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Thursday, January 11, 2024

A housekeeping note: We will be off on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. day, which means the next time we will see you will be Tuesday. Now, onward to the news. ESPN returns dozens of Emmys, NBC News undergoes layoffs, Casey Newton pulls Platformer from Substack, Axel Springer/BI go quiet amid "review," Ron DeSantis zings Fox News for its Donald Trump town hall, Google and Discord slash workforces, HBO releases the trailer for the final season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and more. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Shredded Cheddar

CNN Photo Illustration/Ryan Young/PGA TOUR/Getty Images

Not too long ago, on the 25th and 26th floors of the One State Street tower in lower Manhattan, a vibrant newsroom existed.

Each morning, hundreds of employees strolled into the offices of Cheddar News, breathing life into the prime real estate that housed studios and the infrastructure for a broadcast news network with big ambitions. As one former employee told me, the space was once "packed" and buzzing with activity as teams of staffers produced an entire lineup of programming.

The scene at One State Street looks much different today, with the offices void of people and the bustling energy that once made it an exciting upstart news outlet. Employees now "walk into a very desolate, empty office space," I'm told. There is "literally no one there."

That's because there is, effectively, no one working at Cheddar News, the once spirited financial news-focused streaming television network. The Jon Steinberg-founded "CNBC for millennials," which Altice USA acquired in 2019 for a staggering $200 million before offloading it for an undisclosed amount to Archetype last month, is now essentially a zombie channel.

The outlet technically exists, but its plans of grandeur are far behind it and the network is hanging on by a thin thread, according to people familiar with the company's state of affairs. Currently, only one live news show, "Opening Bell" hosted by Kristen Scholer, remains in production. On Cheddar's website, original reporting has ground to a halt. In its place, a few wire stories from the Associated Press are sporadically published.

In fact, just a handful of employees still remain working on the editorial product, the people who spoke with me said, estimating the group to be no more than a half-dozen staffers or so. And that group of staffers, I'm told, is likely to shrink even more in the days ahead as the remaining Cheddar staffers look to jump off what's left of the sinking ship, which at this point appears to be mostly submerged and headed straight for the ocean floor.

"It feels like the end," a person familiar with the matter candidly told me.

The once high-flying digital media outlet, which Steinberg started in 2016 when the ground was more fertile for online news ventures, entered the world with grand plans, eventually making its way onto cable lineups and gas station screens. Steinberg openly talked about taking on legacy cable news companies, with the desire to shake up the television industry, which he correctly noted at the time would decline as streaming gained momentum.

For Steinberg, the investment certainly had a handsome return. Cheddar was sold in 2019 for the lofty price of $200 million to Altice USA, which welcomed the well-regarded digital media veteran into its family as news chief. But soon after, Cheddar's health faltered, the result of a confluence of factors, most prominently the Covid-19 pandemic that decimated the advertising business.

Cheddar was forced to go through a brutal round of layoffs in 2020, with Business Insider reporting at the time that the workforce was slashed by 30% or more. Between turnover and additional cuts in the following years, the outlet that once walked about with a confident step became emaciated, a shell of its former self.

By the time Archetype acquired Cheddar in December, only a couple dozen or so editorial staffers remained at the outlet, people familiar with the matter told me. Initially, those employees were filled with false hope that their jobs were safe. In fact, after the acquisition, Archetype asked all of the employees to sign a new contract. That struck some employees as odd, but they complied, given Archetype was offering them the same position with the same pay.

"Everything they said implied that no big changes were going to be made right away," recalled one former employee.

Soon after signing those agreements, however, Archetype sent furlough notices to many of the remaining employees. The notices were sent to the work email addresses of these employees, which were then shut off soon after, making it difficult for some staffers to retrieve the document, I'm told.

What Archetype's vision for Cheddar is remains unclear. The company has not responded to multiple requests for comment sent over the last week. On Thursday, I attempted to directly contact senior leaders of Archetype's management, including Kelly Facer, senior vice president and head of operations, and Stephanie Gildea, vice president of marketing. Neither responded.

Regardless, Cheddar's future is not looking bright.

"There is certainly a death happening as we speak," one of the people familiar with the outlet's state of affairs told me. "I guess, you could try to bring it back from the dead. But right now, it's certainly dying."

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/G Fiume/Getty Images

ESPN's Emmys Embarrassment: ESPN returned dozens of Emmy statues and "disciplined" employees after an investigation disclosed Thursday found that the sports network had submitted fake names to the awards organization in a bid to secure trophies for on-air personalities who had been ineligible to receive them. The apparent fraud stretched back to 1997, ESPN said, acknowledging members of its team "were clearly wrong" for concocting the scheme: "This was a misguided attempt to recognize on-air individuals who were important members of our production team. Once current leadership was made aware, we apologized to NATAS for violating guidelines and worked closely with them to completely overhaul our submission process to safeguard against anything like this happening again." The Athletic's Katie Strang, who broke the story, reported that over the years when ESPN was given the prestigious awards using the fictitious names, the broadcaster had them re-engraved and then handed them out to the personalities who had been ineligible to receive them. Yikes! Here's my full story with Liam Reilly.

