Paramount Closes Deal for WBD, CBS Launches “The Nerd Show”, Scripps Announces Layoffs: Media News Recap for October

Welcome to Media Insider, PR Newswire’s roundup of the biggest media stories from the past month.

Dive into the monthly media news recap for October, which was a busy month for the industry. From the creation of the media giant Skydance to midterm election news, major layoff announcements and the latest updates about the press covering the Trump administration, we have the headlines you need to catch up.

Plus, see what The New York Times has to say about that contested Elizabeth Holmes quote.

Keep reading for these stories and others you might have missed in October.

Paramount Closes Deal for Warner Bros. Discovery, Creating Media Behemoth

The monthslong process that included an offer war with Netflix and an antitrust lawsuit filed by a coalition of state attorneys general finally came to an end when Paramount finalized its deal to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery in early October. “Today is a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry,” David Ellison said in a statement. “We couldn’t be more excited to get to work,” he added.

The new combined company, called Skydance, now ranks alongside streaming titans like Netflix and YouTube, just behind giants like Disney and Amazon. Skydance owns two major movie studios in Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures, news networks including CNN and CBS News, and the streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+. During a town hall after the deal closed, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper asked Ellison, “You’re pledging not to interfere with news coverage of CNN?” to which Ellison replied, “Correct. We’ve been very clear.”

Due to a large debt incurred to complete the deal, Skydance must deliver $6 billion in cost-cutting over the next three years, a target that will be met in part by the elimination of thousands of jobs. (New York Times)

Read next:

• This week, Skydance began offering some employees voluntary buyouts and implemented a five-days-per-week in-office policy. (Variety)
• David Ellison asked CNN CEO Mark Thompson to stay at the helm of the cable news network after the acquisition. (Wall Street Journal)
• Elon Musk has invested roughly $1 billion in Skydance. (Semafor)
• The company named veteran HBO executive Casey Bloys to lead streaming content for Paramount+ and HBO Max. (MediaPost)
• After the deal closed, CNN announced that its streaming subscription was being expanded to the UK and Canada. (CNN)
• CNN legend Christiane Amanpour announced that she will be leaving the network next June. (CNN)

CBS News to launch election night “nerd show” for politics junkies

“The Nerd Show” will begin on Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 5pm ET, a few hours before CBS News’ official election broadcast. It’s the network’s first election-focused show built for a digital audience and will enable viewers to watch its decision desk analyze races and make calls in real time.

CBS News executive director of elections and surveys Anthony Salvanto will host alongside congressional correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns and pollsters and data experts. It will also include prediction market insights from Kalshi. The livestream will be available on YouTube, X and CBS News’ owned and operated digital channels, including its streaming network, CBS News 24/7. (Axios)

More midterms-related news:

• The AP Fund for Journalism expanded its election resources to 200 local newsrooms nationwide. (Editor & Publisher)
• The Hill is adding Decision Desk HQ to its Insider premium membership package. (Deadline)
• Hillary Clinton and Kara Swisher are teaming up for “High Stakes,” a podcast series focused on the election that will run through mid-November. (New York Times)
• C-SPAN’s Election Night coverage will include YouTube creators. (TheDesk.net)
• Ahead of Election Day, The Wall Street Journal’s AI tool “Doppler” ingested 25 million TikTok videos and 500,000 podcasts to gain new insight into U.S. voters. (NiemanLab)

Katie Zacharia Is Ousted After 5 Days as White House Press Secretary

After a bumpy start and days of unrelenting bad press coverage, Katie Zacharia was ousted from her role as press secretary. Zacharia held only one press conference during her short time in the role and was confronted with headlines questioning how she represented herself as a lawyer despite never passing the bar exam. Her subsequent interviews also went poorly.

