Brian Stelter here with the latest on Tucker Carlson, Facebook, Bob Iger, Roku, "Cyberpunk 2077," Jeff Shell, "The Stand," and much more...
Signs of growth
Just one time this month, I want to begin this newsletter with some good news. And I think I have found some to share.
Amid all the agonizing cuts on the local news level and the general chaos across the news landscape, there are signs of growth. Locally and regionally, there are big commitments being made by philanthropists. And on the national and international levels, there are encouraging signs of progress too, with robust gains in digital subscriptions.
None of this is meant to downplay the dreadful loss of local newspapers. But if you care about the state of digital news, and you're on this email list so I'm sure you do, here are some holiday season reasons for cheer:
Serious subscription gains
In a memo to staffers on Thursday, Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan said "digital subscriptions increased by nearly 50%" in 2020, "bringing our total worldwide digital circulation close to 3 million." Ryan also announced that "the last three months of 2020 have brought the highest digital advertising revenue in Post history," which is a remarkable turnaround since the pandemic decimated the ad business in the springtime. Ryan said the news outlet's performance "validates our view that there is a successful business model for quality journalism" and said The Post will be adding "more than 150 new positions" in 2021, "the most in a single year."
The Guardian also shared some subscriber #'s on Thursday, touting a gain of "268,000 new digital subscriptions and recurring contributions over the last year, an increase of 43%." The Guardian is nearing one million "recurring" supporters between digital subscribers, members and patrons...
>> Keep in mind, the "Trump bump" is over: The Trump years are ending, but new subscribers are still signing up...
Three nonprofit sites splitting $2 million
On Thursday the American Journalism Project announced its next round of grants to nonprofit news orgs, splitting $2 million between three outfits, "including one based in NYC that targets the immigrant community," The AP reported. "The site Documented, founded in 2018 by Mazin Sidahmed and Max Siegelbaum, will use the grant to expand newsgathering for Spanish-speaking immigrants." The other recipients are the Montana Free Press in Helena, Montana, and the Beacon in Kansas City, Missouri.
>> Big picture: "We need philanthropists across the country to embrace robust local journalism," the project's CEO Sarabeth Berman told the NYT's David Leonhardt recently...
Axios buys local
Axios, "which recently announced a plan to expand into local markets," has "agreed to buy The Charlotte Agenda for close to $5 million," the NYT's Edmund Lee scooped on Thursday. Lots of details here...
>> As Lee wrote, Ted Williams conceived of the idea for The Charlotte Agenda in 2015 while working as the head of digital strategy at The Charlotte Observer, the McClatchy-owned local paper. Since then, the media startup has built a loyal following through an email newsletter and an active Instagram account.
>> Kerry Flynn writes: "Under new ownership, it'll be renamed Axios Charlotte and Williams will serve as general manager of Axios's local news effort. One aspect of the deal that made me smile: It didn't all begin at a conference unlike typical media marriages. Rather, Williams read a WSJ article about Axios' local news effort and chose to email Jim VandeHei. This effort will be one to watch in 2021..."
You can make a NewsMatch
NewsMatch is the end-of-the-year matching gifts program for nonprofit news outlets across the United States. The program launched in 2016 and has grown every winter since. Last year, Jennifer Preston of the Knight Foundation told me, "individual donations grew to $43 million for about 190 NewsMatch participants, up $10 million from the year before." This year, there are 266 participating news outlets – a 40 percent increase in one year. "This is a terrific indicator of how the nonprofit field is growing and nonprofit organizations are increasingly filling the critical gaps in local original reporting and community news and civic information," Preston said.
>> How it works: Between now and New Year's Eve, NewsMatch will 2x your gift, up to $5,000. More info here...
More bright spots
-- On Thursday Google News Initiative announced a global program to "help guide independent entrepreneurs as they build digital news startups." They are accepting applications now...
-- In Louisiana, The Times-Picayune and The Advocate said this week that they plan to "dramatically expand their commitment to investigative journalism by doubling the size of their investigative unit and expanding coverage statewide." The effort will be supported by donations...
-- An initiative called the Tiny News Collective was introduced earlier this week. As Poynter's Angela Fu writes, it is "an attempt to lower the barrier to starting a local news organization by providing the necessary resources, training and technology..."
