Welcome to Thursday! Here's the latest on Craig Melvin, Bluesky, Margaret Sullivan, Tulsi Gabbard, John Malone, Bill Clinton, and the "wrecking ball." But first... |
Last week's election results put an exclamation point on pervasive concerns about distrust and dissatisfaction with the news media. Now a reckoning is underway. "We have lost the room," TheWrap's Sharon Waxman wrote the other day. Media executives and rank-and-file reporters are wondering what needs to change. What can news outlets do to regain trust and appeal to new audiences without alienating existing readers and viewers?
For the past week, we've been receiving feedback from readers and asking sources for ideas. In this new column for CNN.com, I lay out the concrete recommendations that emerged. Here's a sample: |
Listen to young people... |
...And learn from their media habits. As a media executive who asked to be anonymous said last week, "We're programming for the audience we have, not the audience we need."
Americans in their 20s, 30s and 40s are scrollers by default, soaking up news and views through headlines, memes, vertical videos and other bite-size bits of content. Publishers should make content accordingly – with a special focus on reaching casual news consumers and those turned off by politics. How about new streams of programming for “center-right” audiences and people who instinctively distrust politicians? Other streams could provide “civic on-ramps” and relatable stories for young people.
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Meet people where they are |
Some news brands have turned inward in recent years, away from the social networks that sometimes devalue their work, but they’ve lost relevance as a result. “Social media can no longer just be thought of as ‘distribution,’” Link in Bio newsletter author Rachel Karten wrote earlier this week. Simply put, clipping a cable news segment or summarizing a story on Threads “meets people where they are,” she wrote. “You’re fishing where the fish are.” Publications that aren’t fishing are at risk of losing market share to others.
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There are some journalistically rigorous podcasts, including ones produced by CNN, but most podcasters, YouTube streamers and online creators are not journalists per se. They are in a different, news-adjacent business, even when they land interviews with politicians like Donald Trump. They’re not doing the hard work of reporting and vetting information; they’re talking about what others have gathered. But making sense of the news and talking informally and in-depth – three hours at a time, in Joe Rogan’s case – is important work in its own right. Talk show hosts and vloggers have deep connections with media consumers. News producers have a lot to learn from podcast stars.
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Start stories at the beginning |
...Not in the middle. Instead of “Trump vows to impose tariffs,” begin with “what’s a tariff?” When I asked Tim Graham of the conservative Media Research Center for suggestions, he offered this: "If the media think voters are uneducated, teach them. How many members of Congress? How many Supreme Court Justices? When voters can name characters on 'The Simpsons' but not Supreme Court Justices, it means the news has more opinions than facts." |
Don't compromise on facts... |
...But make room for feelings. The election results showcased big disconnects between how news outlets reported on the economy and how swing voters felt about the economy. The facts were one thing, but the feelings were another. What’s a fact-based outlet supposed to do about that?
The answer: understand the “deep story.” Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild has posited that voters sometimes act based on their emotional needs – their “deep story” – rather than their economic needs. “We all have a deep story,” she told Vox. “And it’s important to know what these are.” Whether core beliefs are empirically true or false, those beliefs move people, and journalists have to understand them better.
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>> Pop media bubbles through voter interviews and focus groups – and make sure those sessions inform editorial decisions and panel discussions.
>> Embrace the Zoom era and have journalists spread out across the country to balance out New York and Washington groupthink.
>> Solicit questions from readers/viewers and follow through with answers.
>> Build trust through news coverage outside of politics.
>> Cover the tumultuous information environment as a story in its own right.
>> And start small, with local news. As Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch recently wrote, "the war to reclaim reality begins there."
Creating new products, distributing news in new ways, and reflecting the diversity of the audience are all critical steps. But people in newsrooms big and small also have to recognize the limits of the news media’s so-called power. A whole wide world of other sources supply audiences with reassurance and validation and rage – and there will be even more of those sources tomorrow. Check out my full column for CNN.com here...
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Melvin to succeed Kotb on 'Today' |
This morning Savannah Guthrie announced that Craig Melvin "is the new anchor of the 'Today' show," succeeding Hoda Kotb, who is stepping down in January. "This is one of the most popular decisions NBC News has ever made," Guthrie said, describing how staffers applauded when they found out before showtime. "I am beyond excited and grateful," Melvin told his colleagues. Here's the video of the announcement...
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Gary Hershorn/Corbis News/Getty Images |
Shares of The Walt Disney Company are up 9% in premarket trading for a few reasons. First, the company "did something extraordinary" this morning, "giving investors a rare three-year financial outlook, even at a time of economic uncertainty," CNN's Chris Isidore wrote. "The company said that it has deep faith its investments in its massive park expansions, movie pipeline and even its linear television assets will pay off."
Also: Disney's streaming business "delivered $321 million in profit" in the most recent quarter, "a nearly sevenfold increase from the three months that ended in June," the NYT's Brooks Barnes wrote. His lead: "Mickey Mouse wants to change his narrative." Still, the company faces a "diverse set of challenges," the WSJ's Robbie Whelan wrote, noting "its cable and theme park profit engines lost steam" in the quarter...
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The 'Trump fire hose of news' |
The NYT's Michael Barbaro said it best: "The Trump fire hose of news is back." While taping Thursday's episode of "The Daily," "we had to pause several times for news breaking during our recording," he said. The biggest reason: Trump putting forward Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general. The Hill's Niall Stanage said the appointment triggered the "biggest collective intake of breath I've heard in a newsroom since the day Trump fired Comey as FBI director."
This morning, phrases like "wrecking ball" and "chaos and revenge" are peppered through the news coverage of Gaetz. With provocative cabinet picks, "the outrage is the point," CNN's Stephen Collinson wrote overnight...
