Mediagazer: O'Reilly Media announces it is canceling all of its upcoming in-person conferences and permanently shutting down that portion of its business (Laura Baldwin/O'Reilly Media)

8:15 PM ET, March 24, 2020

Top News:

Anthony Fauci conceding in an interview that Trump often provides inaccurate information is the best argument for not airing Trump's briefings on live TV — During a Saturday news briefing, President Trump fielded a question about the coronavirus timeline.

Discussion: Vox, Science, @maggienyt, New York Times, @maggienyt, @mattyglesias, Wired and Politico

Patrick Frater / Variety:

The Olympics postponement means hundreds of hours of lost programming and lost revenue for NBCU, which had sold 90%+ of its ad inventory, valued at $1.25B+ — The Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo will be postponed for a year, until 2021, Japan's Prime Minister Abe Shinzo announced Tuesday.

Discussion: USA Today, International Olympic …, The Wrap, @frankpallotta, Axios, CNN, Bloomberg, @tvmojoe, Adweek, @tiffkhsu, @niemanlab, Axios, Forbes, Business Insider, @zeitchikwapo and Broadcasting & Cable

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

YouTube will change the default video resolution to standard definition worldwide for a month starting today to ease internet traffic — - Videos will default to standard definition worldwide — YouTube, Netflix already reduced video quality in Europe

Discussion: TechCrunch, Wired, @psilosophy, Variety, The Verge, Business Insider, Android Central, 9to5Google and Fast Company, more at Techmeme »

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Mozilla launches Firefox Better Web with Scroll for Firefox tracking protection and Scroll's ad-free browsing experience for $2.50/mo. for the first six months — Mozilla just announced a new initiative called Firefox Better Web with Scroll, which combines the tracking protection built …

Discussion: The Mozilla Blog, Scroll Blog, @tryscroll, @mohamed, @arctictony, @tuckerkristen, Axios, @travisbernard, @osunick, CNET, @firefox, @arctictony, @ryanvailbrown, @tryscroll, @jeff, The Verge, @jason_kint and IT Management, more at Techmeme »

Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed News:

The coronavirus pandemic is shaping to be much worse for news media than the 2008 financial crisis, which saw a 19% decline in newspaper revenue in the US — The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus.

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

ABC, known for drama, is placing a heavier focus on news as broadcast networks see viewers of most-watched cable news anchors rise ~25% over past two weeks — ABC, best known for soapy programs like “Grey's Anatomy” and “Station 19,” has in recent days been more focused on the drama of real life.

Discussion: New York Times, Axios, @nrothschild3, @koblin, @charliecookdc, @donlday and @bristei

The New York Times Company:

NYT, WSJ, WaPo publishers call on China to reverse its expulsion of their journalists: “the media is collateral damage in a diplomatic dispute” — The Chinese government's decision to expel American journalists amid a global pandemic threatens the world's access to critical information …

Discussion: New York Times, The Hill, The Wrap, @austinramzy, @goldkorn, @gerryshih, @kenroth, @raju, @meslackman, @voanews, @relevantorgans, Fox News, @davidnakamura, Reuters and The Guardian

Instagram:

Instagram to remove some coronavirus-related content and accounts from recommendations and Explore, with exceptions for credible health organizations — People who search for information related to the coronavirus or COVID-19 on Instagram will start to see an educational message connecting …

Discussion: TechCrunch, New York Times, XDA Developers, Business Insider, CNET, Reuters, MIT Technology Review, @marklittlenews, Android Central, Jezebel and @taylorlorenz, more at Techmeme »

HBO PR:

HBO says time spent with HBO Now since March 14 is up 40% from its four-week average; overall viewing across its portfolio grew nearly 20% during the same time — This post is by Cheryl Idell, Chief Research Officer, WarnerMedia Entertainment & Direct-to-Consumer.

Discussion: The Streamable, The Wrap, @lucas_shaw, @nickwingfield, CNET, @dylanbyers and @koblin

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

Nielsen says local news viewing in the top 25 markets was up 6.9% for the week of March 9 compared to the previous week, with about a 10% increase in ages 18-54 — Nielsen said even kids are watching newscasts — Local news is seeking an increase in viewing as people seek the latest information on the Coronavirus crisis.

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, Broadcasting & Cable, MediaPost and @tvnewscheck

Vijaya Gadde / Twitter:

Twitter is donating $500K each to the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Women's Media Foundation — All around the world, we've seen our service connecting people with the authoritative health information they need to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Discussion: Axios, The Wrap, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, @siobhan, @twitternews, @guyberger, @nedsegal, @rifatorakzai, @nolabeth, @brooklynmarie, @twitterforgood, @vijaya, @laurajaselle, @karlrobillard1, @elanfear and The Hill

Freddy Mayhew / Press Gazette:

UK's Newsquest, with ~200 newspapers and magazines, is furloughing a “significant number” of staff, who will get 80% of their salaries; others get pay cuts — Newsquest is placing a “significant number” of its staff on furlough while all those who remain will face a wage cut in action to …

Discussion: @markdistef, @markdistef, @chrisburn_post, @markdistef and @markdistef

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 8:15 PM ET, March 24, 2020.

