We’re keeping an eye on news media legislation coming out of Australia, where Google and Facebook have been dominating the news cycle. Microsoft Corp. says there should be U.S. adoption of revenue sharing with local news.
Movers & Shakers are also part of the current carrying this briefing. In the middle of adding new podcasts at CAFE, Preet Bharara has joined the Clubhouse bandwagon and makes sure everyone knows he doesn’t have a Zoom cat filter (the video) but hasn’t commented on freeing Britney.
On the other side of new work, the movers unfortunately include more rounds of layoffs, something anyone working as a journalist since 2008 has come to expect.
Job losses stacked up again in 2020, with 2021 bringing continuing layoffs at ABC and streamlining from Bloomberg.
Bloomberg EIC John Micklethwait confirms layoffs in a memo to staff: “I am not going to pretend today is a happy day for the newsroom. It is always painful to tell journalists that they are losing their jobs.”
I’m told the layoffs are affecting about 90 employees. pic.twitter.com/C5yVawHQFU
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) February 11, 2021
It’s not all bad news, congrats to McClatchy reporters as the company is establishing a minimum salary in its newsrooms.
Movers & Shakers
- Lou Dobbs gets the hook at Fox. The reason is debatable.
- Larry Kudlow, who was the top economic adviser to former President Donald Trump, will start a yet-to-be-named show at Fox on Feb. 16.
- Johanna Barr left The New York Times’ politics desk to be senior editor of news and planning on the metro desk. Job opening: The Times is still looking for an editor on the metro desk after Clifford J. Levy was moved up in the masthead.
- National Political Columnist Max Burns is now communications director for Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou.
- D.C. changes are still rolling in, with NBC News moving Ali Vitali, Mike Memoli and Carol Lee. Leigh Ann Caldwell and Garrett Haake are Capitol Hill correspondents, and Josh Lederman became a correspondent for climate policy, a big initiative for President Joe Biden.
- Tyler Pager joins the White House team at The Washington Post.
- Jia Lynn Yang is the new national editor for the New York Times, which says Yang has edited standout coverage of how political polarization played out in the lives of ordinary Americans.
Yang’s elevation brings up an interesting point about the perception of polarization, a topic tackled by Journalist Resource, which argues TV news outlets overrepresent extreme partisans in Congress. The Washington Post’s outgoing Executive Editor Marty Baron has some broader thoughts:
The idea of objectivity—I should make clear—it’s not neutrality, it’s not both-sides-ism, it’s not so-called balance … It’s to tell people in an unflinching way what we have learned, what we have discovered.
Speaking of news media discoveries, Leadership Connect found some new sources building on what’s driving the news on Trump’s impeachment trial, the Capitol insurrection, and COVID-19 vaccines.
- CBS News has comprehensive coverage of the impeachment trial, published today. There’s also full video of Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 of the trial.
- NPR created a searchable database with information on the individuals charged in connection to the Capitol insurrection — more than 200 criminal cases in total. NPR also identified a few trends.
- The Economist has a new podcast called The Jab. It says each episode will tackle a different theme along the supply chain — from the innovations that make the new vaccines possible and the politics of distribution, to the drivers of vaccine hesitancy.
The politics of vaccine distribution is a smart angle. It could affect decisions in meetings on where to invest in the supply chain. Just remember to double-check your video filters.
