Aurelia Butler

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(Reuters) -William Lewis, the former Dow Jones chief executive and publisher of The Wall Street Journal has been named chief executive and publisher of The Washington Post, the Post said on Saturday. The Washington Post said that it is projected to end the year taking a $100 million loss. The publisher added that executives are offering buyouts across the company in an effort to reduce its head count by about 10 percent, the newsroom is expected to shrink to about 940 journalists.Lewis’s appointment comes at a time when the media industry is grappling with a sluggish advertising market, low trust in news, and developments in generative AI technology that threaten to upend how people find and consume information. Lewis is set to take on his duties from Jan. 2, 2024, replacing Patty Stonesifer, who became interim chief executive in June. The Post is owned by billionaire Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos. According to an Oct. 10 email sent by Stonesifer to staff and seen by Reuters, after conducting a review Stonesifer and senior leadership determined that the Post’s prior projections for website traffic, subscriptions and advertising growth for the past two years and into 2024 were “overly optimistic.” It’s unclear why those projections were off. Stonesifer had replaced Fred Ryan, who stepped down in August after a nine-year stint as publisher and CEO. During Ryan’s tenure, the Post boosted its digital subscriptions, won 13 Pulitzer Prizes and launched the Arc XP (NASDAQ:XP) cloud-based digital platform that serves more than 1,900 sites in 28 countries, according to the company in June. In an article covering Ryan’s departure, the Post reported that the majority of its revenue now comes from its digital business, and it has about 2.5 million digital subscribers, a shift from when Ryan was hired in September 2014 and the majority of revenue came from its print business. More

“I’m hoping to announce the new deputy governor before the meeting of the Reserve Bank on the fifth of December,” Chalmers told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Bullock, appointed RBA governor in July, has the task of leading the bank through a major internal shakeup after a review urged changes including a separate specialist board to manage monetary policy, fewer meetings and more public communication.Chalmers said shortlisted candidates for the deputy role – “some international some external, some from Australia some from overseas” – were being interviewed, adding that Bullock had been “deeply involved”.On implementing the Reserve Bank review, Chalmers said laws would be introduced at the end of November. They would include the RBA governor chairing a new governance board “at least for the first five years”.”Until we review it and make sure it’s working as we intended,” Chalmers said.The review, released in April, recommended such a board be set up to guide and oversight RBA management, in line with corporate governance best practice.Bullock, the first woman to helm the country’s central bank, took over from Philip Lowe in the top job in September. Chalmers comments come ahead of a meeting on Tuesday of the RBA, tipped to raise its key policy rate by 25 basis points to 4.35%, according to a Reuters poll on Friday, after keeping borrowing costs steady at its last four meetings. More

The winning bidder consortium which also includes Air France-KLM, Lind Invest ApS and the Danish state, increased its proposed investment by $25.26 million.In October, the company said Castlelake would take a stake of about 32%, while Air France-KLM’s will be around 20% and the Danish state will hold about 26%, adding that total investments in the reorganized SAS would amount to $1.16 billion. The airline’s credit agreement for $505.25 million with Castlelake will be used to refinance its loans, increase liquidity and support its exit from voluntary restructuring proceedings, according to the statement.Air France confirmed the increased restructuring aid financing. SAS’s chief executive, Anko van der Werff, said: “By entering into this investment agreement, SAS is taking the next step in its Chapter 11 process in the U.S.”The company now seeks U.S. Court approval of the investment agreement and the new debtor-in-possession financing as soon as possible in November.In August of last year, the Scandinavian airline entered into an agreement with U.S.-based investment fund Apollo Global to raise $700 million of fresh financing.Scandinavia’s biggest carrier filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States in mid-2022 after years of struggling with high costs coupled with low customer demand brought on by the pandemic.Castlelake and Lind Invest did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ($1 = 10.8856 Swedish crowns) More

Countries moved a step closer on Saturday to getting a fund off the ground to help poor states damaged by climate disasters, despite reservations from developing nations and the United States. The deal to create a “loss and damage” fund was hailed as a breakthrough for developing country negotiators at United Nations climate talks in Egypt last year, overcoming years of resistance from wealthy nations. But in the past 11 months, governments have struggled to reach consensus on the details of the fund, such as who will pay and where the fund will be located. A special U.N. committee tasked with implementing the fund met for a fifth time in Abu Dhabi this week – following a deadlock in Egypt last month – to finalise recommendations that will be put to governments when they meet for the annual climate summit COP28 in Dubai in less than four weeks’ time. The goal is to get the fund up and running by 2024. The committee, representing a geographically diverse group of countries, resolved to recommend the World Bank serve as trustee and host of the fund – a tension point that has fuelled divisions between developed and developing nations.Housing a fund at the World Bank, whose presidents are appointed by the U.S., would give donor countries outsized influence over the fund and result in high fees for recipient countries, developing countries have argued.To get all countries on board, it was agreed the World Bank would serve as interim trustee and host of the fund for a four-year period.Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s special climate envoy, said in a post on X that Berlin “stands ready to fulfil its responsibility – we’re actively working towards contributing to the new fund and assessing options for more structural sources of financing”.Others were less optimistic.“It is a sombre day for climate justice, as rich countries turn their backs on vulnerable communities,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at nonprofit Climate Action Network International. “Rich countries … have not only coerced developing nations into accepting the World Bank as the host of the Loss and Damage Fund but have also evaded their duty to lead in providing financial assistance to those communities and countries.”The committee also recommended that developed countries be urged to continue to provide support to the fund, but failed to resolve whether wealthy nations would be under strict financial obligation to do chip in.”We regret that the text does not reflect consensus concerning the need for clarity on the voluntary nature of contributions,” a U.S. State Department official told Reuters.The U.S. attempted to include a footnote clarifying that any contributions to the fund would be voluntary, but the committee chair did not allow it. The U.S. objected to that denial.Sultan al-Jaber, who will preside over the COP28 talks, said he welcomed the committee’s recommendations and that they would pave the way for an agreement at COP28.  More