For the Record

Wyndham Destinations Buys Travel + Leisure From Meredith:

Wyndham Destinations is buying Travel + Leisure from Meredith for $100 million in a deal that would "expand Wyndham’s business beyond its core vacation-ownership operations," Dave Sebastian of The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The combined company would encompass Travel + Leisure's flagship magazine alongside its member-based travel services and Wyndham's 230 timeshare resorts. However, Meredith will continue publishing the magazine under a 30-year license, with its staff remaining as Meredith employees. Wyndham Destinations "plans to change its name to Travel + Leisure Co. and trade under the ticker symbol 'TNL' as of mid-February."

Small Publishers Face Postal Reckoning:

Hundreds of small publishers are "struggling to deliver their products" due to staffing shortages at the United States Postal Service amid possible rate increases of "as much as 9% in 2022 and for years thereafter," according to Jacob Bobage of The Washington Post. "These are little, tiny rural communities, and typically papers like mine are the only sources of information about that community," said Brett Wesner, chair of the National Newspaper Association and publisher of an eponymous newspaper chain in the Southwest. "Most don’t have digital coverage of any kind. Most don’t have radio stations. We are the source of community information, both in terms of covering community events but also the city council, the school board, the county commission." 

Knox Joins Washington Post:

Former White House Correspondents' Association President Olivier Knox will join The Washington Post to anchor The Daily 202, its "flagship politics newsletter on the inner-workings of Washington politics and policy," the newspaper announced Tuesday. Knox, who has covered the three most recent presidential administrations, previously was SiriusXM's chief Washington correspondent and a reporter for Yahoo News and Agence France-Presse. Since its launch in 2015, The Daily 202 has "[reached] the largest government audience of all Post newsletters and [experienced] continuous growth, recording a 20% jump in readership year-over-year."

Vietnam Jails Journalists:

A court in Vietnam "sentenced three freelance journalists known for their criticism of government to between 11 and 15 years in prison" Tuesday "after finding them guilty of spreading anti-state propaganda," according to a Reuters wire report. Pham Chi Dung, Nguyen Tuong Thuy and Le Huu Minh Tuan were convicted of “making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the state” at a one-day trial in Ho Chi Minh City. Dung, who received a 15-year sentence, is the founder of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, which also has been accused of plotting regime change by police. 

Cut Names Peoples Wagner Editor in Chief:

The Cut, a "New York Magazine style and culture website with a devoted following," has named Lindsay Peoples Wagner as its new editor in chief, Katie Robertson of The New York Times reported Monday. Wagner, who is the editor in chief of Teen Vogue, previously worked as a fashion market editor at the publication. "We're all multifaceted human beings, and we can enjoy fashion and want to enjoy some fun but also really care about the state of the world and where we are in politics,” Peoples Wagner said of her vision for The Cut.

Copyrighted Works From 1925 Enter Public Domain:

Copyrighted works from 1925 entered the public domain on January 1 under the provisions of the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, according to Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain. These range from the early oeuvre of posthumous 1999 Special Citation recipient Duke Ellington (including "Jig Walk" and "With You," both written in collaboration with Jo Trent) to Sinclair Lewis' 1926 Novel Prize-winning "Arrowsmith" and "In Our Time," an experimental short story collection by 1953 Fiction winner Ernest Hemingway. "The goal of copyright is to promote creativity, and the public domain plays a central role in doing so," the Center said in a statement. "Copyright law gives authors important rights that encourage creativity and distribution. But it also ensures that those rights last for a 'limited time,' so that when they expire, works can go into the public domain, where future authors can legally build upon their inspirations."

Tabloid Start-up Emerges in Texas News Desert:

Following the closure of The Del Rio News-Herald in November, former Air Force public affairs specialist Joel Langton "decided to turn an online events website he had started into a 16-page, ad-supported weekly tabloid, Del Rio’s 830 Times," according to James Robbins of The New York Times. "The News-Herald had a great staff and a bad business plan,” he said. “Publishers came in from the outside every 18 months. Del Rio is a complicated culture. I’ve been here for 15 years and still don’t know everything going on.” The venture has retained familiar News-Herald veterans as freelancers, while Steven T. Webb, a city councilman, believes that the paper may allay civic disengagement in the area: "Social media, friends, that’s the only way we get the news now. It hurt us, the newspaper closing."

Newman Named Director at MIT Media Lab:

Aerospace biomedical engineer Dava Newman "has been named the new director of the MIT Media Lab effective July 1, 2021," the institution announced Tuesday. Known for designing the BioSuit, a "supple, 'second-skin' space suit that would allow astronauts greater flexibility while providing the pressure needed to function well in a low-gravity environment," Newman conducts research in biomechanics, control and dynamics; human factors; engineering systems and design; and space policy. "I really see the MIT Media Lab as the best place in the world to bring together science, engineering, art, and design, to creatively deal with the huge challenges humanity is facing,” she said. Newman will succeed entrepreneur and venture capitalist Joi Ito, who resigned from the position in September 2019 after reporting by 2018 Public Service named contributor Ronan Farrow revealed that he maintained a secret fundraising relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Gannett Negotiates Early Exit From Management Deal:

Gannett "has negotiated an early exit from a fee-based arrangement in which an investment firm has been managing the company," Nathan Bomey of USA Today reported Tuesday. Under the agreement, the media company will pay Fortress Investment Group affiliate FIG LLC "a one-time fee of $30.375 million" to end the management deal at the end of the year, while incumbent Chairman/CEO Michael Reed (a Fortress employee) will become an official employee of Gannett effective January 1. According to public filings, Gannett paid FIG "$16.3 million in management fees and $2.6 million in incentive fees" in the first nine months of 2020. Bomey added that the change "is unlikely to affect Gannett's news operations."

Village Voice Revived by Street Media:

The Village Voice will return early next year under the ownership of Street Media, "a California investment group that owns LA Weekly," Lukas I. Alpert of The wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Chief Executive Brian Calle, who purchased the paper from Reading Eagle Company Publisher Peter Barbey, said "he intends to begin publishing new content on the Village Voice website in January" and will resume print publication as a quarterly in March. "This is something that is so important historically, and I believe it is something that is going to be needed when New York begins to fully reopen next year," he said. The sale encompasses all of the alternative weekly's assets save for the Obie Awards, which will be handed off to its co-producer, the American Theater Wing. Co-founded by two-time Pulitzer winner Norman Mailer in 1955, the newspaper has published Pulitzer-winning work by Teresa Carpenter, Jules Feiffer and Mark Schoofs.