-- Last week Michael Bassik teamed up with Brian Braiker "to relaunch Brooklyn Magazine..."
-- Google News Initiative recently announced 33 winners of the North American Innovation Challenge...
Platform cash comes with ethical Q's
A new analysis by the Tow Center takes stock of "the great pandemic funding push."
"In direct response to the coronavirus," Nushin Rashidian writes, "Facebook and Google committed an estimated $262 million to nearly 7,000 local newsrooms and a selection of fact-checking initiatives in the first half of 2020."
Key line: "This brings urgency to the debate over the ethics of accepting platform dollars, and the implications of platforms as news patrons -- with the power to determine which newsrooms receive support, how, and for how long." So read all about it here...
Our end-of-2020 podcast
Normally I'd refer to this crew as my cubicle-mates, but since March we haven't seen each other as a group in person. Oliver Darcy, Donie O'Sullivan, Kerry Flynn, Frank Pallotta and Chloe Melas all joined me virtually, on this week's "Reliable Sources" podcast, for a stay-at-home view of a strange and surprising 2020. We reviewed the biggest media world storylines of the year, from disinformation to Disney+, and identified some rays of light in a generally dark year. (Including a pair of engagements and a couple of newly adopted animals!) Listen to the conversation via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite app...
>> Staying on the 2020 theme, Melas spoke with Glamour about losing her home in a fire in January, and everything that's happened since...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- CNN's newest headline about the hack attack: "US cybersecurity agency warns suspected Russian hacking campaign broader than previously believed..." (CNN)
-- David E. Sanger and Nicole Perlroth's latest: "Investigators say it could take months to unravel the extent to which American networks and the technology supply chain are compromised..." (NYT)
-- Trump's silence about the intrusion is getting more and more attention. "Just as he has largely ignored the latest surge in coronavirus cases, Trump appears to have all but abdicated responsibility in his final weeks in office," Kevin Liptak writes... (CNN)
-- CNN analyst Sam Vinograd tweeted: "A key part of emergency response is public messaging. Tonight, the U.S. government is under live attack, by Russia. Trump is tweeting diatribes not at Putin, but at Democrats..." (Twitter)
-- Here is an early clip of the Bidens on "The Late Show," ahead of Thursday night's broadcast on CBS... (Twitter)
-- Looking ahead, "the boring, but crucial reality is this," Amy Walter wrote Thursday: "Competency in getting our lives back to normal will be the most important political issue for 2021..." (Cook)
Tucker Carlson's shameful segment
Oliver Darcy writes: "It is almost as if Tucker Carlson read the last edition of this newsletter and decided to do the exact opposite. On Thursday night the Fox host started to raise questions about the coronavirus vaccine, focusing on the very small number of people who have had allergic reactions to it and blasting what he described as a 'slick' marketing campaign to compel Americans to take it. While it really is no surprise that Carlson or any Fox host would do this (after all, this is the direction things have been heading for some time), it was still deeply disturbing to see Carlson use his enormous platform so irresponsibly..."
>> Darcy adds: "It's also worth pointing out again that this dangerous message is signed off by Fox execs Suzanne Scott and Jay Wallace, along with Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, all of whom have oversight..."
>> BTW: After Carlson called Jill Biden "borderline illiterate" on Wednesday, while covering the "Dr." dust-up for a third straight day, Carlson sponsor ButcherBox told WaPo's Jeremy Barr that it will reexamine its ad buying strategy...
Facebook is still surfacing anti-vax content
Oliver Darcy writes: "Remember back in 2019 when Facebook promised it would crack down on anti-vaccine content being surfaced via its search feature? Well, it turns out that nearly two years later, such dangerous content continues to be surfaced when users search for vaccine info, as flagged by HuffPost's Jesselyn Cook. I reached out to a FB spox to see how on Earth this could be, that after so much time had passed Facebook had still not followed through on its promise, but did not hear back. Given that we are in the beginning stages of the largest vaccination rollout in US history, the fact that Facebook still hasn't gotten its act together on this is deeply concerning..."
>> Related: NBC's Brandy Zadrozny's story is a warning: "From California to Maine, local news stations have been giving anti-vaccination activists a platform to spread misinformation..."
