Top News:


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, NBC News, @jasonpatinkin, Vanity Fair, ABC News, @juliancastro, @ggreeneva, @drvox, @jamcolley, @doctorow, @akarl_smith, @davidlaz, @dynamicsymmetry, @kylegriffin1, @congressmanraja, @siracusa, @samwangphd, @charlesarthur, @classiclib3ral, @jeremyfaust, @ashleyfeinberg, New York Times, @akarl_smith, @doctorow, @jessphoenix2018, @mattgoldberg, @dankennedy_nu, @jonahdispatch, @frankfigliuzzi1, @tusk81 and Raw Story


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, @dropoutnation, Hollywood Reporter, CNBC, The Wrap and Los Angeles Times
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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


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, @algernonwrites, @newsguild, @jaysonpeters, @rebekahlsanders, @joegross, @gregholmannl, @businessinsider, @ajw_sports, @rl_bynum, @lara_korte, @ac_woods, @kerrymflynn, @odam, @hollyzachariah, @kerrymflynn, @instalyssa, @eliseschmelzer, @dankennedy_nu, @robquig, @lara_korte, @kerrymflynn, @gaufre and Viorel Florescu


NABJ/NAHJ announce their joint convention, originally scheduled for July in Washington, DC, will be held online on August 5-9, with details about sessions soon — The virtual conference will be held Aug. 5-9 — COVID-19 is forcing journalism conventions to abandon plans to meet in-person this year.
Discussion:
NAHJ, @atompkins and @ckrewson


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, Light Reading, @pkafka, IndieWire, @davidschawel, @nytmedia, @felixsalmon, @cnschedules, @ryanforsmyrna, Politico, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Axios, The Verge and AgencySpy, more at Techmeme »


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


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, Light Reading, @xpangler, The Verge, Multichannel News, ZDNet and Protocol


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 …


Endeavor says layoffs, pay cuts, or furloughs will affect about one third of its workforce company-wide, which includes WME, IMG, and UFC, by the end of May — Cost-cutting measures at Hollywood conglomerate Endeavor will affect up to one-third of the company's workforce by the end of May, Variety has learned.
Discussion:
Variety, Wall Street Journal, Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, Deadline and Los Angeles Times


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, @adweek and @jarroddicker

[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:
@achurrell, @natepike, @erinmillar, @adrianweckler, @farhanmohamed and @jessebrown