Mediagazer: Disney will close Disneyland Resort in California, beginning March 14 through the end of the month, will keep paying cast members and keep Downtown Disney open (Dominic Patten/Deadline)

8:40 PM ET, March 12, 2020

Top News:

Sara Fischer / Axios:

A look at how media outlets are responding to COVID-19: remote work and interviews, shifting conferences to virtual forums, talk show tapings without audiences — Newsrooms are creating contingency plans to make sure that they can adequately inform the public about the novel coronavirus while keeping their own employees safe.

Jeremy Barr / Hollywood Reporter:

CBS News says a third New York-based staffer has tested positive for COVID-19; the person had worked with two other employees who previously tested positive — “Yesterday was a day where we were tested,” CBS News president Susan Zirinsky told employees in a memo on Thursday.

Discussion: @jesspatterson, Deadline, MediaPost and Adweek

Variety:
A look at the unprecedented crisis that media conglomerates like Disney face because of COVID-19, as streaming companies face obstacles to producing content

Discussion: Variety, Variety, The Wrap, /Film, The Wrap, Deadline, The Wrap, Hollywood Reporter, Washington Post, @brianstelter, Hollywood Reporter, The Playlist, Variety, The Wrap, New York Times, The Independent, @variety, @variety, @variety and Hollywood Reporter

Dominic Patten / Deadline:

Disney will close Disneyland Resort in California, beginning March 14 through the end of the month, will keep paying cast members and keep Downtown Disney open — UPDATE; 1:27 PM: The Walt Disney Company is shutting down its Anaheim theme parks on Saturday as the coronavirus spreads.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, /Film, Los Angeles Times, Breitbart, @kateaurthur, @theryanparker, @megjameslat, @mattdpearce, @sdkstl, @scout_finch, @lakecrazy and @ctvwinnipeg

Jeanine Poggi / Ad Age:

NBC, CBS, and WarnerMedia cancel live upfronts, the events scheduled through mid-May to entice advertisers, due to COVID-19; they will stream or televise events — They will stream their events instead, while NBC will also televise its presentation — NBCUniversal, CBS and WarnerMedia …

Discussion: Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, Deadline, MediaPost, Vanity Fair, @brianstelter, Adweek and @tvgrimreaper

Variety:

Stocks of media conglomerates were hammered Thursday, with ViacomCBS down 18.5%, Disney down 13%, AT&T down 9.2%, and Comcast down 7.8% — UPDATED: U.S. equities markets ended the day with the biggest percentage drop since the 1987 stock market crash, with the Dow plummeting 10% Thursday amid …

Discussion: newyorkfed.org, USA Today, New York Times, Radio & Television …, CoinDesk and Breitbart

CNN:

Univision's Jorge Ramos, possibly exposed to COVID-19, withdraws as a moderator for Sunday's Democratic debate, which has moved from Arizona to Washington, DC — (CNN)The Democratic debate scheduled for Sunday will be moved from Arizona to Washington, DC, the Democratic National Committee announced Thursday.

Discussion: TVNewser, Vanity Fair, Breitbart, @briannedmr, Axios, @mlcalderone and The Wrap

Playbill:

Broadway theaters suspend all performances starting at 5pm today through April 12, under the direction of NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo — The closure is effective at 5 PM tonight, and will last through April 12. — Broadway theatres will go dark beginning 5 PM, March 12, by order of Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Discussion: Deadline, Broadway News, @chloe_melas, @stephaniejblock, @anaismitchell, Variety, @ditzkoff, IndieWire, @sdkstl, Broadway News, New York Post and Crain's New York Business

Steven Waldman / Trust, Media and Democracy:

Lessons from the first two years of Report for America: demand from journalists is strong, individual reporters can have massive impact, big challenges remain — The appetite for a “public service” approach is strong but the on-the-ground challenges in newsrooms are real — Report for America has grown rapidly.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Comscore announces a partnership with Twitch to measure activity like minutes spent and content minutes per ad minute, starting with audiences in US and Canada — Measurement firm Comscore announced this morning a partnership with Amazon-owned game streaming site, Twitch.

Discussion: MediaPost, Comscore, Inc. and Adweek, more at Techmeme »

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

How local newspapers in San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, and Philadelphia are covering coronavirus, which has become a local story — When global becomes local: — On Thursday, Feb. 27, journalists at The Seattle Times held a meeting to talk about how they'd cover the coronavirus.

Discussion: @kristenhare, @kristenhare, @yamphoto and @poynter

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:

Source: Byron Allen has made an all-cash bid on Tegna worth about $8.5B, which values the broadcaster at $4.4B — Tegna is one of the biggest broadcasters in the industry — Budding media mogul Byron Allen has made a bid for broadcaster Tegna Inc. that values the owner of 62 local television stations …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, MediaPost, Los Angeles Times, Deadline and Variety

Nicholas Quah / Nieman Lab:

Irish broadcaster RTE to release a show in five languages, following in the footsteps of Wondery and iHeartMedia, which announced similar plans in August — Welcome to Hot Pod, a newsletter about podcasts. This is issue 249, dated March 10, 2020. — Spotify's Gimlet Media hires a new head of content.

Discussion: @jeromobot

Max Boot / Washington Post:

Never has conservative media's contempt for facts and science been more dangerous, as Fox News puts lives at risk by minimizing the danger from coronavirus — President Trump has been widely and correctly excoriated for the way he is dealing with the novel coronavirus. By minimizing the danger, he heightens it.

Discussion: New York Times, @samseder, @badfoxgraphics, @normative, @andrewkirell, Columbia Journalism Review, Poynter, The Week, @k8brannen, Vanity Fair, @_arianna, @walshfreedom, @johnupton and @maxboot

Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
Rupert Murdoch, who at 89 still exerts influence at Fox News, could save lives and viewers by ordering the network to emphasize the seriousness of COVID-19

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More News:

Reporters Without Borders:
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Discussion: The Guardian, @rsf_inter and @richards1052

Peter White / Deadline:
CBS All Access to launch Tooning Out the News on March 16; animated characters will mock the news of the day in short daily segments and a weekly full episode

Discussion: @_brittanyv, @davezatz and Mediaite

Rebecca Rubin / Variety:
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Brian Steinberg / Variety:
AT&T's Xandr says AMC Networks, WarnerMedia, and Disney joined Xandr Invest, its self-serve ad-buying platform, which will be available for 2020 “upfronts”

Discussion: Adweek, Variety, Ad Age, @hcoster, @pkafka, @simonjharris, @pkafka, @pkafka, AdExchanger, @bristei, Beet.TV, Broadcasting & Cable, MediaPost and Reuters

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Ming-Chi Kuo:
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