The week is almost complete! CNN names David Leavy as COO, the right unleashes fury on Elon Musk, Kevin McCarthy grants access to 1/6 tapes to another right-wing media favorite, President Biden warns of A.I. overtaking "human thinking," shareholders reject Netflix executive compensation, and so much more. But first, the A1. |
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CNN Photo Illustration/Jacquelyn Martin/AP |
The biggest newspaper chain in the country is about to be rocked by the biggest walkout of its staff in history. On Monday, hundreds of Gannett journalists plan to stage a one-day strike during the media company's annual shareholder meeting. Their message: Gannett needs new leadership. The journalists want shareholders to take a vote of no-confidence against Mike Reed, Gannett's chief executive. The NewsGuild-CWA, the union that represents more than 1,000 employees and dozens of bargaining units, has argued Reed has hollowed out newsrooms as a result of "misplaced priorities." "Reed doesn't care one bit about a long-term strategy to invest in the company by investing in journalists," NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss said in a biting statement. "They need support and resources to make sure our communities have the local news needed to keep our democracy thriving. Instead, Reed's singular focus has been on stuffing his own pockets. Reed has overstayed his welcome at Gannett and needs to go." The walkout Monday will see participation from 24 Gannett newspapers across seven states, notably the Arizona Republic, Austin American-Statesman, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, and the Palm Beach Post. The NewsGuild-CWA said that some newsrooms will strike for as long as two days. Morale at Gannett has not been great over the course of the last year. The company executed what it described as "incredibly difficult" layoffs in December, axing hundreds of jobs as it targeted 6% of roles in its news division. The cuts came amid challenging industry headwinds. Gannett's share price has fallen dramatically in recent years as print revenue has declined and the advertising market has weakened. While it has tried to pivot its business toward digital subscriptions, the efforts have simply not been enough. In a Thursday statement, Gannett referenced some of the industry challenges it has faced and strongly contested the allegations the NewsGuild-CWA are leveling against it. "During a very challenging time for our industry and economy, Gannett strives to provide competitive wages, benefits, and meaningful opportunities for all our valued employees," a Gannett spokesperson said. "Our leadership is focused on investing in local newsrooms and monetizing our content as we continue to negotiate fairly and in good faith with the NewsGuild. "Despite the anticipated work stoppage in some of our markets, there will be no disruption to our content or ability to deliver trusted news," the spokesperson added. "Our goal is to preserve journalism and serve our communities across the country as we bargain to finalize contracts." Some of the reporters who lead their local unions at the company's newspapers across the country, however, disagree. "I pour my heart and soul into the work that I do, but love of the work doesn't pay the bills," Cheryl Makin, a reporter for Home News Tribune, said in a statement. "We need leadership that will respect our work and provide us with the wages, benefits, and staffing we need to do our jobs well for the long term." "We're paid so little that many of my Gannett colleagues need public assistance or private charity just to get by," added Kaitlyn Kanzler, a reporter for The Record. "This is no way to run a news company." |
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Insider Staff Irate: Gannett likely won't be the only company facing a work stoppage in the next few days. Staffers at Insider plan to stage a strike starting Friday morning unless a last minute deal is struck on a contract with management. The Insider Union, which represents more than 250 staffers at the outlet, spent all Thursday warning of a strike. Mario Ruiz, a spokesperson for Insider, said that the company does have plans in place to continue publishing stories if a work stoppage were to occur. "Insider has a global newsroom, and a global audience which we will continue to serve," Ruiz told me. "We have plans in place that will enable us to publish stories regardless of whether there's a strike." |
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A Rare Rebuke: Netflix shareholders on Thursday declined to back the company's executive compensation packages, days after the Writers Guild of America West urged them against doing so. The rejection of the pay packages — which included compensation for Ted Sarandos, Reed Hastings, and Greg Peters — is not binding, meaning it lacks teeth. That said, the move could ultimately lead to change in the 2023 pay packages. Variety's Todd Spangler has more. | Lieutenant Leavy: A longtime lieutenant of Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav is headed to CNN to take the post of chief operating officer, a significant move to bolster the network's leadership team as it faces difficulties on various fronts, including historically low ratings. CNN chief executive Chris Licht on Thursday announced that David Leavy, who currently serves as WBD's chief corporate affairs officer, will assume the key position later this month. CNN said that Leavy will oversee commercial, operational, and promotional activities at the network — though it's unclear precisely who his direct reports will be. Leavy will keep a foot in the door at WBD, maintaining the public policy and social responsibility sectors of his portfolio. The WSJ's Isabella Simonetti and Joe Flint have details. 🔎 Zooming in: Variety's Brian Steinberg noted Leavy's appointment will allow Licht "to focus more intently on news programming." But Steinberg also noted that having Leavy as COO "could add a new level of scrutiny to the activities of the news giant within its corporate parent's portfolio." In an interview, Leavy told Steinberg that he will enter the organization "with an open mind" and that he plans "on doing an aggressive listening tour in the next few weeks" to see where he can "drive the most value." Steinberg has more. |