President Trump stopped to talk to reporters on the way to a midterm rally and told them he’d just encouraged his press secretary to “reconsider” her new job. He said that Ms. Zacharia might continue to work for him “in some form, but maybe a more pleasant form.” (New York Times)

In other administration news:

• The White House counsel’s office warned Politico to retract or correct recent stories about alleged staff drama, or it would suffer unspecified consequences. (Axios)
• The Independent’s White House correspondent was removed from the president’s traveling press pool scheduled to cover a campaign rally. (The Independent)
• Sources reported that Trump floated the idea of turning the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room back into an indoor swimming pool. (New York Times) Trump later denied the rumor in a Truth Social post, though he admitted to possibly relocating the press to a new space at the White House. (CNN)
• The White House’s battle against CNN, Politico and MS NOW continued in October as the DOJ argued the ban should stand because the outlets don’t meet “minimum requirements of professionalism.” (Deadline)
• Six citizens have filed a lawsuit against Trump, saying the media ban deprives them of news as audience stakeholders. (AP)

AI nonprofit will spend $10 million on journalism

The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, a Silicon Valley nonprofit, is pledging $10 million by the end of 2027 to fund mainstream and independent coverage of artificial intelligence. Machine Gods, NPR’s new video podcast, is the first grant recipient, receiving $480,000 from the organization. NPR’s “Power and Influence” desk is also receiving $250,000 to help expand its coverage of how AI intersects with politics, money and power.

Tarbell plans to fund investigative teams, AI verticals at national outlets, and other large-scale initiatives in new and legacy media. The grants, which used to range from $1,000 to $20,000 to work on individual AI stories, have grown to $50,000 to $500,000, and could include multimillion-dollar grants for the right projects, according to the organization. (Semafor)

More AI news:

• CNN and Google are partnering to figure out how Google’s generative AI products can help boost engagement with CNN’s journalism. (Variety)
• A coalition of media organizations released a new standard for tracking how AI tools use publishers’ content. (Digiday)
• USA Today filed a $250M copyright lawsuit against OpenAI. (Forbes)
• The Tow-Knight Center released a new report on journalism’s future in an AI age. (Tow-Knight Center)
• News industry leaders pushed back against Meta’s planned new terms, which they argue would allow Meta to use scraped content to train its AI models, with no option to opt out. (NiemanLab)

Scripps begins new round of layoffs impacting technical, news production roles

The E. W. Scripps Company started a fresh round of buyout offers and layoffs as part of a broader strategy to address its debt. According to multiple sources, nearly all Scripps-owned stations across the country are affected, including key markets like Detroit, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Denver, Phoenix and West Palm Beach.

While some non-union technical workers in IT and broadcast engineering departments received layoff notices, union-backed reporters, photographers and graphic designers reportedly received buyout offers instead, due to the terms in their collective bargaining agreements. Scripps CEO Adam Symson said more than 430 positions across the company were eliminated, but 100 new positions are being created in some business units, including local news. (TheDesk.net)

In other layoff news from October:

• Netflix cut 6% of its staff, or roughly 1,000 positions globally, in its biggest round of layoffs since 2022. (Wall Street Journal)
• Tech news startup Rest of World is searching for a new owner to avoid the prospect of shutting down. (Semafor)
• Symbolic, an AI publishing platform for newsrooms, is offering six months of free access to journalists who were recently laid off. (Symbolic.ai)
• The Washington Post announced the closure of its Springfield printing plant, resulting in the elimination of more than 100 jobs. (Washington Business Journal)
• BBC News told staff that the division will close more than 100 roles over the coming months. (Deadline)
• Comcast is bracing for major job cuts in its cable and telecom businesses. (Variety)

ICYMI

A few more reads you might have missed last month:

• Everyone is talking about “You Can See Everything.” The Times addressed the contested Elizabeth Holmes quote in its new Backstory newsletter. (New York Times)
• Former “60 Minutes” executive producer Bill Owens is joining the media startup Newpress as its EP. (Hollywood Reporter)
• The new Local News Impact Investment Fund has raised $21 million aimed at helping local news businesses grow. (Axios)
• New research finds that a fifth of U.S. adults regularly get news on TikTok. (Pew Research Center)
• Life Magazine will return as a print quarterly next month. (New York Times)
• Morning Brew Inc. acquired Express Checkout, a creator-led media brand covering the consumer packaged goods industry. (ADWEEK)
• The Emmys telecast will start streaming on Amazon next September as part of a six-year deal. (New York Times) In other streaming news, Disney+ will air the Super Bowl simulcast on Feb. 14, 2026. (MediaPost)

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.