FRIDAY PLANNER
VP Mike Pence will be vaccinated on-camera at 8am ET. President Trump will be noticeably absent...
The PBS "NewsHour" will pay tribute to Mark Shields, who is stepping down after 33 years of weekly discussion segments. David Brooks wrote about his TV counterpart here...
"The Color of Covid: The Vaccines," a CNN town hall with Don Lemon and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, will air at 10pm...
Sweden's failed model
Oliver Darcy writes: "Remember when right-wing media kept insisting that the US needed to implement Sweden's lax coronavirus model? Calls to move forward with such a strategy were everywhere, including all over Fox News. Fast forward to now: Sweden's king said in a holiday address that his country has 'failed' in containing the virus, having suffered 'a large number of deaths.' I'm skeptical that this bit of news will break through with the audience that was led to believe -- by bad-faith actors -- that the country had been successful in its efforts..."
>> In a brutally honest segment, Brianna Keilar called out Fox News for having pushed the model then and for now pushing families to spend Christmas together...
Searching for stimulus info
CNN's latest on the stimulus: "Congressional leaders struggled on Thursday to hammer out a major rescue package in the final days of the 116th Congress, raising the specter that talks could drag out and potentially cause a brief government shutdown over the weekend."
According to Google Trends, many of the top search trends in the past day have reflected the widespread interest in stimulus checks. "When would stimulus checks go out" and "new stimulus package details" have been breakout searches in the US. Trending questions relating to the stimulus include "Who would qualify for a second stimulus check?" and "When would stimulus checks go out?" along with "How much is the new stimulus check?" and "When will the stimulus bill pass?"
Iger to China?
Disney exec chairman Bob Iger "has told people close to the incoming Biden administration that he would be interested in serving as U.S. ambassador to China, according to people familiar with the matter," the WSJ's Erich Schwartzel, Ken Thomas and Emily Glazer wrote Thursday. They advanced THR's story about Iger's possible appointment, and noted that "cabinet positions are the current focus" of the transition team, with ambassadorships to be determined later...
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Ron Brownstein asks a question that I keep asking myself: "Does Joe Biden Understand the Modern GOP?" (The Atlantic)
-- Julian Zelizer tweeted: "'Both sides-ism' media coverage is inaccurate and masks huge differences between Dems and the GOP. Even as this presidency ends, too many journalists still fail to acknowledge the radicalization of the GOP and the stark contrast with more fractured and centrist Democrats..." (Twitter)
-- I love stories that notice what's not happening. Case in point, no GOP election post-mortem. David Siders writes: "Mitt Romney lost by 5 million votes in 2012 and sparked a 100-page RNC autopsy report. Donald Trump lost by 7 million and there isn’t a peep..." (Politico)
-- Partly that's because so many GOP voters are in denial about Trump's loss. Aaron Blake wrote about the pro-Trump hosts who are having a really hard time saying "president-elect..." (WaPo)
-- One America News is flatly refusing to admit reality: Founder Robert Herring tweeted on Wednesday, "One America News will not recognize Biden as the President-elect as all of our investigations indicate there was fraud in voting. There will be no decision until Jan. 6, 2021." (Twitter)
Today in antitrust
"Google is now facing its third antitrust lawsuit," CNN's Brian Fung wrote after dozens of state attorneys general filed the latest suit on Thursday. And here is Google's response.
>> Some perspective from WaPo's Tony Romm: "Sometimes it's hard when you're on perma-deadline to stop and reflect on a moment. but it's so striking that we have seen four antitrust lawsuits against two tech giants in nine weeks, something that seemed unfathomable for most of my 11 years on the tech policy beat."
Twitter's 'humanization prompts'
Oliver Darcy emails: "This seems like a neat idea being piloted by Twitter in an attempt to improve the health of dialogue on its platform. Per Mashable's Jack Morse, when some users start to reply to the tweets of others, they will see an informational window that displays interests the two accounts may have in common. 'In the heat of the moment, people can forget there's another human behind a Twitter account,' said Christine Su, senior product manager for conversations at Twitter. 'By showing what we have in common, we hope to remind people of what connects us as a starting point.'"
