishers "with content that consumers are willing to pay for and that can earn a premium from advertisers." Both publishers would continue to operate autonomously while "selling subscriptions to businesses at a premium rate."

HuffPost Appoints Danielle Belton Editor-in-Chief:

Danielle Belton, the longtime editor of The Root, "will take over the top job at HuffPost next month, filling a role that has sat empty for more than a year," Katie Robertson of The New York Times reported Wednesday. "I realized that journalism was right for me when I was in J-school at college, and I realized that these are my people. I got the same feeling talking to HuffPost staff,” said Belton. Belton, who will start on April 12, will report to 2000 International Reporting winner and BuzzFeed News Editor in Chief Mark Schoofs.

News Corp Acquires Investor's Business Daily:

News Corp announced Thursday that it has agreed to acquire Investor's Business Daily from O'Neil Capital Management. The "high margin, profitable and rapidly growing digital first financial news and research business will be operated by Dow Jones," a News Corp subsidiary. "IBD will greatly enhance our e-expertise in finance, with compelling digital coverage, unique tools and high-yielding services. We will be able to cross-sell and up-sell with Dow Jones financial products and provide specialist insights for a knowing business audience,” said Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp.

Los Angeles Times Receives PPP Loan:

The Los Angeles Times "has received a $10 million loan through the federal Paycheck Protection Program — money that will help cover payroll and other employee-related costs amid a dramatic plunge in advertising revenue," Staff Writer Meg James reported Tuesday. According to President and Chief Operating Officer Chris Argentieri, owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong's California Times holding company has struggled financially since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic last year: "The money will be used almost exclusively for employee-related costs, including payroll and employee benefits. We lost tens of millions of dollars in advertising revenue pretty much instantly in March 2020, and the pandemic continues to take a toll on the public health and take a toll economically. We are still operating with great uncertainty.” The newspaper did not meet eligibility criteria for earlier PPP disbursements. 

Medium Offers Voluntary Buyouts to Editorial Employees:

Publishing platform Medium "offered voluntary buyouts to all of its editorial staff on Tuesday as it announced it was scaling back its journalism," according to Katie Robertson of The New York Times. During a meeting held via videoconference, the staff also was informed that Siobhan O’Connor, who has served as vice president for editorial since 2018, will be leaving the company. In an internal email, founder Evan Williams highlighted difficulties with the platform's publications, including OneZero, GEN and Zora. "To be clear, we had no illusion these publications were going to pay for themselves in the short term," he said. “The bet was that we could develop these brands, and they would develop loyal audiences that would grow the overall Medium subscriber base. What’s happened, though, is the Medium subscriber base has continued to grow, while our publications' audiences haven’t.” A Medium spokesperson said in a statement that the company remains “fully committed to high-quality editorial and to the open platform model that supports independent writers.”

Time Explores NFTs, Crypto Payments:

Time magazine "plans to lean into surging demand for digital currency and art" by designing its first-ever cover exclusively as a non-fungible token (NFT), Julia La Roche of Yahoo Finance reported Monday. The cover, which features the title "Is Fiat Dead?" in a nod to the "iconic cover designs from the April 8, 1966 'Is God Dead?' and April 3, 2017 'Is Truth Dead?' editions," will be auctioned alongside those covers on SuperRare, "a marketplace for digital artworks tokenized as crypto-collectible digital items" to be traded. "Phase one of what's happening in the NFT space is very much about collectibles," said Keith Grossman, the publication's president. "Phase two is thinking about how these tokens can unlock or provide access to subscriptions, memberships, and unique experiences." Grossman added that the magazine plans to offer a "pay by crypto" option within the month and a "frictionless, user-friendly NFT approach to purchase collectibles, subscriptions, and 'unique access'" to content within 90 days.