Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Dr. Celine Gounder remembers Grant Wahl, Warner Bros. Discovery increases write-offs, POLITICO plots an expansion, Democrats ask Meta to keep Trump ban in place, Jack Dorsey addresses the "Twitter Files," Rupert Murdoch's deposition is delayed, and so much more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

WaPo's Winter

CNN Photo Illustration/Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Staffers at The Washington Post are livid at publisher Fred Ryan.

That's according to conversations I had on Wednesday with nearly a dozen employees at The Post who expressed fury at the way Ryan announced in a town hall that the company would undergo layoffs in early 2023. Ryan said that the layoffs would only amount to a single-digit percentage of the workforce and that the overall size of the company would not shrink, given there would be reinvestments in other areas. But none of that quelled outrage from staffers.

The staffers at The Post, who were already seeking answers over the way their colleagues who worked on the now-canceled Sunday magazine were summarily let go late last month, were aghast at the way Ryan conducted himself in the town hall, they told me. "He does this whole dog and pony show about how things are going great and then drops at the end that he's gong to cut the workforce — and then he refuses to take questions," one staffer told me.

Video posted on Twitter by national reporter Annie Gowen showed Ryan walk off stage as staffers peppered him with questions. Instead of answering the queries from his startled and anxious employees, Ryan told them that he would not "turn the town hall into a grievance session." In a blistering statement, The Washington Post Guild fired back at Ryan, describing his refusal to take questions as "unacceptable" behavior "from any leader," but "especially the leader of a news organization whose core values include transparency and accountability."

Of course, the news of the layoffs comes amid a horrible backdrop for the media industry at large. In recent weeks, CNN has laid off hundreds of staffers, Gannett has cut 200 staffers, NPR has said it needs to find $10 million in savings, and other organizations have implemented moves to slash costs.

But there is a right way and a wrong way to notify a workforce about a future layoff — and what I heard throughout the day is that staffers at The Post believed Ryan handled it horrendously. In fact, I haven't spoken to a single person at The Post yet who has gone to bat for the publisher.

Ryan alienated the newsroom to such an extent that a number of high-profile reporters who had previously not joined The Guild decided that they would do so on Wednesday. Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Shane Harris, Bob Barnes, Jose Del Real, John Woodrow Cox, and John Hudson told the union they wanted in, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Ryan's conduct is also not helping Executive Editor Sally Buzbee, who already had to deal with an out-of-control newsroom over the summer when high-profile employees were feuding with each other. Buzbee indicated to staffers on Wednesday that she had only learned about the layoff situation the night before. (A spokesperson for The Post said that she "has been fully engaged in our ongoing transformation efforts.") After the town hall, Buzbee held a meeting with some staffers in which she was grilled about the impending cuts. Buzbee said that she did not know if owner Jeff Bezos had played a role.

Regardless of who was responsible for the business decision, the manner in which it was communicated to the approximately 2,500 employees at The Post has torpedoed newsroom morale. Ryan seemingly tried later in the day to assuage concerns, sending a follow-up all-staff email in which he said that he recognized information about layoffs "will understandably generate a great deal of uncertainty across our organization." But that email didn't seem to improve his standing inside the newsroom.

"The mood is really grim," one staffer candidly told me. "People are just so livid right now. It's bad. Just bad."

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images

Wahl's Cause of Death: Dr. Celine Gounder on Wednesday disclosed the results of the autopsy on her late husband, Grant Wahl. Gounder said that the autospy determined Wahl "died from the rupture of a slowly growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium." In other words, "There was nothing nefarious about his death." In her post, Gounder also said she wanted to express her "deepest gratitude" for the "support, love, and sympathy from around the world." Read the full post here.

► Gounder also appeared on "CBS Mornings" and talked about Wahl with Gayle King, saying she hopes that he is remembered as a "kind, generous person who was really dedicated to social justice."

