Black Press Ltd. announced Monday that as part of its restructuring, its two largest existing debt-holders — Canadian institutional investors Canso Investment Counsel Ltd. and Deans Knight Capital Management Ltd. — along with community media company Carpenter Media Group would join forces in the potential purchase. more

Black Press Ltd. and certain of its subsidiaries, have announced that it obtained an Initial Order on Jan. 15 under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) from the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver. more

The Black Family has announced that David Black, president and majority owner of Black Press, is retiring after a long and distinguished career leading the company. more

Reilly Kneedler has been named Wick Communications’ chief of staff, a new role for the family-owned local media company. more

A Colorado journalist, Justin Wingerter of the Denver business-news outlet BusinessDen, is refusing to comply with a prior restraint ordering him to return records that the court itself released. more

Iris Chyi concedes that despite her analysis, the industry keeps winding down print in favor of digital transformation. more

Surprisingly, publishers don’t feel like their companies fared that badly in 2023. And they think their companies’ prospects for 2024 are bright. Also surprisingly, though, they feel differently about the media industry as a whole. This is according to a Digiday+ Research survey of 54 publisher professionals conducted late in the fourth quarter of 2023. more

The University of Texas at Austin has selected Rachel Davis Mersey to serve as the next dean of the Moody College of Communication. Mersey, who holds the Everett D. Collier Centennial Chair in the School of Journalism and Media at UT, begins her new appointment effective immediately. more

It may be pushing the season for a year-end column but I’d like to share updates on several stories from 2023. Besides, I only recently mailed Christmas cards. I’m pleased to report that three local news ventures I wrote about, including an online startup and two brave newspaper projects, are doing well and slowing the spread of news deserts in Washington. more

"If we want politicians to be held accountable in local elections, corruption to be detected and exposed, and small communities to thrive, we need local journalists. We need the state and federal government to help save local news." — Chance Phillips, Opinions Editor, The Crimson White more

Quintype is a leading AI-powered digital newsroom growth platform that empowers publishers to create, distribute and monetize content. READ MORE more

States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, has launched Utah News Dispatch to provide free, non-partisan coverage of the state issues that most affect Utahns’ daily lives. more

January 11, 2023 - News leaders told a U.S. Senate subcommittee that journalism is at risk of being snuffed out by tech giants that apparently care more about growing profits than preserving this cornerstone of democracy. Wednesday’s hearing focused on the latest threat to the battered local news industry, artificial intelligence systems scraping and regurgitating the work of print and broadcast journalists with little to no attribution or compensation. more

The U.S. Department of Labor issued its final rule, interpreting the definition of  employee versus independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (the “Final Rule”).  The Final Rule jettisons an earlier attempt under the prior Administration to modernize and simplify how to determine who is an employee and who is a contractor by focusing on two core factors. The Final Rule instead purports to return to an ambiguous totality-of-the-circumstances approach, while also placing a thumb on the scale in favor of more workers being deemed employees under the FLSA. more

PAGE Cooperative has announced that Kevin Craig will be joining the organization as its next chief executive officer.  Most recently, he served as SVP/director at The Arena Group where he helped Parade magazine with its transition from print to digital.  more

Wherever the future holds, Legacy remains committed to preserving the role of the obituary as the first and best place to remember a loved one. more

January 10, 2023 - Today (Jan. 10), the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law will hold a hearing at 2 p.m. ET, on “Oversight of A.I.: The Future of Journalism,” which will explore the impact of the growth of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) technology on publishers’ ability to provide high-quality journalism and possible oversight mechanisms to help protect and sustain quality journalism. more

Column, the fastest-growing public notice software platform, has reached an agreement with Forum Communications to acquire Modulist, a software company focused on celebrations, obituaries and announcements. This deal will expand Column’s platform in 2024 to include categories available on Modulist, as well as classifieds.  more

Lineup's latest case study looks at how Tagesspiegel sought to overhaul its self-service portals for advertising, aiming to improve efficiency, enhance user experience and boost revenue. Deploying Lineup’s Ad2Order self-service solution has led to a 93% increase in memorial revenue. more

Tired of seeing your hard-earned subscribers slip away without warning? At this live webinar, Bridget Sibthorp-Moecker, director of audience for BLOX Digital, shared insider secrets to safeguarding your digital subscription revenue. more