For the Record

"It Was Hard To See a Downside":

The City, a new nonprofit news site, will team up with New York magazine to replace "lost local accountability and investigative journalism" in the wake of the closure of The Village Voice and the downscaling of the New York Daily News. "We’re really hoping to not only do some good here, but also to kind of reconnect people to civil activity," said editor and lifelong Brooklynite Jere Hester.

Departure:

White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah will "leave the White House after the confirmation process for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh ends." Shah, who previously directed opposition research for the Republican National Committee, "has been in charge of the White House's communications strategies in support of Kavanaugh since President Donald Trump nominated Kavanaugh to the nation's high court in July."

"In Between":

Jeffrey Katzenberg and former Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman have unveiled a subscription service focused on short-form content. Provisionally titled NewTV, the service, to which former Hollywood Reporter Editor-in-Chief Janice Min will contribute, is expected in late 2019 or the start of 2020. It will "feature a range of scripted and unscripted shows, including sitcoms, dramas, reality and documentaries."

Departure:

Veteran NBC executives George Cheeks and Paul Telegdy were named co-chairmen of NBC Entertainment Monday following the departure of Bob Greenblatt. During Greenblatt's tenure, the network "returned to prosperity atop the ratings after languishing for years as the fourth-placed network."

"No Good Reason":

According to a crowdsourced investigation on an anti-alt-right subreddit, news sites funded by Russia's Internet Research Agency "have been aggressively targeting Reddit’s largest pro-Trump subreddit, /r/The_Donald, for over a year." The thread "was deleted deleted and archived several hours after it was posted" along with the account of the original poster, who cited potential threats in a subsequent post. A Reddit spokesperson said that "the company had been in the final stages of investigating the domains listed in [the] post when the thread was posted."

"A Real Moment":

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom and CTO Mike Kreiger resigned Monday and "plan to leave the company in the coming weeks." Systrom and Kreiger, who co-founded the company in 2010, did not specify their reasons for stepping down.

"Weighed Down":

WPP CEO Mark Read is considering a "merger between Young & Rubicam and WPP’s digital-ad firm VML, with VML CEO Jon Cook leading the combined business." The proposal coincides with stagnant growth at WPP's traditional agencies, including Y&R and J. Walter Thompson, as advertisers "are increasingly doing more of their creative work in-house or taking their business to smaller agencies that have been more nimble in adapting to a digital age."

"A Broader Understanding":

ProPublica reporters Julia Angwin and Jeff Larson have founded The Markup, "a news site dedicated to investigating technology and its effect on society." The organization primarily will be supported by a $20 million gift from Craig Newmark Philanthropies. Angwin (a 2003 Explanatory Reporting staff contributor) and Larson were named as Explanatory Reporting finalists in 2017.

"A More Actionable Tool":

Following the "dismal response" to the 2018 ASNE Newsroom Employment Diversity Survey, officers of the Ford Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and other journalism funders issued a joint statement calling on the industry "to respond with the urgency this moment demands." The final deadline is October 12. Beginning next year, ASNE grantees will be required to complete the survey as a condition of their funding.

"A Fantastic Home":

Sports publishing start-up Minute Media has acquired Mental Floss, a digital and print organization that presents "facts, puzzles, and trivia with a humorous tone," from the estate of British media impresario Felix Dennis. "The acquisition is a natural evolution of Minute Media’s platform strategy," said founder and CEO Asaf Peled.