THE BUSINESS

CNN Photo Illustration/Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

WBD's Write-Offs: Warner Bros. Discovery said in an SEC filing on Wednesday that it was updating its estimates for pre-tax restructuring charges related to the Discovery-WarnerMedia merger. In October, it estimated it would write-off between $3.2 billion and $4.3 billion, which included $2 billion to $2.5 billion on scrapped content. Now the company says it expects to incur between $4.1 and $5.3 billion in such charges. That includes an updated figure of $2.8 and $3.5 billion in content related write-offs. The updated figures come as WBD continues to make cuts across the organization, including recently canceling the already-renewed HBO Max series "Minx" and ending HBO's "The Nevers." THR's Alex Weprin has more here.

First in Reliable |POLITICO's 'New Chapter': The powers that be in Rosslyn are plotting a major expansion for POLITICO. In a town hall held on Wednesday, where staffers were given gifts branded with the phrase "a new chapter," I'm told that CEO Goli Shikholeslami announced to employees the Axel Springer-owned news outlet will grow its presence in California and London. Shikholeslami, who also promised to increase tech coverage (which comes after the shut down of Protocol), indicated that more than 150 new jobs will be created in 2023 alone.

► Editor-In-Chief Matt Kaminski talked about "three large bets" that the company is making: geographic expansion; increasing tech and climate coverage; and going "on the offensive" in its key D.C. and Brussels markets.

► Executive Editor Dafna Linzer outlined the move to grow in California, telling staffers that the first play would be to take on Sacramento and then Los Angeles: "If we can own Sacramento, we can own California and if we can own California, we can own policy not just on two coasts, but two continents."

IN THE INDUSTRY

Coming Thursday: BBC News boss Deborah Turness will share her strategy for the news organization with employees. (Deadline)
NBC's "Today" family surprised Al Roker at his door, bringing the famed weatherman some much-needed holiday cheer as he recovers after returning home from the hospital over blood clotting issues. (Today)
Rachel Maddow + Stephen Spielberg! The legendary filmmaker's Ambling Entertainment has optioned the rights for "Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra," Justin Kroll reports. (Deadline)
Warner Bros. Discovery is "celebrating every story" ahead of the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros. on April 4, 2023. (Variety)
AMC Theaters is set to launch a branded Visa credit card in 2023. (THR)
Verizon is offering a year of Netflix free to customers who sign up for its Plus Play service. (The Verge)

MEDIA MOVES

Punchbowl News has hired Andrew Desiderio from Politico as senior congressional reporter. (Twitter)
WaPo has named Venkatesh Varalu as VP of data & analytics. (WaPo)
CBS News has hired Willie James Inman from Newsy as a White House digital reporter. (TV Newser)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Democrats Plea With Meta: A group of House Democrats on Wednesday sent a letter to Meta, urging the company to keep Donald Trump banned from its platforms. The Democrats, led by Rep. Adam Schiff, said that the "risk persists and certainly has not diminished since the former president's removal." The Democrats also noted that Trump "has continued to post harmful election content on Truth Social that would likely violate Facebook's policies" and said they "have every reason to believe he would bring similar conspiratorial rhetoric back to Facebook, if given the chance." A Meta spokesperson declined to comment specifically on the letter.

Dorsey Downloads: The letter from Democrats to Meta comes as ex-Twitter boss Jack Dorsey weighed in on the so-called Twitter Files and again reiterated that he believes it was a mistake for the social media platform to ban Trump. In a lengthy post, Dorsey acknowledged the current state of Twitter is his fault and that he welcomed Elon Musk sharing internal files, saying he wished he'd dump the raw documents online for everyone to read "WikiLeaks style." Dorsey argued that "there's nothing to hide ... only a lot to learn from." That said, Dorsey did condemn those attacking his former colleagues. "The current attacks on my former colleagues could be dangerous and doesn't solve anything," he wrote. "If you want to blame, direct it at me and my actions, or lack thereof."

