Here’s news to start the week: the Financial Times has expanded into the U.S. market; Bloomberg’s GPT aims to be the AI in business news and the Texas Observer has rebooted thanks to $300,000 via crowdfunding. Happy Easter Monday and beyond…
Financial Times and an Endpoints beginning… The Financial Times has acquired a controlling stake in biopharmaceutical industry news provider Endpoints News for an undisclosed sum. This acquisition marks a significant milestone in the FT’s expansion in the U.S. Group CEO John Ridding said, “We’re thrilled to invest in Endpoints, a fast-growing business with a robust reputation for delivering quality news to audiences across the biopharma ecosystem. There is strong alignment between Endpoints and the FT in terms of mission, business model and focus on reader revenues. This acquisition also supports our ambitions to reach new audiences in innovative sectors and grow our footprint in the U.S.” Read more here.
Bloomberg’s AI move… BloombergGPT is aiming to be a domain-specific artificial intelligence for business news. Joshua Benton of Nieman Lab wrote “How big is BloombergGPT? Well, the company says it was trained on a corpus of more than 700 billion tokens (or word fragments). For context, GPT-3, released in 2020, was trained on about 500 billion. (OpenAI has declined to reveal any equivalent number for GPT-4, the successor released last month, citing ‘the competitive landscape.’) Of the 700 million-plus tokens, 363 billion are taken from Bloomberg’s own financial data, the sort of information that powers its terminals — ‘the largest domain-specific dataset yet’ constructed, it says.” Read the full details here.
Texas Observer crowdfunded to second shot… Just three days after the Texas Observer voted to cease publication and lay off its journalists, the nonprofit publisher announced it would keep the 68-year-old liberal magazine going, following an emergency appeal that crowdsourced more than $300,000. Laura Hernandez Holmes, president of the board of the Texas Democracy Foundation, which publishes the magazine, said, “Today, upon receiving significant financial pledges over the past few days, the Texas Observer board gathered to vote to reconsider previous board actions. The vote to rescind layoffs was unanimous, and the board is eager to move the publication to its next phase.” She also praised the donors and was grateful to the staff. Read more here.
Layoffs hit ABC News… Disney CEO Bob Iger had announced a chunk of layoffs this week, with two more rounds to follow, one in April, followed by another round before summer begins. The 50 cuts at ABC will be spread across the layoff rounds. An excerpt from the memo by ABC News president Kim Godwin reads, “Throughout the company, teams are being impacted by the downsizing that was announced several weeks ago, including our own ABC News family. While this is a difficult time for all of us – particularly those directly affected by these tough decisions – it’s important to remember that together, we are resilient, and will emerge from this period of transition stronger than before.” She went on to further announce some staff restructuring for which the details can be found here.
Star Tribune’s new board chair… The Minneapolis Star Tribune has appointed Christine Fruechte its new chair of the board of directors. She’ll replace Mike Klingensmith, who is retiring after 13 years tenure as publisher and CEO. Fruechte brings more than 30 years of strategic marketing and business management experience to the newsroom. She also serves on the board of the Wenger Corporation and the 4A’s. Commenting on her appointment, she said, “It has been a privilege to serve alongside such a committed team of world-class pros like Scott Burns, Leigh Hart, David Kristal, Channon Lemon, and, of course, Glen Taylor and Mike Klingensmith. I’m excited to play an expanded role with the Star Tribune as we welcome Steve Grove as publisher and CEO.”
The City hires Robbins for its investigative beat… Tom Robbins has joined New York-based nonprofit digital news platform The City as a senior investigative reporter to work on long-term investigations about New York City. Since 2011, Robbins has been an investigative journalist in residence at CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. He has also worked for the New York Daily News, The Village Voice, City Limits, The New York Times, The New Yorker, the New York Magazine, The Atlantic and The Marshall Project. You can connect with Robbins via Twitter.
Daily Mirror expands in the U.S… As part of its expansion into the States, the Daily Mirror has hired Fiona Leishman as a U.S. reporter. Recently, she was a content editor at Cambridge News in England. She also served as newsletter lead for the South East at Reach and has worked at Cambridge News. A graduate of Newcastle University and City, University of London, you can find her on Twitter.
Another U.K.-toU.S. move… The Daily Mail has appointed James Franey to the post of senior U.S. political reporter, based in Washington, D.C. Recently, he was a Europe correspondent based in Brussels. He also worked as a broadcast journalist at BBC News and held the posts of broadcast journalist and European affairs correspondent at Euronews. You can congratulate Franey on Twitter.
AP hires Washington state pols reporter… Ed Komenda will join The Associated Press in May to cover state government and general assignment stories in Washington state, based in Olympia. Currently, he is an enterprise and investigations editor at Gannett | USA Today Network, where he edits for the Reno Gazette Journal and USA Today Network. Komenda joined the Gannett | USA Today Network in 2019 as a Las Vegas reporter. Komenda graduated from Western Illinois University and can be found on Twitter.