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- This probably won't help morale issues at The WaPo: After 19 years with the paper, Cameron Barr is leaving the outlet at the end of June. (WaPo)
- Fox News is shaking up its weekend lineup. Steve Hilton's "The Next Revolution" will be no more, but he will remain at the network as a contributor. (The Messenger)
- Fox Business is also canceling "Kennedy," though host Lisa Kennedy Montgomery will also stay with the company. (Broadcasting & Cable)
- Also happening at Fox News: "More staffing cuts hit the network this week," Aidan McLaughlin reported, adding that "as part of the belt-tightening Fox let go of its senior correspondent Laura Ingle, who has been with the network since 2005." (Mediaite)
- "As Vice Media looks to sell itself later this month, insiders say the likelihood of finding an outside buyer is grim," Lydia Moynihan reports. (NY Post)
- Ben Roberts-Smith, Australia's most decorated soldier, loses a landmark defamation case against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Canberra Times, who accused him of committing war crimes in Afghanistan. (CNN)
- John Herrman writes about how A.I., particularly Google's use of it, can dramatically disrupt the businesses of online publishers. (Intelligencer)
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- The NYT tapped David Malitz as the culture desk's deputy editor and Robin Kawakami as the desk's assistant editor. (NYT)
- The WaPo named Michael Birnbaum as its State Department correspondent. (WaPo)
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CNN/CNN Photo Illustration |
CNN's Celebration: CNN on Thursday celebrated its 43rd birthday in style. Current and former staffers gathered at the CNN Center in Atlanta to mark the occasion, the last before the network moves back to its old offices at the Techwood campus. In addition, CNN rolled out a new ad campaign that uses raw archival footage to highlight the network's journalism. And, most notably, CNN also debuted a refreshed on-air graphics package. You can see the new lower-thirds chyron above. NewscastStudio has a very detailed breakdown of the graphics here. |
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CNN Photo Illustration/Getty Images |
Erupting at Elon: The right is livid at Elon Musk. The Twitter owner on Thursday severely limited the reach of an anti-trans film from The Daily Wire after appearing to oscillate between positions on whether his social media platform would do so. Jeremy Boreing, the co-CEO of The Daily Wire, took to Twitter on Thursday morning to accuse Musk of breaking his commitment to free speech. Boreing said Twitter had told the right-wing outlet it would limit the reach of its "What Is a Woman?" film over misgendering. Others on the right piled on, accusing Musk of censorship. Ultimately, Musk responded to the situation and appeared to overrule Twitter staffers who had made the call, declaring their decision was "a mistake." But when The Daily Wire posted the film to Twitter on Thursday night, the platform restricted the video and did not allow users to retweet it. Musk responded by saying that Twitter will be "updating the system tomorrow so that those who follow" The Daily Wire will be able to see it. But, Musk said, the content "won't be recommended to non-followers." Musk added that "commenting & deliberate sharing will be allowed," but that "sensitive content just won't be pushed to people unless they ask for it or a friend sends it to them." ► Amid the moderation confusion, Twitter's head of Trust & Safety, Ella Irwin, abruptly resigned from the company. |
The 1/6 Tapes: Right-wing media favorite John Solomon disclosed on Thursday that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has given him "unfettered access" to the Jan. 6 surveillance tapes. That footage, which was also given earlier this year to Tucker Carlson when he was at Fox News, has been denied to news organizations which filed a lawsuit for them in April. Solomon aired some of the footage on his Real America's Voice program, using it to accuse then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi of exploiting the chaos to create a "Hollywood moment" by allowing her documentarian daughter to film the events of the day. Later in the show, Solomon welcomed radical Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who floated a conspiracy theory about Pelosi. 🔎 Zooming in: The fact that McCarthy is releasing the surveillance footage to right-wing media and hiding it from news organizations says a lot about him. McCarthy, who is very familiar with the horror that unfolded at the Capitol that day, knows that the media personalities he is giving the tapes to will use it to push bogus conspiracy theories about what happened. He knows that they will use the footage to rewrite the history of that day. And yet, he still provides them with the tapes while withholding it from news organizations. |
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- Sean Hannity aired his pre-taped town hall with Donald Trump on Fox, where the former president recycled attacks on his opponents.