► Related: CNN's Clare Duffy argues that "the real revelation" from the so-called Twitter Files is that "content moderation is messy."

Delayed Depo: Fox Corp. boss Rupert Murdoch was scheduled to be deposed on Tuesday by Dominion Voting Systems in the company's $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox. But the deposition "did not take place as planned," NPR's David Folkenflik scooped Wednesday, citing two sources. The reason for the delay, which I have since confirmed as well, is not clear. Reps for Fox and Dominion declined to comment. It's unclear now when the deposition will eventually take place.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

On the 10-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Amanda Crawford argues that the tragedy was "the start of misinformation running amok." (CNN)
The SEC has charged eight social media influencers with an alleged $100 million pump-and-dump stock manipulation scheme. (CNN)
Jacina Hollins-Borges chronicles how Kari Lake worked with far-right media to promote her election lawsuit. (MMFA)

THE VALLEY

Flight Canceled : If you're looking to find out where Elon Musk's private jet is located, you'll no longer find it on Twitter. On Wednesday, Twitter banned the @ElonJet account that posted near real-time updates on the movements of the billionaire's jet after it amassed more than 500,000 followers. The move came despite Musk's vow last month that his "commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane" and prompted Twitter to change its rules to ban the sharing of "same-day information" of a person's location to prevent "potential physical harm." The owner of the ElonJet account, Jack Sweeney, told CNN's Donie O'Sullivan that the bot will still post the information on other social media platforms. Watch O'Sullivan's report here.

🔭 Zooming out: The NYT's Ryan Mac reported that "more than 25 accounts that track the planes of government agencies, billionaires and high-profile individuals" had been suspended on Wednesday.

TOO MANY TABS

The Senate passed legislation Wednesday that would ban federal employees from using the app TikTok on government devices. (WSJ)
Zoë Schiffer and Casey Newton detail Twitter's "risky plan to save its ad business." (Platformer)
Kif Leswing writes that he does not believe Europe's "efforts to open up the iPhone" will "hurt Apple too much." (CNBC)
Meta is being sued in Kenya where the company is accused of letting hateful posts that fueled a war in Ethiopia spread on Facebook. The lawsuit, backed by Amnesty International, is seeking a $1.6 billion fund for victims. (Guardian)
Google says it won't launch a rival to ChatGPT because of the "reputational risk." (The Verge)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Maarten de Boer/NBCUniversal/Getty Images

Heartbreak Over 'tWitch': Ellen DeGeneres and her show are mourning the death of the former talk show's longtime DJ and co-executive producer, Stephen "tWitch" Boss. "I'm heartbroken," DeGeneres said in a statement posted to Instagram, accompanied by a photo of the two hugging. "tWitch was pure love and light. He was my family, and I loved him with all my heart. I will miss him." Boss died at the age of 40 by suicide, authorities said. CNN's Lisa Respers France has more here.

OFF STAGE

The World Cup final is set between France and Argentina. It will take place on Sunday and air at 10am ET on Fox and Telemundo. (Deadline)
"Avatar: The Way of Water" looks to make $450 to $550 million in its opening weekend. (THR)
Jay Leno opened up to "Today" about the accident that led to his serious burns: "I said to my friend, I said, 'Dave I am on fire here.'" (NBC)
Want to see Adam Driver battle dinosaurs? Then you'll want to see the new trailer for the sci-fi thriller "65." (THR)
Lifetime will air "Surviving R. Kelly: The Final Chapter" on January 2 and 3 at 8pm ET. (Deadline)
Amazon has ordered a "God of War" live-action series. (Variety)
HBO Max has renewed "Sex Lives of College Girls" for a third season. (TV Line)
Fox has renewed "Lego Masters" for a fourth season. (Deadline)

Thank you for reading! This newsletter was edited by Jon Passantino. Have feedback? Send us an email here. We will be back in your inbox tomorrow.