Mediagazer: Facebook's $25M local news relief fund, launching April 13, is offering grants between $25K and $100K to US outlets in communities impacted by COVID-19 (Josh Mabry/Facebook Journalism Project …)

6:05 PM ET, April 7, 2020

Top News:

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:

Trump campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany has been named press secretary; sources: the chief of staff wants her to focus on defending the president on TV — She replaces Stephanie Grisham, who had the job for nine months, and will return to Melania Trump's staff.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Wrap, @maggienyt, Vanity Fair, Breitbart, @justinbaragona, Politico, The Hill, Newser, @kylegriffin1, @maddow, @nicolledwallace, @maggieserota, @baratunde, Slate, @zararahim, The Guardian, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, @metaquest and The Week

CNN:

Stephanie Grisham is leaving her job as press secretary, having never held a briefing, and returning to her previous job as Melania Trump's chief of staff — (CNN)White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is leaving the job without ever having briefed the press.

Nathan Bomey / USA Today:

Gannett board adopts a poison pill, aimed at blocking any hostile takeover attempts, after announcing cost cuts and a dividend suspension on April 1 — Gannett, the owner of USA TODAY and more than 260 other daily publications, announced Tuesday that its board had implemented a plan to ensure …

Discussion: Poynter, Yahoo Finance and Business Wire

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Sensor Tower: Quibi had more than 300,000 downloads on its launch day; heavily promoted in Apple's App Store, it reached #3 but just #29 on Google Play — Quibi, the oddly-named mobile streaming service founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, was downloaded over 300,000 times on launch day …

Discussion: Variety, Sensor Tower Blog, The Wrap, The Streamable, @frankpallotta, @cinematicbanter, @eric_seufert, @frankpallotta, @tvmojoe and @amather, more at Techmeme »

Maria Halkias / Dallas Morning News:

Dallas Morning News' parent company is tapping into its $8M cash reserve, reducing staff pay between 3% and 17%; it started the year with $48.6M in cash — A. H. Belo Corporation is also cutting its dividend by 50%. — The parent company of The Dallas Morning News is responding …

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @mwilstory, @mgerrydoyle, @keithcampbell48, @dellcam, @lmcgaughy and GlobeNewswire

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:

CNN buys Canopy, a privacy-focused content-recommendation startup that created news reader Tonic, as the network develops its news aggregation service — Canopy, a privacy-focused recommendations startup, has been acquired by CNN, a unit of wireless giant AT&T through its WarnerMedia devision.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, @gabrielvaldivia, @basseye, @arctictony, Variety, @robynkanner and @habibh

Noor Al-Sibai / Media Matters for America:

John Oliver's Last Week Tonight blasted One America News' shilling for Trump: “The kind of misinformation OAN is spewing ... could end up getting people killed” — Oliver: “The kind of misinformation OAN is spewing right now could end up getting people killed”

Discussion: YouTube, @msliwinski, Daring Fireball, The A.V. Club, @romanoff2020, Slate, @quinnessential, The Week and New York Post

Sam Allard / Scene and Heard:

Cleveland Plain Dealer EIC bars remaining 14 newsroom staff from covering state issues and Cleveland stories, leaving those beats to a non-union sister newsroom — On the first workday after a brutal and debilitating round of layoffs at The Plain Dealer, Editor Tim Warsinskey delivered what will be the paper's final and cruelest blow.

Broadcasting & Cable:

Broadcasters Foundation of America expands its emergency grants, which provides up to $1,000, to radio and TV employees in financial need due to COVID-19 — Expands emergency grant definition to include financial need due to novel coronavirus infection — The Broadcasters Foundation …

Discussion: Broadcasters Foundation …, TV Technology, Radio & Television … and AllAccess.com

Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:

Food & Wine, Eater, and Thrillist are helping the restaurant industry during the pandemic by offering guides, promotion, and other resources — The restaurant industry is searching for assistance from external sources during the coronavirus pandemic and food publishers are stepping in to help.

Discussion: American Press Institute, @newsalliance and @groupninemedia

Julia Alexander / The Verge:

Netflix now lets parents remove specific titles and filter shows out based on their ratings, in both the designated kids portal and the general section — Making profile accounts for kids even more specific — Netflix is rolling out a series of new tools that parents can use to filter …

Discussion: /Film, Variety, @onaircoop, @mashable, Mashable, Engadget, Bloomberg and @loudmouthjulia, more at Techmeme »

Poynter:

News orgs' removal of paywalls for pandemic coverage is noble, but makes no sense, and the industry seems to think public service can't coexist with revenue — Food is essential, but grocery stores aren't giving it away. Police are being paid during the crisis. So why are we making our journalism free?

Discussion: @stephbpurifoy, @jfagone, Deez Links, @callaghanpeter, @newsterrier, @hbcompass, @stevebattaglio, @saroff_nyc, @newsalliance, @corinaknoll, @e_vb_, @thesarahkelly, @mikeorren, @scott_maxwell and @dkiesow

Janko Roettgers / Protocol:

Hollywood is working from home to meet streaming demand as animation, which can be done remotely, is seeing a boom in the number of shows greenlit to series — Hollywood has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Theaters across much of the country have closed, movie shoots have come …

Discussion: The Verge, @jasonlk, @jank0, @sawgur and @protocol

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 6:05 PM ET, April 7, 2020.

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Who's Hiring in Media?