- Despite anti-LGBT attacks from right-wing media, GLAAD says it hasn't noticed a downtick in corporate commitments to Pride Month. (Axios)
- Ron DeSantis hit back at an AP reporter who questioned why the 2024 presidential candidate was not taking questions from New Hampshire voters in a traditional forum. (The Wrap)
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CNN Photo Illustration/Kevin Lamarque/Reuters |
The President's Position: President Biden seems to be taking A.I. warnings from industry leaders to heart. "I met in the Oval Office with eight leading scientists in the area of AI. Some are very worried that AI can actually overtake human thinking in the planet," Biden candidly said Thursday. "So we've got a lot to deal with. It's an incredible opportunity, but a lot do deal with." USA Today's Joey Garrison has more here. 🔎 Zooming in: While government leaders have expressed concern about the A.I. revolution, little has been done by the U.S. to ensure the technology does not grow beyond human control. Industry leaders, many of whom are responsible for building the technology, have implored the government to take some action. But, thus far, that hasn't happened — and the U.S. government doesn't have a great track record on such issues. |
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- The generative A.I. market is expected to reach $1.3 trillion in 2032, up from $40 billion in 2022, thanks to bots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard. (Bloomberg)
- Microsoft has "agreed to spend potentially billions of dollars over multiple years on cloud computing infrastructure from startup CoreWeave" amid the A.I. boom, Jordan Novet reports. (CNBC)
- Google will testify at a hearing next week focused, in part, on A.I., Ashley Gold reports. (Axios)
- A bipartisan California bill that would make Big Tech firms pay publishers for news advances despite threat from Meta. (Mercury News)
- Marco Rubio has asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to have the Justice Department probe whether TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew committed perjury during his testimony before Congress, Alexandra Levine reports. (Forbes)
- Meta announced that its Quest 3 headset, due out later this year, will cost $499. (The Verge)
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CNN Photo Illustration/NDZ/STAR MAX/IPx /AP |
WGA's Warning: The Writers Guild of America West on Thursday came out swinging against the AMPTP, which represents the major studios, accusing it of lying and "gaslighting." The allegations came by way of an email to members in which the WGA said that a "divide and conquer strategy," in this case pitting the Directors Guild of America against WGA, would not work this time around, as it did in the past. "We will continue to march until the companies negotiate fairly with us. We do it now with the support of our sister guilds and unions, and we will support them whenever it's their turn," the WGA said. "The era of divide and conquer is over." Deadline's David Robb has more here. |
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- Peter Rice will partner with A24 as he focuses on being an independent producer. (THR)
- The 2023 Tribeca Festival announced its jury, which will include Brendan Fraser, Stephanie Hsu, Zoey Deutch, Chance the Rapper, and Chloe Grace Moretz. (Deadline)
- Christopher Nolan's much-anticipated "Oppenheimer" has earned an "R" rating. (Variety)
- Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is heading back to the "Fast and Furious" franchise for an untitled project. (The Wrap)
- Billy Joel will end his legendary residency at Madison Square Garden in 2024. (Deadline)
- Robert De Niro says it "feels great" to have a newborn at 79, adding that he is "very happy" for Al Pacino, who is also becoming a dad once again at 83. (Today)
- Meghann Fahy and Theo James are on the cover of Variety, talking to Katcy Stephan about the unconventional relationship their characters shared in "The White Lotus." (Variety)
- The season two finale of "Yellowjackets" drew 1.5 million total viewers, a streaming record for Showtime. (Deadline)
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Thank you for reading! This newsletter was edited by Jon Passantino and produced with the assistance of Liam Reilly. Have feedback? Send us an email here. We will see you back in your inbox next week. |
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