Top News:
emptywheel:
NYT, WaPo, NBC have once again opted for a both sides approach in their coverage of Trump's suggestion of ingesting disinfectant as coronavirus treatment — Last night, an increasingly desperate President went on live TV and advised that people might try ingesting disinfectant to cure COVID-19.
Discussion:
@nytimes, @jasonpatinkin, Vanity Fair, The Intercept, ABC News, New York Times, @juliancastro, @ggreeneva, @drvox, @jamcolley, @doctorow, @davidlaz, @dynamicsymmetry, @siracusa, @samwangphd, @charlesarthur, Raw Story, @classiclib3ral, @jeremyfaust, @ashleyfeinberg, @doctorow, @jessphoenix2018, @mattgoldberg, @dankennedy_nu, @jonahdispatch and @tusk81
Anthony D'Alessandro / Deadline:
MGM lays off 7% of its workforce, ~50 staff, including in scripted, unscripted TV and feature film, while United Artists Releasing furloughs third of its staff — Deadline has confirmed that MGM has cut 7% of its 750 member staff -roughly 50 jobs- across all departments including scripted, unscripted TV and feature film.
Discussion:
Variety, CNBC, @dropoutnation, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, The Wrap and Los Angeles Times
RELATED:
J. Clara Chan / The Wrap:
Cheddar permanently shuts its LA studio and has made an undisclosed number of company-wide staff layoffs, as it consolidates its two live-streamed networks — Cheddar, the live-streaming news and entertainment outlet, has permanently closed its Los Angeles studio amid company-wide layoffs …
Discussion:
@kerrymflynn
Poynter:
Gannett laid off an undisclosed number of staff across its papers on Friday; source: the cuts relate to its integration with GateHouse following its 2019 merger — Gannett merged with GateHouse in late 2019 to become the largest newspaper chain in the U.S. with 261 newspapers in 46 states
Discussion:
@sgfnewsguild, @brandywinebeard, @marcatracy, @newsguild, @jaysonpeters, @rebekahlsanders, @joegross, @gregholmannl, @businessinsider, @ajw_sports, @rl_bynum, @lara_korte, @kerrymflynn, @odam, @hollyzachariah, @kerrymflynn, @instalyssa, @dankennedy_nu, @robquig, @lara_korte, @kerrymflynn and Viorel Florescu
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson to step down, President and COO John Stankey will take over the position on July 1 — Randall Stephenson, chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T Inc. — AT&T announced CEO Randall Stephenson will step down. President and COO John Stankey will take over the position on July 1.
Discussion:
The Wrap, Variety, CNBC, @cnbc, @mattrosoff, New York Times, AT&T, IndieWire, Light Reading, Axios, The Verge, Politico, @pkafka, TechCrunch, @davidschawel, @nytmedia, @felixsalmon, @cnschedules, @ryanforsmyrna, Fast Company and AgencySpy, more at Techmeme »
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
A group of 75+ scholars and non-profits urges social media companies to preserve data on content removal during the pandemic and make it available for research — The data provides an ‘unprecedented opportunity’ — A group of scholars and nonprofit organizations have asked web platforms …
Discussion:
@firstdraftnews, Committee to Protect …, Center for Democracy …, @accessnow, @epirkova, @mollyjongfast, @holden and @aaronmiller
Todd Spangler / Variety:
In Q1, revenue for Verizon Media came in at $1.7B, down 4% YoY, due to decline in ad rates; FiOS TV lost 84K subscribers — Verizon posted first-quarter 2020 revenue of $31.6 billion, down 1.6%, citing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic for the miss on Wall Street expectations.
Discussion:
Verizon, ZDNet, The Verge, Light Reading, @xpangler, Multichannel News and Protocol
Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:
A look at Luminary Media, a year after its launch as “the Netflix of podcasting”: company says subscriber base grew by 14% in the past six weeks amid lockdown — No ads. No Axelrod. No problem. New CEO is gung-ho on subscription model — When Luminary Media launched in April 2019 …
Discussion:
@lucas_shaw, @gerryfsmith and @felixgillette
Conor Humphries / Reuters:
Ireland's prime minister says the government should consider copying Australia's plan to force Facebook and Google to share advertising revenue with local media — DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Irish government should consider copying Australia's plan to force Facebook Inc (FB.O) and Alphabet Inc's …
Sara Jerde / Adweek:
WaPo's ad tech platform, Zeus, has now signed on more than 50 publishers, including Snopes.com, Bonnier, and the Dallas Morning News — Snopes is the latest client to find success — Key insights: — Large media companies are building and licensing their own in-house tech to compete with Google and Amazon.
Discussion:
@jarroddicker and @jarroddicker
Greg Dool / Folio:
Executive Media launches MagBox, a subscription-based bundle of five niche magazines from different independent publishers, mailed every two months for $40/year — Unlike most mass-market magazine publishers, whose print books generally depend far more on subscriptions and advertising revenue …
Discussion:
@foliomag, @glecharles and @ronhogan
Jeremy Klaszus / @klaszus:
[Thread] Spruce founder details how the digital outlet was excluded from Canada's Local Journalism Initiative, which he says is crafted by and for legacy papers — Soooo the newspaper lobby group administering the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) for the Canadian government explicitly barred @sprawlcalgary from eligibility for federal funds. Don't know whether to laugh or cry. THREAD
Discussion:
@farhanmohamed, @achurrell, @natepike, @erinmillar, @adrianweckler and @jessebrown