🔎 Zooming in: An ESPN spokesperson told us on Thursday that when its current leadership was made aware of the scheme, it hired an outside law firm to "conduct a full and thorough investigation" and that "individuals found to be responsible were disciplined by ESPN."

👀 Speaking of embarrassing moments for ESPN management, Pat McAfee invited Aaron Rodgers back on his program Thursday, just one day after announcing that the conspiracy theory peddling quarterback would no appear for the remainder of the NFL season. The two only discussed football, and it was a short appearance, but the message from McAfee to the ESPN c-suite couldn't be more clear.

THE INDUSTRY

Trimming the Peacock: NBC News on Thursday became the latest news organization to undergo layoffs. The network laid off between 50-100 employees across its various divisions, I'm told. The news was first reported by Puck's Dylan Byers on X (sorry Dylan, you know we don't link to that social platform anymore). The cuts come as the outlet realigns parts of its business. Deadline's Ted Johnson has all the details here.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

Casey Newton has decided to pull his outlet, Platformer, off of Substack: "While I broadly share Substack's support of free speech values, I also believe that platforms that build viral recommendation engines have a duty to act responsibly," Newton said in a statement. "Among other things, that means proactively removing pro-Nazi content and taking steps to ensure that the company is not funding and accelerating the growth of extremist movements. But Substack doesn't see it that way, and so we can no longer stay in good conscience." (Platformer)
When are Axel Springer and Business Insider going to complete their "review" of the stories alleging plagiarism by Neri Osman, the former MIT professor and Bill Ackman's wife? Spokespeople for neither Axel or BI responded to my inquiries on Thursday. But, initially, we had been told that the review would be done shortly. Four days later and Axel/BI are silent.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, and other non-profit groups wrote President Joe Biden expressing alarm at the growing number of dead journalists covering the Hamas-Israel wear. (The Guardian)
Slate acquired the "Death, Sex, & Money" podcast. (Bloomberg)

IN THE MARKET

Peacock is looking to grow its subscriber base by paying $100 million to exclusively stream an NFL playoff game this Saturday night. The streamer's boss, Kelly Campbell, noted to John Koblin that "there's a lot riding on this game." (NYT)
Netflix's ad tier currently boasts over 23 million active monthly users, advertising chief Amy Reinhard disclosed at Variety's Entertainment Summit at CES. (Variety)
Skydance chief David Ellison is exploring an all-cash deal to take over Shari Redstone's Paramount Global, Jessica Toonkel and Miriam Gottfried report. (WSJ)

MEDIA MOVES

News Corporation tapped Arthur Bochner as its chief comms officer as longtime spokesperson Jim Kennedy prepares to retire. (Variety)
The Hollywood Reporter poached Lachlan Cartwright, naming him a special correspondent and announcing he will launch a newsletter covering news, entertainment, and politics. (THR)
NewsNation hired Hena Doba as an anchor and announced it will expand its weekend programming, starting on January 27. (Deadline)
Digiday Media promoted David Amrani to chief executive. (TBN)
The Guardian U.S. hired Melissa Segura as a senior investigative reporter and George Joseph as an investigative reporter. (The Guardian)
Mother Jones hired Garrison Hayes as a video correspondent. (Mother Jones)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Taking Trump: All of the major cable news networks took Donald Trump live on Thursday as the disgraced former president and GOP frontrunner delivered remarks following his appearance in court for his civil fraud trial. As The NYT's Michael Grynbaum wrote, "His appearance lasted only a few minutes, but viewers were treated to an unfiltered fusillade of incendiary and misleading comments." According to Grynbaum, "Trump campaign aides took particular pleasure that CNN carried Mr. Trump live and allowed him to deliver his talking points, unmediated, to the American public. This framing — on Mr. Trump's own terms, with TV cameras capturing his every word without real-time fact-checking — is exactly how Mr. Trump and his allies envisage they can exploit any criminal trials that might be held during the election season."

