Top News:
Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
LA Times Guild accepts 20% cut in pay and hours for its members for 12 weeks starting May 10, saving the paper $2M+; the guild represents nearly 440 journalists — Los Angeles Times' newsroom guild agreed Friday to accept a 20% reduction in pay and hours for its members amid a devastating decline …
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Aaron Freedman / American Prospect:
Five years ago, unions barely existed in digital media, and now 35 digital media brands are unionized; organizing continues amid the pandemic — Five years ago, unions barely existed in digital media. Today, they may save the industry from the worst of the COVID-19 depression—and provide a model to other working professionals.
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@michaelsocolow, @ddayen, @ddayen, @jeffyoung, @rebekahlsanders, @dylanmatt, @hearstunion, @saraqdavid, @bfnewsunion, @jeffyoung, @kerrymflynn, @freedaaron, @cb1rd, @caitmunro, @hearstunion and @yourmandevine
Alayna Treene / Axios:
Trump's new press secretary Kayleigh McEnany held the first official White House press briefing since March 11, 2019, and claims “I will never lie to you” — President Trump's new press secretary Kayleigh McEnany held her first White House briefing on Friday, the first official press briefing since March 11, 2019.
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Ben Smith / New York Times:
News Corp says David Rhodes, a former Fox News exec and once CBS News president, has been advising News Corp's UK operation, speculating a return to Fox News — David Rhodes, a news executive who has held leadership roles at CBS News and Bloomberg, has been advising the media empire's British operation.
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@benyt, @edmundlee, @oliverdarcy, @bristei, Variety, Financial Times, @jeffjarvis and @davidfolkenflik
Seb Joseph / Digiday:
Amazon's ad business grew 44% YoY in Q1 to $3.91B, faster than Google and Facebook, but the typical advertiser's spend/day was halved at end of March vs January — The coronavirus lockdowns have helped Amazon swallow more ad dollars. That's likely to be a long-term gain for the retailer-cum-ad-business.
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Adweek, TechCrunch, Vox, VentureBeat, AdExchanger and Protocol, more at Techmeme »
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
Pence's staff threatens to punish a VOA reporter who tweeted that Pence's office told journalists to wear masks on a clinic visit, a rule Pence didn't follow — Vice President Pence's office has threatened to retaliate against a reporter who revealed that Pence's office had told journalists …
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@w7voa, Vanity Fair, The Wrap, @jaysbookman, @vanityfair, @deborahblum, @julibriskman, @deanbaker13, them., Mediaite, Jezebel, @glubold, @michelmcqmartin, @suzannenossel, @bradmossesq, @boutrousted, @kathleencarrll, @jcstearns, @joenbc, @devindra, @kimmasters, @riegerreport, @caramodisett, @greta, @mrdanzak, @yoda, @brettbruen, @sangernyt, @davidfolkenflik, PRESS RUN, @pbump, @amy_siskind, The Week, Talking Points Memo, New York Post, Raw Story, New York Times and Fox News
Mark Di Stefano / @markdistef:
Financial Times media and technology correspondent Mark Di Stefano, who had been suspended for accessing confidential Zoom calls at rival publications, resigns — Hi, letting everyone know today was my last day at the FT. This afternoon I offered my resignation. Thank you everyone who has given support. I'm now going to take some time away and log off x
Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
New Tow Center report on digital security in journalism finds many news outlets fail to provide the training, resources, or encouragement to protect journalists — “This is what it is to do journalism in tech — in an online world. It's time to put the typewriters down and fire up the VPN and get out there and do your job."
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@niemanlab, @dartcenter, @vivian, @cjr, @freedomofpress, Columbia Journalism Review and Columbia Journalism Review
Meg James / Los Angeles Times:
Charlie Plowman, owner of Outlook Newspapers, buys the assets of three recently shut down papers from the California Times; 14 laid off staff won't be rehired — Charlie Plowman, owner of Outlook Newspapers in La Cañada Flintridge, has acquired the assets of three recently shuttered newspapers …
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@acrostical, @myglendale, @sammy_roth, @megjameslat, @burbankca and @niemanlab
Bobbie Johnson / MIT Technology Review:
Pandemic conspiracy theories are being spread using Wayback Machine links of content already discredited by fact-checkers and even deleted — Pandemic conspiracy theorists are using the Wayback Machine to promote “zombie content” that evades moderators and fact-checkers.
ABC:
Judge orders Google to pay AU$40K in a defamation case, calls Google a publisher, saying it's designed by humans who can remove objectionable content — Google has been ordered to pay $40,000 in damages to a Melbourne lawyer after a Supreme Court of Victoria ruling found the internet giant was a publisher, and had defamed the man.
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@holden, @jbenton, @jbenton, @joshbbornstein, Beyond Search and Reclaim The Net
Reuters:
Sources: NBCUniversal has reportedly started discussing cost-cutting measures, including significant layoffs across its media and entertainment properties — (Reuters) - Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) owned NBCUniversal is evaluating a significant reduction of staff across its portfolio of media …
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Wall Street Journal, Seeking Alpha, The Hill, @spwells, @ashkan, @lilliannnn and @owillis