Cumulus Media New Holdings Inc. v. The Nielsen Company LLC
- Vargas
- 1:25-cv-08581
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Cumulus Media v. Nielsen, Judge Vargas granted both parties’ motions to seal confidential business information.
Cumulus Media New Holdings Inc. and The Nielsen Company (US) LLC may keep the specified information sealed or redacted; the ruling also limits public access to that information in the court filings.
What happened
In Cumulus Media New Holdings Inc. v. The Nielsen Company (US) LLC, Cumulus asked to seal proprietary and commercially sensitive information in filings supporting its motion for a preliminary injunction. Nielsen separately asked to redact similar information in its response concerning expedited discovery and preliminary-injunction proceedings.
The court found that Cumulus showed the information involved sensitive, nonpublic financial information about Cumulus and Westwood One’s operations that could cause a significant competitive disadvantage if disclosed. The court also found that Nielsen showed the information involved confidential, ongoing contract negotiations.
Judge Jeannette A. Vargas ruled that the interest in protecting this confidential business information outweighed the qualified First Amendment presumption that court filings should be publicly accessible. She granted Cumulus’s sealing request and Nielsen’s redaction request, and directed the Clerk of Court to terminate the related docket entries.
The detailed version
- Cumulus Media New Holdings Inc. v. The Nielsen Company LLC · No. 1:25-cv-08581
- Vargas
- Nov. 14, 2025
Background
Cumulus Media New Holdings Inc. asked to file under seal proprietary and commercially sensitive information in its memorandum supporting a motion for a preliminary injunction and in three declarations. The declarations were submitted by Collin R. Jones, Dave Milner, and expert Harold Furchtgott-Roth.
Nielsen separately asked to redact proprietary and commercially sensitive information in portions of its response to Cumulus’s request for expedited discovery and a schedule for preliminary-injunction proceedings, along with associated exhibits.
Court’s Analysis
The court found that Cumulus had sufficiently shown that the information it sought to seal concerned nonpublic, sensitive financial information about Cumulus and Westwood One’s operations. The court concluded that disclosure could potentially cause a significant competitive disadvantage and that the information qualified as confidential business information.
The court similarly found that Nielsen had sufficiently shown that the information it sought to seal concerned ongoing contract negotiations and qualified as confidential business information. The court therefore determined that, in this instance, protecting confidential business information outweighed the qualified First Amendment presumption of public access to court records.
Ruling
The court granted Cumulus’s sealing request and granted Nielsen’s redaction request. It directed the Clerk of Court to terminate ECF Nos. 5 and 37. Judge Jeannette A. Vargas entered the order on November 14, 2025.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.