Nonprofit is stocking up on reporters… The Houston Landing, a nonprofit news startup, has hired Briah Lumpkins as a reporter to cover Houston’s southern suburbs. She will begin in the summer. Recently, Lumpkins was an investigative reporting fellow at The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C. She also interned at the Cincinnati Enquirer and Columbus Dispatch in Ohio and has worked at The Miami Student, Miami University’s independent student newspaper, from where she graduated in 2022.
Giambalvo’s new role at WaPo… Emily Giambalvo, a staff writer at the Washington Post, will take on a new on the Post’s Sports desk to work on data-driven projects as part of the Post’s investigations and enterprise team. Previously, she covered the University of Maryland football and men’s basketball, the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo and Winter Games in Beijing. She joined the Post in 2018 as an intern and has also interned at The Seattle Times. A University of Georgia grad, you can connect with Giambalvo on Twitter.
Boston crosstown crossover… Sean Philip Cotter, a city hall reporter/editor at the Boston Herald, will join The Boston Globe to cover the city’s police department. Previously, he reported for the The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass. and The York Dispatch. Cotter graduated from Syracuse University, where he wrote for the student paper. Be sure to congratulate Cotter on Twitter.
Maine business on the block?… The Press Herald reports, “The owner of five of Maine’s six daily newspapers, including the Sun Journal, Portland Press Herald and dozens of weekly publications from York to Hancock County, announced in a memo to employees Thursday he’s exploring selling his media holdings. Reade Brower, 66, explained that at his age it’s time to think about either selling or partnering with another investor. “What I want is to find the pathway forward that is best for all the stakeholders including the employees, the readers, the state of Maine as a whole. It is time to begin that phase, without urgency or desperation. There is really nothing to tell at this point other than I’m a 66-year-old person who owns a company and needs a succession plan because I don’t have one.” Brower purchased MaineToday Media, the parent company of the Press Herald, the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, from financier S. Donald Sussman in April 2015.” Read more here.
Penske Media’s trio of hires… Penske Media Corporation has appointed Andrew Burmon to the post of editor in chief; Tim Chan has taken on the role of VP of commerce; and Jonathan Borge has joined as deputy editor for STYLECASTER. Previously, Burmon worked at New York-based think tank 3i, where he held the posts of ops and editorial consultant and COO. In his new role, Chan will oversee lifestyle, shopping and e-commerce coverage for the company’s brands, including Rolling Stone, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and Vibe. Previously, he worked at Rolling Stone. Recently, Borge served as the deputy entertainment editor of Elite Daily. He also freelanced for E! News at NBCUniversal and was the founding senior editor at OprahDaily.com at Hearst Magazines.
Former Protocol editor to launch news site… A former editor of Politico’s now-defunct tech site, Protocol, has bought a chunk of the company’s email list and is launching an independent, ad-supported news site with it. Laura Hazard Owen of Nieman Lab reports, “Its enterprise editor, Tom Krazit — who, all the disclosures, was my editor at Gigaom until 2015 when that site abruptly shut down, and who has been covering the tech industry for 20 years — launched a Substack while considering what to do next. Krazit bought the email list for that newsletter, including more than 20,000 subscribers, from Politico Media Group in February. Today, he’s relaunching it as Runtime. The Runtime newsletter will come out three times a week, and an accompanying website will include a mix of long-form reporting, interviews, and explorations of emerging technologies.” The details can be read here.
Journal Star names Olberding associate ME… Matt Olberding, a business editor and reporter at Nebraska’s Lincoln Journal Star, has been promoted to associate managing editor. Talking about his appointment on Twitter, Olberding said, “It sounds more important than it is; essentially I’m one of several assistant editors who help guide coverage and produce the print and online versions of the newspaper. You’ll still see my byline, but it will likely be less and less frequent over the coming weeks as the transition takes place.” Previously, Olberding freelanced for SmartBrief, Motley Fool and Turbo Tax. He has also covered numerous beats, including real estate, taxes, insurance, investing, personal finance and health and fitness. Be sure to congratulate Olberding on Twitter.
Veteran Albuquerque Journal writer bids farewell… Rick Nathanson, a staff writer at the Albuquerque Journal, will say goodbye to his media home of 44 years. An excerpt from his farewell note reads, “As a staff writer for the Albuquerque Journal for nearly 44 years, and a journalist for several years before then, I’ve come to appreciate that what I’ve done professionally has become inextricably woven into the fabric of who I am. I’m a newspaper guy, and even though I’m retiring as of March 31, I will always be a newspaper guy. So, as I depart this newsroom for the last time, I know I will miss this business and the people, but I will be there in spirit each morning when I open the Albuquerque Journal from home.” Read more here.
Mariam Ahmed is Talking Biz News’ content correspondent. For tips on the Friday TBN Ticker, email her at mariam@talkingbiznews.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.