Deputy Ed. - Gen. Assignment Desk, DC — WaPo

EU Technology Reporter, Brussels — Bloomberg

Breaking News Reporter, NY — Guardian US

Harrisburg Reporter, PA — PCBC

Senior Editor - Styles, NY — NYT

Part-time Editor, Remote — Techmeme

Home & Travel Reporter, Ireland — Newsweek

Assistant Digital Editor, MA — Boston Globe

Senior Editor - Visuals (Temporary), DC — NPR

Copy Editor, Remote US — ProPublica

Markets Reporter, NY/CA — Sherwood Media

Staff Writer, MI — Watershed Voice

Food Reporter, CA — SF Standard

Staff Writer, NV — Las Vegas Weekly

Pharma Editor, Remote — Endpoints

Higher Ed. Reporter, Remote CA — EdSource

Politics Reporter, Brussels — Politico

Investigations & Enterprise Ed., WI — Cap Times

Social Strategy Editor, NY — WSJ

Senior Narrative Editor, CA — Cloud Chamber

Editor-in-Chief, NY (flexible) — The 74

Housing Reporter, OK — The Frontier

Writer/AI Content Reviewer, CA — Outlier

Writer/Editor, Remote — Mediaite

Multi Media Reporter, NC — Cardinal & Pine

Afternoon/Night Editor, NH — Keene Sentinel

Education Lab Editor, WA — Seattle Times

Senior Editor, Remote US — PCWorld

State Worker Reporter, CA — Sacramento Bee

Executive Editor, NM — Searchlight

News Assistant, NY — Quanta Magazine

Local Editor, NJ (Remote) — Patch

News Writer, CA — Hollywood Reporter

News Editor/Reporter, KS — Blade-Empire

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More News:

Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:
Skift CEO Rafat Ali expects virtual events to bring in 25% to 30% of the revenue of physical events, at best; events generated 40% of Skift's revenue in 2019

Discussion: @bmorrissey and @rafat

Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers:
Memo: BuzzFeed has begun a search for partners to take over brands and news operations in Germany and Brazil; failing that, those offices will close

Discussion: @neilthackray and @baseballcrank

Josh Mabry / Facebook Journalism Project …:
Facebook's $25M local news relief fund, launching April 13, is offering grants between $25K and $100K to US outlets in communities impacted by COVID-19

Discussion: Facebook Gives 400 …, Adweek, Axios, NPR, @blockclubchi, @mjenkins, @santafereporter, @ericaperel, @6amcity, @localmediarocks, @jason_w_white, @ckrewson and @inn

Catherine Sweeney / Poynter:
Journalists and unions in the US are starting fundraisers to help laid-off and furloughed journalists, with one fund raising $38K+ from which 110 requested aid

Discussion: @daveyalba, @va4journalists, @poynter, @niemanlab and Editor & Publisher Magazine

Adam Rowe / Forbes:
Readly has seen users' magazine reading habits shift under lockdown with readership of the categories comics, kids, home, and gardening rising sharply in the US

Discussion: Folio and MediaPost

Poynter:
News orgs applying for federal coronavirus relief loans to stem the decline in local journalism will require a new set of ethics regarding government assistance

Discussion: @widlore, @zachami, @brooklynmarie, @jackshafer, @kellymcb, @rasmus_kleis and @itsren

Variety:
Sources: AMI exec Dylan Howard, who was embroiled in scandals involving Weinstein and Trump, is out, after his March 31 contract was not renewed

Discussion: The Daily Beast, MediaPost, @jimrutenberg, @thedailybeast, @jbenton, @sarahellison, @ewagmeister and The Wrap

Earlier Picks:

J. Clara Chan / The Wrap:
Two former 21st Century Fox executives, including Wondery CEO Hernan Lopez, charged with bribing soccer officials in exchange for broadcasting rights

Discussion: @kadhim, Bloomberg, AllAccess.com, MediaPost, Associated Press and Awful Announcing

Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter:
NBCUniversal says it will reduce ad loads across its networks to make room for more programming and add more entertainment and news content during the lockdown

Discussion: CNBC, NBCUniversal Together, @peterstringer, Adweek, @whatthebit, @jboorstin, @crupicrupicrupi, @tiffkhsu and Ad Age

Lesley Goldberg / Hollywood Reporter:
NBC, ABC, and CBS to team up for a fundraiser curated by Lady Gaga on April 18, with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Stephen Colbert hosting the broadcast

Discussion: @brianstelter, Forbes, Engadget, Channel Kindness, Deadline, Deadline, Variety, The Week and The A.V. Club

Tina Dyakon / Poynter:
The Poynter Institute announces a new partnership with NPR in which Poynter's Kelly McBride will serve as NPR's new public editor

Discussion: @kellymcb, @froomkin, @johnlansing, NPR, @benmullin, @deggans, @froomkin and @davidfolkenflik

Ken Meyer / Mediaite:
In a tweet, Trump says ad revenue is down at NYT and Wapo and wonders if it is because they are “fake news” or “the Virus is just plain beating them up”

The Wrap:
THR editor Matt Belloni to resign; source: Belloni opposed Valence Media co-CEOs' direction not to publish stories that would negatively impact their interests

The New York Times Company:
The New York Times Company partners with Verizon to offer all students and teachers in US high schools free access to nytimes.com from April 6 to July 6

Discussion: Nieman Lab, @niemanlab, @jbenton, @alanblinder, Multichannel News and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

From Techmeme:

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta details Llama 3: 8B- and 70B-parameter models, a focus on reducing false refusals, and an upcoming model trained on 15T+ tokens that has 400B+ parameters

Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal:
Apple removes WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China, saying it was ordered to do so by China's cyberspace officials citing national security concerns

David Pierce / The Verge:
Google announces a new Platforms and Devices team overseeing Pixel, Android, Chrome, Photos, and more, to integrate AI across its products, led by Rick Osterloh

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