For the Record

Hachette Drops Allen Memoir:

Hachette Book Group "dropped its plans to publish Woody Allen’s autobiography" Friday amid protests by employees (culminating in a Thursday walkout) and 2018 Public Service winner Ronan Farrow's decision to leave the publisher, according to John Williams of The New York Times. "The decision to cancel Mr. Allen’s book was a difficult one," a spokeswoman said in a statement. "We take our relationships with authors very seriously, and do not cancel books lightly." Allen has been accused of child sexual abuse by adopted daughter Dylan Farrow.

Polgreen Joins Gimlet:

Past Pulitzer juror and HuffPost Executive Editor Lydia Polgreen announced that she will be leaving the news organization later this month to become Head of Content at Gimlet Media. "I've been an audio obsessive since I was a little expat kid glued to the shortwave radio in our kitchen in Kenya, yearning to connect with the far flung world," she said. "Gimlet has built the greatest audio team in the world, and I'm so lucky to have the chance to learn from them."

Asian American Groups, Politicians Decry Stock Photos of Chinatowns in Unrelated Coronavirus Articles:

According to Leah Carroll of Refinery29, news organizations have continued to use decontextualized photos of masked Chinatown residents in coronavirus stories that are unrelated to the original outbreak in Wuhan, defying advisories against the practice from OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates and the Asian American Journalists Association. New York State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, whose district includes Manhattan's Chinatown, told Carroll that she believes the images "reinforce xenophobia" and have contributed to an economic decline in the neighborhood. "After I publicized the Lunar New Year celebration in Chinatown, we got a lot of hate. People began calling my office and saying 'you eat bats' and hanging up," she said. "So the problem with using stock imagery of Asians in an article that is otherwise informative is that it perpetuates very dangerous stereotypes without getting the proper information out there."

Days: NLA Conference Postponed as Merger Continues; Diversity Census Scrapped:

The News Leaders Association has announced that it will postpone its 2020 annual conference (tentatively scheduled for Nashville this fall) to spring 2021 as it continues to search for an executive director. Past Pulitzer juror and Philadelphia Inquirer Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion Michael Days, who chairs the trade organization, told Rick Edmonds of Poynter that "the merger of the American Society of News Editors and Associated Press Media Editors, planned and approved in 2018 and 2019, is simply taking longer than expected to complete." Days also said that the group will scrap its 40-year-old diversity census while continuing to prioritize First Amendment advocacy and diversity.

Sacramento Mayor Spearheads Effort to Form Bee Ownership Group:

According to Ryan Lillis of The Sacramento Bee, Mayor Darrell Steinberg "is working to form a local ownership group that could purchase" the newspaper from McClatchy, "separating the 163-year-old publication from its parent company and more than two-dozen sister newspapers across the U.S." Steinberg, who compared the initiative to the city's successful effort to retain the Sacramento Kings basketball team and reiterated that the publication would remain independent, said that it is his "responsibility as mayor to continue to fight for any community asset that is vital to the future of Sacramento." McClatchy announced its intention to file for bankruptcy last month.

The Athletic: Sportswriting's Last Stand?

Although sports newsroom The Athletic "has offered lifelines to hundreds of journalists" since its 2015 founding, the site has failed to release revenue figures or attain profitability despite investments from such prominent figures as Matthew McConaughey, according to Ben Strauss of The Washington Post. "What we're looking at right now is sports journalism as a career having a 10-year arc," said Jane McManus, director of Marist University’s sports communication center. "You can have a job out of college creating content for someplace, and when you need benefits, a better salary, you'll have to leave the business."

Farrow Leaves Hachette Over Allen Memoir:

2018 Public Service winner Ronan Farrow indicated that he would cut ties with Hachette Book Group Tuesday after the company announced it would publish a memoir by Farrow's father, filmmaker Woody Allen. According to Cornelia Channing of Slate, the memoir "was rejected by multiple publishing houses last year over the allegations that Allen sexually abused his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, when she was a child." In a statement, Farrow said he was "disappointed to learn through press reports that Hachette, my publisher, acquired Woody Allen’s memoir after other major publishers refused to do so and concealed the decision from me and its own employees while we were working on 'Catch and Kill' — a book about how powerful men, including Woody Allen, avoid accountability for sexual abuse."

ViacomCBS to Sell Simon & Schuster:

ViacomCBS announced Wednesday that it is seeking a buyer for Simon & Schuster after completing a "strategic review" of the publishing house. In an internal memo, CEO Robert Bakish said that the media company "will look to complete a transaction that maximizes its value once the market stabilizes." Founded by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster in 1924, the publisher's notable authors include Hillary Clinton, Bob Woodward and Stephen King.

Media Takes Coronavirus Precautions:

According to Maxwell Tani of The Daily Beast, major U.S. newsrooms and media companies (including CNN, The New York Times, Condé Nast and The Wall Street Journal) "are scaling back travel and asking journalists to take precautions in the wake of the spread of coronavirus," including mandatory work-from-home periods for employees who visited or reported from affected countries. Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget has also encouraged his staff to embrace alternatives to shaking hands.

Baker: I Don't Vote:

New York Times Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker revealed that he "[tries] hard not to take strong positions on public issues even in private, much to the frustration of friends and family" and does not vote in a Monday article on journalistic impartiality. Although his stance drew criticism from several journalists on Twitter, former Washington Post Executive Editor Len Downie discussed his career-spanning recusal from the ballot box with media columnist Erik Wemple: "I had a very easy time as a human being and as an editor seeing many sides of an issue, and politicians [... it] made it easier for me to deny myself making that final decision in my mind."