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Hear Oliver Darcy and Charlie Warzel discuss right-wing media and offer predictions for the post-Trump world on Peter Kafka's Recode pod... (Apple/Spotify)
-- Twitter has announced its revamped verification policy, including a new provision that says the platform may "remove verification from accounts that are found to be in severe or repeated violation of the Twitter Rules..." (Twitter)
-- "Liz Gateley, one of Spotify's highest-ranking podcast executives, is stepping down after less than two years," and Lucas Shaw says it's the latest sign of "growing pains..." (Bloomberg)
-- Vice's food vertical, Munchies, is becoming the "first verified media publisher to launch on OnlyFans, which is known for hosting racy content..." (Axios)
-- "ESPN is not commenting on a report that Kevin Merida, one of the company’s top editorial executives, is a finalist to become editor" at WaPo or the LAT, John Ourand reports... (SBJ)
This year was a 'bad dream'
I like how NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell put it in his final 2020 message to all employees. He called it "a year that in a few years from now we will look back on as a strange and just plain awful bad dream." He ran through all the business impacts and pointed out some of the "silver linings..."
Today's 2020 features
>> Longread is out with its must-read best-of-the-year lists...
>> The Economist's pick for "country of the year," topping a shortlist of "most-improved countries" in 2020, is Malawi. Here are the reasons why...
>> AdAge identifies the 13 "worst buzzwords and phrases" of 2020...
>> Esquire presents the 23 best cookbooks of the year...
>> Vulture offers the ten best comedy podcasts of the year...
>> And Barack Obama shares his favorite books of 2020...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
"Cyberpunk 2077" yanked
Big news about one of the biggest games of the year: "Sony is pulling Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store and offering full refunds for anyone who bought the game from the digital storefront," The Verge's Jay Peters wrote. Why? Because "players have found" that the game is "riddled with bugs..."
>> For background, Vox has a full explainer here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- "CBS is reviving the variety series 'Kids Say the Darndest Things' with Tiffany Haddish, some six months after ABC canceled their revival of the classic series after only 1 season..." (TheWrap)
-- Nellie Andreeva's scoop: "One of television's most iconic legal dramas is poised for a comeback. ABC is developing 'LA Law,' a new incarnation of the Emmy-winning Steven Bochco series, with Blair Underwood set to reprise his role as attorney Jonathan Rollins and executive produce..." (Deadline)
-- ABC is also in "early development" on "Pine Valley," which is being billed as the prime time version of the daytime soap "All My Children," Rick Porter reports. Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are among the executive producers... (THR)
CBS All Access begins 'The Stand'
Brian Lowry writes: "'The Stand' ranks among the best of the Stephen King miniseries that ABC aired back in the day, which isn't a high bar. But an expanded nine-part version for CBS All Access essentially feels like a case of subtraction through addition, afforded more time to devote to characters and a premium-TV edge, but ultimately in a way that feels like a (very) long sit." Read Lowry's full review here...
Chadwick Boseman's final gift
Lisa Respers France writes: "My newsletter this week includes something which may reignite some grief. 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom,' in which Chadwick Boseman performed for a final time prior to his death in August at age 43, premieres on Friday on Netflix. His performance is both moving and haunting, especially with the hindsight that throughout production he was battling the colon cancer that would eventually take his life. Boseman is not the only actor whose last project became a bittersweet gift..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
-- Lisa Respers France writes: "Sandra Lee is sad to leave the New York home she shared with Gov. Andrew Cuomo..."
-- "The Masked Singer" season four winner revealed... Marianne Garvey has details here...
-- One more from Marianne: "Ringo Starr is releasing a new album, titled 'Zoom In,' featuring contributions from Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl and Finneas," in March...
How Disney keeps 'The Mandalorian' going
Brian Lowry writes: "'The Mandalorian' ends what appears to be a wildly successful second season on Friday (see this space for my review/recap on Friday night), but that won't be the end. Rather, Disney+ has scheduled a second-season 'making of' special for next week, continuing its strategy of using what amount to the DVD extras as fresh content, as I wrote about earlier..."
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...
Pet of the day
Sam Schwartz, the chief business development officer for Comcast NBCUniversal, shares his daughter Haley’s photo from the happy aftermath of the Nor'easter: "This is our dog, Lizzy, who was thrilled to be outside after two days stuck inside. After no snow last year, she got reacquainted quickly."
Thank you for reading!
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