Top News:
Brian Stelter / CNN:
CNN's Chris Cuomo has been diagnosed with COVID-19, but he says he is feeling well and will continue anchoring his show from his home — New York (CNN Business)CNN anchor Chris Cuomo has been diagnosed with Covid-19, the network said in a memo to employees on Tuesday.
Discussion:
@chriscuomo, Variety, Mediaite, The Wrap, @marygeorgant, @bykellycohen and The Daily Beast
Daniel Bernhard / Toronto Star:
Canadian media, starved of ad revenues for years, is on the brink of mass extinction due to the pandemic; CBC cancelled all local TV news broadcasts last week — By some industry estimates, many of our major media outlets will fail within weeks. Starved of advertising revenues for years …
Discussion:
@robshaw_vansun, @akurjata, @sulemaan and @rosajsaba
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
Free alt-weekly Chicago Reader lost 90% of its ad revenue and is turning to ideas like a fundraising colouring book and a souvenir issue to fill the funding gap — Considering the regimentation of pre-digital publishing — repeating the same workflows day after day, week after week — journalists are very adaptable animals.
Discussion:
@mdoukmas, @briannawellen and @niemanlab
Tony Maglio / The Wrap:
Fox withdraws financial guidance, citing delayed productions and sports cancellations and postponements, and says it plans to amend agreements with lenders — Fox is the latest major media corporation to walk back its prior financial guidance due to the impact of the continuing coronavirus pandemic.
Discussion:
Multichannel News, Broadcasting & Cable, Variety and Hollywood Reporter
Jason Lynch / Adweek:
IAB postpones its now-virtual Digital Content NewFronts by two months to the week of June 22 — Annual event moves from late April to week of June 22 — Key insights: — Buyers are increasingly skeptical that upfront talks can take place in the traditional timeframe.
Discussion:
Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, MediaPost and IAB
Variety:
Memo: iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman waives salary, other execs take pay cuts, as an unknown number of staff receive 90-day furloughs without pay due to pandemic — iHeartMedia has joined the growing list of companies implementing sizable pay cuts for senior executives amid the upheaval caused by the coronavirus crisis.
Discussion:
RAMP
Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:
Vice will no longer match 401k contributions, freezes promotions through July, cuts salaries for top staff including the CEO, and will furlough some top execs — STAY AFLOAT — Vice Media will cut salaries for top staff and halt retirement benefit-matching following the economic downturn spurred by the coronavirus pandemic.
Discussion:
Digiday and @maxwelltani
Marc Tracy / New York Times:
Profile of STAT, a science and medical news site that was early to cover COVID-19 and has attracted ~30M unique visitors this year, 4x to 5x its usual traffic — Stat, started in 2015 by the Red Sox owner John Henry, is drawing four to five times its normal audience. “We were built for this,” one of its editors said.
Discussion:
@marcatracy, @davemcclure and @pathtweets
Chris Best / Substack Blog:
Substack donates $100K in grants to writers struggling due to pandemic, drops its cut of subscription revenue for pubs donating earnings to COVID-19 causes — We started Substack because we believe that what you read matters and good writing is valuable. We believe that writers, bloggers …
Discussion:
TechCrunch
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Spotify for Kids launches in the US, Canada, and France on the $14.99/month Spotify Premium Family tier with 8,000 songs, of which 50% is localized — Spotify is giving more housebound parents — and their cooped-up kids — a new tool to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Discussion:
Spotify, TechCrunch and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
The Guardian:
Hungary passes a draconian coronavirus law that allows PM Orbán to rule by decree and includes jail terms of up to five years for spreading “misinformation” — Fears over coronavirus legislation that gives no time limit for state of emergency
Discussion:
@balazscseko, Foreign Policy, New Statesman, Washington Post, @melissajpeltier, @shaunwalker7, Boing Boing, @michaeldweiss, @davidfrum, Yahoo News and The Week
Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:
Gannett CEO announces furloughs and pay cuts across the company, says other execs will take a 25% pay cut and he won't take a salary until the cuts are reversed — The mass-media company, which owns many large newspapers including USA Today, announced Monday that the coronavirus downturn has forced the company to make deep cuts.
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, @gregholmannl, Poynter, @thesarahkelly, The Hill, @rachelwalexande, @rachelacrosby, @aprilehrlich, @ryanchittum, @markferenchik, @brianduggan, @jemelehill, @gerryconway, @pkafka, @emdrums, @reporterdavidj, @dicktofel, @thrasherxy, @reporteramber, @lpolgreen, @brynstole, @craftypanda, @rickedmonds, @maxwelltani, @tednesi, @maxwelltani, Awful Announcing, The Wrap, New Jersey Globe and Florida Politics
Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:
Sources: on an internal call, Jeff Zucker defended airing Trump briefings live, arguing that viewers need to hear Trump answer tough questions from journalists — Zucker said on an internal staff call that he has “probably spent more time on this topic than anything else,” …
Discussion:
@davidakaye, @joshuahol, @lukebrussel, @thedailybeast, @atlanticmovpic, @dangillmor, @juliemason, @levinejonathan, @parkermolloy, @esaagar, @daviddtss, @soledadobrien, @robbysoave, @rolandsmartin, @froomkin, @jayrosen_nyu, @maxwelltani, New York Times, Mediaite, MediaFile, Vanity Fair and The Week
RELATED:
James Poniewozik / New York Times:
Trump has turned his coronavirus briefings into create-your-own-reality TV with the structure, intrigue, drama, rhythm, and characters of a weekly reality show
Trump has turned his coronavirus briefings into create-your-own-reality TV with the structure, intrigue, drama, rhythm, and characters of a weekly reality show
Discussion:
@realdonaldtrump, @jayrosen_nyu, @poniewozik, @klr_editor, @froomkin, @ericschultz, @kimmasters, @brianstelter, @oliverdarcy, @maggienyt, @pkafka, @jaketapper, Press Watch, Vanity Fair, Reason and New York Times