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TGIT! Here's the latest on Elon Musk, Semafor, Melania Trump, David Axelrod, Gloria Borger, Mark Lazarus, Lucy Rock, James Gunn, and more...

Predictions for next year

Between now and the end of the year, you should check out Nieman Lab's Predictions for Journalism 2025. Each year Joshua Benton and his colleagues ask scores of smart people what the year ahead will bring for the future of news and journalism. And each year the answers are invigorating, challenging and inspiring. Here are just a few of the notable quotables:

CalMatters investigative editor Andrew Donohue says "things are about to get worse." Anita Li argues "the world is in survival mode," so journalism "at its core should be information that's useful or user-friendly." Sam Mintz says communities will "relearn the habits of local news." Ben Smith predicts we're going "back to the bundle." Esther Kezia Thorpe says there's a "real opportunity for news in a printed form in 2025," partly to entice news-avoiders who feel overwhelmed by TMI. Scott Lamb says "readers will seek out well-moderated spaces."

Fran Wills says local media will get its "swagger" back. Jay Lauf advocates a shift from "content" to "solutions." Ryan Kellett hopes Audience teams will become Creator teams. John Saroff says video-first "podcasts" will "bring a new kind of coverage" to our phones and tablets. Delano Massey says this should be "our Kendrick Lamar year." 

Big and bold changes

 >> Alice Marwick, director of research at Data & Society, says that in 2025 "the mainstream media will lose its last grip on relevancy, and the fundamental gap in understanding between partisan Americans will widen."

 >> Veteran editor Noah Shachtman says the "movement in media c-suites to get right with Donald Trump, or at least to be a little less antagonistic," will fail badly: "There's no evidence that moving to a both-sidesy middle will bring in new readers, and plenty of evidence it won't."

 >> Slate editor-in-chief Hillary Frey says the lack of a "Trump bump" in viewers and subscriptions is OK: "We can get more attuned to what our audiences need and want from us during this second round of Life Under Trump."

 >> THE CITY reporter Katie Honan says "the federal attack on the press will trickle down locally."

 >> Northwestern professor Jeremy Gilbert says "technology will finally help journalists" give readers "a better version of the news article, one which favors understanding, not just informing." 

 >> Suffolk professor Jonas Kaiser says "journalists need to focus more on the boring minutiae of policymaking and not on the sensationalism of politics."

DEVELOPING...

Musk and Trump sink spending deal

CNN

Remember "governing by tweet?" This time it was Elon Musk's tweets. He "posted dozens of times, dozens," against the bipartisan funding bill, and Republicans in Congress "answered Elon's call." Kasie Hunt broke it all down on "CNN This Morning" a couple hours ago. She asked: "Who is really calling the shots? Donald Trump or Elon Musk?"

Much of what Musk posted during his anti-spending spree was false or misleading, as Politico noted here. Despite having endless resources and access to high-quality info, he routinely reposts anonymous accounts that share hyperpartisan junk. "I love you Elon," Rep. Dan Crenshaw wrote last night, "but you need to take 5 seconds to check your sources before highlighting bottom feeders looking for clicks."

 >> A Trump source told Axios that GOP lawmakers got "instant and overwhelming feedback" yesterday. Before, it had to be slowly funneled through conservative media. Now there is a megaphone..."

 >> CBS's Jennifer Jacobs reported that Musk was "at the table" with Trump and Jeff Bezos last night...

The human cost

AP Congressional reporter Farnoush Amiri said it's "really bleak to be staking out the speakers office as Capitol staff, including police officers, are asking reporters if all this shutdown chaos means they won’t be getting paid this week..."

'Melania' back at #1

Melania Trump's book has been on the New York Times best seller list for 10 weeks – and this week it's back on top. It debuted at #1 in October; surged back into first place after the election; fell out of the top spot due to Cher's memoir; and now it's back at #1, presumably thanks to Christmas shoppers. That's a big win for Trump and for her publisher Skyhorse...

Closing 'The Axe Files'

In a busy sea of podcasts, David Axelrod's "The Axe Files" has truly stood out over the past nine years. As past guests like yours truly will attest, Axelrod is a careful and probing interviewer, able to get people to open up in ways they never expect. 

This morning Axelrod announced that today's episode, #605, will be his last for the time being. "I step away for now because I need to make more time for the next chapter of my own story — for my great and blessedly growing family, for friends and new adventures," Axelrod said... "But even without the Axe Files, let us continue to be seekers of each other's stories and penetrate the godawful silos that drive us apart." Amen to that.

 >> In a statement, CNN expressed gratitude to Axe for the show's "remarkable run." There is no change to his status as a senior political commentator.