View the current page or another snapshot:

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

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

More News:

Lucinda Southern / Digiday:
Subscription tech service Piano says US digital subscriptions rose 63% YoY in the past week while European newspaper subs across its network grew 267% YoY

Discussion: @larakiara, @simonowens, @durgaraghunath, @jason_kint, @kerrymflynn and What's New in Publishing

Scott Nover / Adweek:
Pinterest introduces a new Today tab, a hub for curated topics and trending posts managed by an editorial team, as users flock to the service amid the pandemic

Discussion: VentureBeat and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Laura Baldwin / O'Reilly Media:
O'Reilly Media announces it is canceling all of its upcoming in-person conferences and permanently shutting down that portion of its business

Discussion: @vmbrasseur, @benhammersley, @liztormato, @knieriemen, @avibryant, @sarahm, @lauraabaldwin, @ruv, @lauraabaldwin, @waxpancake, @krishnan and @reza_zadeh, more at Techmeme »

Ted Johnson / Deadline:
Fox News will hold a two-hour virtual town hall today with Trump and members of the coronavirus task force; there will be no White House briefing today

Discussion: The Hill, @morningmika, @miriamelder, @tvietor08 and Fox News

Ted Johnson / Deadline:
WHCA says a member of the press corps has a suspected case of coronavirus and reduces briefing room to a pool of 14 reporters

Discussion: @hradzka, Reuters and NPR

Andrew Chung / Reuters:
SCOTUS sends Byron Allen's $20B racial bias suit against Comcast back to lower courts, says Allen must prove that the contract was denied solely due to racism

Discussion: Forbes and Bloomberg

New York Times:
Facebook internal report: US users are reading more COVID-19 content from “higher-quality” sources based on its ranking of top publishers adopted last year

Earlier Picks:

Ariel Shapiro / Forbes:
Streaming services see signup spikes in the past week, boosted by free trials, with Disney+ up over 300%, HBO Now 90%, Showtime 78%, Netflix 47%, Apple TV+ 10%

Discussion: @entstrategyguy and @forbes, more at Techmeme »

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Twitter withdraws Q1 guidance due to COVID-19, says it expects Q1 revenue to be down YoY but the number of monetizable DAUs has hit 164M, up 8% QoQ and 23% YoY

Discussion: Ad Age, ZDNet, Ad Age, MediaPost, @oliverdarcy, MarketWatch, Reuters, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, PR Newswire, ZDNet, Deadline and Hollywood Reporter

Poynter:
During the pandemic, newsrooms should remove paywalls so as not to miss the short window of opportunity to build trust and show the significance of their work

Discussion: American Press Institute, @wjeffreybrown, @marcela_elisa, @nicholsuprising, @rosental, @katrinanation, @kellymcb, @media_evan, @poynter, @janebsinger, @rispolimike, @poynter, @jayrosen_nyu, @poynter and @kellymcb

Peter Kovacs / The Advocate:
The Times-Picayune and The Advocate to temporarily furlough about a tenth of their 400-member workforce with the rest on four-day workweeks

Todd Spangler / Variety:
VidCon cancels its US edition, scheduled to run from June 17-20, due to the pandemic, and says it is looking to stage the event sometime in the fall

Discussion: @vidcon, @jeffsaxtonvlogs, @jennmcallister, @xpangler and @laurenzside

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Amazon opens up free streaming access to more than 40 children's shows, including its original series, to all customers worldwide with an Amazon account

Discussion: The Streamable, Hollywood Reporter, Fox News, The A.V. Club, MediaPost, @oliverdarcy, @brianstelter, @manori_r, /Film, Business Insider, ComingSoon.net and Engadget

Hillel Italie / Associated Press:
Woody Allen's memoir was released by Arcade Publishing; Allen alleges Hachette vowed to publish it despite him “being a toxic pariah and menace to society”

Discussion: NME, The Guardian, bookforum.com, @thr, @bobweide, @mousterpiece, The Wrap, Slate, The Independent, The Week, The Wrap, The Playlist, Vanity Fair, Jezebel, Publishers Weekly, Bookseller News, Variety and IndieWire

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

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

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Europol and 19 countries make 37 arrests and disrupt phishing-as-a-service platform LabHost in a year-long operation with help from Microsoft, Intel, and others

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page