🔎 Zooming in: CNN, naturally, offered viewers a robust fact-check after Trump concluded his remarks. But the episode underscored the conundrums news organizations are facing as they decide whether to take Trump's live remarks, which are always rife with misrepresentations, conspiracy theories, and outright lies.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

CNN averaged 2.6 million viewers during its Iowa debate between Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. (Deadline)
Meanwhile, Donald Trump's town hall on Fox News, which he insisted take place during the debate to counter-program it, averaged 4.3 million viewers. (THR)
David Bauder noted that at the town hall moderated by anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, Trump was "barely challenged." Bauder pointed out that Trump's predictable lie about how Democrats supposedly support killing babies after birth was "not challenged" by the anchors. (AP)
Colby Hall on the Trump town hall: "It was more like the anointment of a future leader and, even more shocking, a surrender by Fox News to their once and future King." (Mediaite)
DeSantis, who has been growing critical of right-wing media as he watches outlets and personalities fail to criticize Trump, zinged Fox News during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," complaining that the network enabled "massive gaslighting" and that the former president was allowed to lie "with no pushback." No, this is not the Twilight Zone. (Mediaite)
For his piece on why Fox News "just can't quit Donald Trump," Brian Stelter spoke with a correspondent for the right-wing channel: "Fox critics love to say Trump is the monster we created, okay, but we say it to ourselves too. We know it's true." (Vanity Fair)
Switching gears: The NAACP and the National Urban League called out Elon Musk after he claimed that DEI initiatives at Boeing and United Airlines were to blame for recent airline issues. (NBC News)
Charlie Warzel wondered whether A.I. has ushered in a plagiarism war and draws a parallel between the practice and fake news. (The Atlantic)

THE VALLEY

CNN Photo Illustration/David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Tumult in Tech: The biggest names in Silicon Valley continue to bleed. Google, once thought to be one of the most stable companies in the world to work for, announced Thursday that it was cutting hundreds of jobs as it continues to focus on its "biggest product priorities." The slashing comes after the tech titan cut thousands of jobs last January. Over at Discord, the state of affairs was equally grim. The company said it was giving its workforce a haircut of 17%, or by 170 employees. Discord too cited a desire to become more focused, with chief executive Jason Citron confessing that as the company grew, it "became less efficient in how we operated." Meanwhile, the Amazon cuts expanded to Audible, with the audiobook company cutting 5% of its employee base, totaling around 100 staffers.

🔎 Zooming in: Don't expect layoffs in the tech sector to ease up. With the advent of A.I., it is likely that cuts in the industry will only accelerate, as more and more jobs become automated.

TOO MANY TABS

The power of ChatGPT: Microsoft briefly overtook Apple as the world's most valuable company on Thursday. (Reuters)
Are you going to preorder? Kif Leswing spoke to analysts who predicted Apple's Vision Pro could sell out quickly when it launches. (CNBC)
Elon Musk's X is taking "a page from the old Twitter video strategy," Kurt Wagner noted. (Bloomberg)
Katie Notopoulos: "It's not just you — the TikTok Shop will show you literally anything." (Business Insider)
Installs of Netflix's games were up 180% on year in 2023, in large part thanks to big names like "Grand Theft Auto." (TechCrunch)
Google and Bing have surfaced nonconsensual pornography at the top of certain search queries, Kat Tenbarge reported. (NBC News)
Meanwhile: Meta irritated Walmart and Match by putting their ads next to unsavory content, New Mexico's attorney general said in an amended complaint to its lawsuit, Daysia Tolentino and Kate Snow reported. (NBC News)

CURTAIN CALL

CNN Photo Illustration/Max

Larry's Last Laugh: The trailer for the 12th and final season of Larry David's acclaimed "Curb Your Enthusiasm" was released Thursday by Max. The trailer noted to viewers of the HBO hit comedy series that "Larry is back for one final act." It went on to say, "It's time to say goodbye to the last of his kind." The final season of "Curb" drops on February 4. Check out the trailer here.

OFF STAGE

"The Drew Barrymore Show" was renewed for a fifth season. (THR)
"Parasite" director Bong Joon-ho is calling on police to investigate the circumstances around the death of Lee Sun-kyun. (THR)
Riley Keough and Random House will publish Lisa Marie Presley's currently untitled posthumous memoir on Oct. 15. (TheWrap)
The seventh season of ABC's "The Good Doctor" will be the show's last. (TheWrap)
Max canceled "Julia" after just two seasons. (THR)
"The Last of Us" cast Isabela Merced for season two. (TheWrap)
Peacock cast Stephanie Hsu in its upcoming series, "Laid." (Deadline)
Netflix cast Nick Frost as a Viking in its live-action adaptation of "How To Train Your Dragon." (THR)
Missed this yesterday, but how did Jeremy Strong get snubbed for the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series award by SAG? Instead, the nomination went to Brian Cox, who was absent for most of the final season of "Succession"? Strange. (Daily Beast)

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. You can follow us on Instagram, Threads, and LinkedIn. We will see you back in your inbox Tuesday.