ABC denies NY Post report

This morning's New York Post cover blares "AS SLEAZY AS ABC." The paper, citing sources, says George Stephanopoulos "was warned" by his executive producer not to accuse Trump of rape before the "This Week" broadcast that got ABC sued. ABC initially declined to comment to the Post, but a spokesperson told me this morning, "It is absolutely not true."

 >> Meantime, ABC confirmed yesterday that Stephanopoulos has signed a new deal to remain in his "GMA" chair. "The deal will likely quell rumblings of any long-term fallout" over the Trump settlement, the LAT's Stephen Battaglio wrote. But as Poynter's Tom Jones observed this morning, the settlement story "won't go away..."

Briefly...

 >> Lucy Rock "has been appointed as the first female editor of the Observer in more than a century as part of an announcement that confirmed the sale of the title to Tortoise Media." (The Guardian)

 >> NBC's Mark Murray, "the senior political editor and 20-year veteran of the network, is leaving the company." (X)

 >> There were talks about a potential sale last month, but Marc Benioff says "there is 'no deal on the table' to sell Time." (Fortune)

 >> Just announced: Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson is joining Semafor to write an invite-only newsletter for CEOs. (NYT)

Best wishes to Gloria Borger!

I don't do this very often, but I'm going to get personal for a moment. CNN said yesterday that Gloria Borger is leaving the network after 17 years. Borger, a senior political analyst and a mainstay of the network, previously worked at CBS and CNBC. But here's the thing about Borger I want you to know: She is a loving, generous human being.

After my dad Mark died, in 2001, I read all the mail that came to our house. One day there was a condolence letter from Gloria, who had been a customer of my dad's one-man appliance repair company. Can you imagine what that's like for a 15-year-old boy? A letter from a famous TV journalist about how great your dad was? I will never forget it.

Gloria and I have known each other ever since, so I wanted to use this space to say thanks, and wish her a wondrous next chapter. 

Mark your calendars

The January news calendar is starting to fill in:

 >> The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in TikTok's last-ditch bid for survival in the U.S. on January 10.  As The Information's Martin Peers wrote last night: "If only those arguments could be broadcast as TikToks!"

 >> Pete Hegseth's confirmation hearing is scheduled for January 14.

Picturing MSNBC's changes 

SpinCo boss Mark Lazarus "would like MSNBC to be on better terms with Republicans," while still retaining "its core progressive identity," Oliver Darcy reported last night. Here's the full Status report. Lachlan Cartwright, writing for The Ankler, has more on what MSNBC will be after the spin; he says Lazarus has floated running opinion programming during the day.

It's easy to imagine MSNBC's future daytime programming as a form of podcasting on TV. I'm old enough to remember that the channel used to simulcast radio talk shows — and it was surprisingly compelling TV. The 2025 version of a radio simulcast is a Pat McAfee-style deal. Talk with newsmakers, take calls from viewers, react to the news that's breaking elsewhere — seems like a no brainer...

Four great reads

 >> Peter Osnos says these are the six steps "Jeff Bezos should take to save the Washington Post..." (CJR)

 >> "BookTok" has a "Trump problem," CT Jones reports... (Rolling Stone)

 >> "Want to earn six figures as a writer? Try ghostwriting." Jacqui Shine explains why here... (WSJ)

 >> "What happens to our culture when websites start to vanish at random?" (The Verge)

Today in tech

 >> New this morning: "Apple called out Meta Platforms for trying to gain access to key software tools on iPhones, a criticism that comes as the European Union is ramping up its efforts to force the iPhone maker to give developers greater access to its technology," Kimberley Kao reports. (WSJ)

 >> BBC research found that " Facebook has severely restricted the ability of Palestinian news outlets to reach an audience during the Israel-Gaza war," Ahmed Nour, Joe Tidy, and Yara Farag report. Meta said "any implication that it deliberately suppressed particular voices is 'unequivocally false.'" (BBC)

 >> Meta's Instagram "will soon account for half of the company's advertising revenue in the U.S.," Aisha Counts reports. (Bloomberg)

 >> Wow: "In 2024, global consumer spending in mobile apps and games reached $127 billion across the App Store and Google Play, up 15.7% from the prior year," Sarah Perez writes. (TechCrunch) 

The Hollywood A-list

Warner Bros.

 >> The teaser trailer for James Gunn's "Superman" movie just came out. Here's the YouTube link. This sneak peek ☝️ shows Rachel Brosnahan's Lois Lane in the Daily Planet newsroom... (Deadline) 

 >> "The Netherlands' privacy regulator fined Netflix $4.8 million, saying that the streaming platform didn't give users adequate information on how it processes their personal data," Edith Hancock reports. (WSJ)

 >> Disney will be the only studio to cross the $2 billion mark at the domestic box office this year, per Anthony D’Alessandro. (Deadline)

This newsletter was produced with Liam Reilly and edited by Jon Passantino. Please email us your feedback and tips here. We'll be back tomorrow with our final edition of the year!