>> "These confirmation hearings may just save cable TV for the short term," NBC's Chuck Todd quipped...
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Fox's cabinet connections |
"With jobs to fill, Trump once again turns to Fox News" is the headline on Jeremy Barr's new story for The Washington Post. Pete Hegseth and Tom Homan are not the only examples: Trump's highly controversial pick for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, was a Fox contributor until August, for example. She happily chatted with her ex-colleague Jesse Watters on the air last night.
>> Separately, Watters joked that "massive change" is happening "and we're excited. And I'm not just saying that because I know the entire cabinet and I will be asking for special favors..."
>> CNN's Jim Sciutto heard from current and former senior military commanders who called the Hegseth pick "ridiculous" and "an effing (euphemism inserted) nightmare..."
>> Margaret Sullivan's new column for The Guardian: "Any line of separation between Fox News and the US government is about to vanish."
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>> New this morning: Charlotte Klein's latest for NYMag is titled "who wants to cover the second coming of Trump?" (NYMag)
>> MSNBC's ratings have plummeted since election night, while "the opposite has happened at Fox News," Josh Koblin reports. (NYT)
>> The AP says it recorded back-to-back days of record page views on Election Day and the day after... (AP)
>> A TV station land grab is coming: "Flush with political ad dollars and anticipating a deal-friendly environment, moguls are eyeing big moves to roll up lucrative local broadcasters," Alex Weprin reports... (THR)
>> Also new this morning: The Guardian's David Smith has obtained an early copy of Bill Clinton's forthcoming book "Citizen." (Guardian)
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"All those techies and bankers hoping the new Trump administration will relax Joe Biden’s tough antitrust approach might want to think again," The Information's Martin Peers wrote last night. He notes that Gaetz has seemed supportive of FTC chair Lina Khan in the past, and "J.D. Vance has also signaled support for her. All up, no one can be sure how the new administration will deal with tech regulation." The FT ran a similarly cautious story earlier this week...
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What's driving Elon Musk? |
The other day John Malone said he'd like to learn "how Elon Musk's brain works." I'd second that. What's driving him right now? I heard a pair of compelling answers when I interviewed Vanity Fair's Nick Bilton and the NYT's Kate Conger yesterday. "Elon is someone who does best in a fight," Bilton said. "Yeah, I mean, Musk loves to give himself these missions," Conger affirmed.
Helping Trump regain power might have been one mission. (The WSJ reports that he "personally spent $200 million to elect Trump," far more than he'd publicly indicated.) Now reforming the government is a new mission. "He is positioning the deep state... as this enemy that only he can vanquish," Conger said. To that end, Musk is an exquisite storyteller. Check out our full conversation on VF's "Inside the Hive" podcast later this morning.
While on the subject of Musk:
>> "Absurd AI slop about How Elon Musk will fix America is megaviral on Facebook," 404 Media's Jason Koebler reports.
>> Activist investor Nelson Peltz says he helped Musk and Trump reconnect, "hosting the two of them for breakfast at his home in the late spring."
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X rival Bluesky is having a moment |
Ryan Broderick says Bluesky "probably just won the Twitter wars." Here's why.
It's clear that some X users are choosing to leave in the wake of the election. Both Bluesky (#1 on the Apple App Store's US chart right now) and Threads (#2) are benefiting.
"Still, X has far more users," CNN's Clare Duffy notes in her story. And there are lots of people (including yours truly!) who don't want to give up on the platform. I feel the same way as The Washington Post's Chico Harlan, who wrote, "I am newly committed to shouting into the wind of misinformation here, hopelessly fighting the algorithm with my boring facts and nuance." This newsletter's editor Jon Passantino, however, believes media outlets and journalists should rethink their presence on X as Musk transforms it into an algorithmically-enhanced propaganda and misinformation platform. (Jon and I argue about this a lot!)
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Web Summit concludes in Lisbon... Fox's 6 p.m. anchor Bret Baier has newly-chosen Senate majority leader John Thune's first TV interview... FX premieres the limited series "Say Nothing," adapted from Patrick Radden Keefe's book about the Troubles in Northern Ireland... |
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>> Bill Sammon, who left Fox during the network's fractious post-election period four years ago, is joining Nexstar to "oversee news coverage of the nation’s capital for both The Hill and NewsNation." (Variety)
>> "James Longman has been promoted to chief international correspondent for ABC News." (Deadline)
>> Inside the WSJ's campaign to free Evan Gershkovich: Here's "what newsrooms need to know," explained by Paul Beckett, who helped lead the effort. (CJR)
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Liberty Media's big moves |
Ahead of Liberty Media's investor day today in NYC, the company announced that it is "spinning off most assets besides Formula One auto racing into a separate publicly traded company, called
Liberty Live," CNBC reports. The aforementioned John Malone is becoming interim CEO as
Greg Maffei is stepping down at year-end. |
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Spotify goes all-in on video |
On the heels of another strong earnings report, Spotify said Wednesday that it will "soon begin paying creators based on how much engagement their videos receive from paid subscribers," The Verge's Alex Heath reports. This all-in-on-video move "puts Spotify on more of a collision course with YouTube, which is also leaning into podcasts..."
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>> A federal judge ruled that an FTC lawsuit accusing Meta "of holding an illegal monopoly over social media can proceed to trial..." (Wash Post)
>> Meta's Threads may introduce ads early next year... (The Information)
>> Patreon says "creators and their fans can now give away gift memberships, which could be a powerful way for creators to grow their subscriber base..." (The Verge)
>> Amazon's phaseout of Freevee has insiders speculating the company will lay off MGM Studios staffers... (Business Insider)
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