For the Record

Alden Buyouts Eliminate 10% of Tribune Staffing:

Hedge fund Alden Global Capital " has bought out and let go at least 10% of the newsroom workforce since it acquired Tribune Publishing six weeks ago," Rick Edmonds of Poynter reported Thursday. Edmonds' figure is derived from "statistics compiled by the NewsGuild, which has local chapters in all Tribune newsrooms except that of the Sun-Sentinel in South Florida." He added that "union newsroom staff at the Chicago Tribune went from 111 to 87 (-21.6%), The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press from 46 to 38 (-17.4%) and The (Allentown) Morning Call from 32 to 25 (-21.9%)," while an additional 16 non-union buyouts at the Tribune also were approved by management. Since Alden took a 32% stake in Tribune in late 2019, the NewsGuild has asserted that most papers' staffing is "down 20 to 30% in 18 months." The June round of departures at the Tribune has encompassed many of the newspaper's most notable columnists, including 2012 Commentary winner Mary Schmich, John Kass, Eric Zorn and Heidi Stevens. Edmonds added that Maryland businessman and philanthropist Stewart Bainum Jr. (who led a competing bid for the newspaper group) "seems to be aiming at an ambitious nonprofit digital startup" possibly akin to The Daily Memphian in lieu of resurrecting his original plan to spin off The Baltimore Sun as a nonprofit. "It may be until fall before such a venture comes together, my sources say, if it comes together at all," said Edmonds.

News Organizations Publish Tobacco-Related Sponsored Content:

Decades after the comprehensive legal and industrial regulation of nicotine marketing (including blanket bans by Google and Microsoft's networks) prompted the disappearance of cigarette ads from most media, major news organizations "are running ads on their websites from tobacco giant Philip Morris touting the company's research into smoke-free tobacco products," Dan Kennedy of Media Nation reported Monday. "These are not ads that were automatically served up to news websites by Google," said Kennedy. "Rather, they are sponsored content, produced in collaboration with the news organization that publishes them. Such content, also known as 'native advertising,' use type and layout that differ from the typical presentation. It’s also accompanied by disclosures that it was paid for by the advertisers and that the news and editorial departments had no involvement in its production." The ads (which have appeared in a variety of publications, including The Boston Globe and Reuters) carry the byline of Dr. Moira Gilchrist, who currently serves as the vice president of strategic and scientific communications at Philip Morris. Contrary to popular belief, tobacco ads have remained legal in U.S. publications, in contrast to Richard Nixon's 1970 ban of the ads in the regulated media of television and radio.

Chapel Hill Trustees Grant Hannah-Jones Tenure:

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill trustees "voted to approve tenure for distinguished journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones at a meeting Wednesday afternoon, bringing a resolution to the national controversy that has ensued over her hire," according to Kate Murphy and Martha Quillin of The News & Observer. Hannah-Jones, who received the 2020 Commentary Prize and will join the institution's faculty today as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media, "said she would not begin the job without tenure" when the board did not take up the matter, prompting Student Body President Lamar Richards (a voting trustee) to "[make] an official petition for a special meeting on this issue." All previous holders of Hannah-Jones' faculty line received tenure. In a statement, Hannah-Jones expressed gratitude to her supporters, including a group of protesters who were restrained from entering the closed-door meeting. "I want to acknowledge the tremendous outpouring of support I’ve received from students, faculty, colleagues and the general public over the last month — including the young people today who showed up at the Board of Trustees meeting, putting themselves at physical risk," she said. "I am honored and grateful for and inspired by you all. I know that this vote would not have occurred without you. Today’s outcome and the actions of the past month are about more than just me. This fight is about ensuring the journalistic and academic freedom of Black writers, researchers, teachers and students. We must ensure that our work is protected and able to proceed free from the risk of repercussions, and we are not there yet. These last weeks have been very challenging and difficult and I need to take some time to process all that has occurred and determine what is the best way forward." Walter Hussman, a graduate and endower of the journalism school who "had raised questions about Hannah-Jones teaching there," added: "[As] I have said repeatedly, expressing a concern is the limit of what any donor should do in such a situation. I respect that academic freedom requires that the authority for hiring faculty rests solely with the University. The University has now voted to grant tenure to [...] Nikole Hannah-Jones. I look forward to meeting her and discussing journalism. Our plan is to continue to support the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media in advocating for the core values."

Publishers Commit to Digital Events:

As the pandemic recedes in the United States, publishers "[have] been focused on figuring out how to keep virtual events part of a company’s events offering even after in-person ones are possible again," according to Hanaa’ Tameez of NiemanLab. “We're in an interesting moment at Politico right now, where we have a big operation in Europe, we have a new operation in Canada, we have a China newsletter that we launched this year, and we have a Global Translations newsletter now coming out three times a week," said Luiza Savage, the news organization's editorial director of events. "One thing that we’ve been able to do on virtual, which would have been really difficult logistically and cost-wise to do in person, is bring together more international voices. Whether it’s for roundtables or livestreamed events, we were able to include European colleagues in our AI summit … it’s something we plan to lean into a lot more this year as we continue to grow out what global Politico could be." Jessica Weaver, the Texas Tribune's creative director for editorial events, added: "The live experience was really important, but the afterlife of these events was equally important. We realized we could make them far more accessible than our other events. We’re streaming them not only on our website, but also on all of our social platforms." 

Federal Judge Dismisses Facebook Antitrust Cases:

Judge James E. Boasberg of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia "threw out antitrust lawsuits brought against the company by the Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states" Monday, maintaining that "the states had waited too long to bring their case, which centers on deals made in 2012 and 2014," according to Cecilia Kang of The New York Times. Although the judge "said the F.T.C. could try again within 30 days with more detail, [...] he suggested that the agency faced steep challenges" in recrafting the lawsuits. “Ultimately, this antitrust action is premised on public, high-profile conduct, nearly all of which occurred over six years ago, before the launch of the Apple Watch or Alexa or Periscope, when Kevin Durant still played for the Oklahoma City Thunder and when Ebola was the virus dominating headlines," said Boasberg, who also serves as presiding judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and chief judge of the United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court. William E. Kovacic, a former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, said that the decision is a "reminder to those who have wanted a dramatic, sweeping litigation campaign to take on Big Tech that there's nothing easy about it, because the courts have a different view of the antitrust system." The decision "pushed Facebook’s stock up 4.2%, and the company passed $1 trillion in market capitalization for the first time," joining only five other firms. The platform also will launch Bulletin, a newsletter product envisaged as a competitor to Substack, within the day.

Black-Owned Media Collective Launches:

Group Black Inc., "a collective aimed at deepening the pipeline of Black-owned media companies, launched Tuesday with an ad-spending target of $75 million from a WPP PLC unit," according to Nat Ives of The Wall Street Journal. The collective and business accelerator "seeks to attract ad spending from marketers that are trying to diversify where they advertise," Ives added. Its members include Essence Communications, the parent company of Essence magazine; Holler Technologies, a firm that "specializes in stickers and GIFs for digital messages and posts"; esports startup PlayVS and news company Shade Room LLC.  Advertisers such as General Motors, McDonald's and Coca-Cola "are pledging to increase their advertising in Black-owned media amid pressure on U.S. businesses to counter racial inequality following nationwide protest" precipitated by the murder of George Floyd in 2020. "The reality is the Black-owned media industry is nascent, it's underfunded and the pipeline is so small," said Travis Montaque, the chief executive, director and co-founder of Group Black.

Garland Endorses Subpoena Legislation as Adminstration's Stance Remains Ambiguous:

Attorney General Merrick Garland "has endorsed the idea of legislation to create an enduring ban on federal prosecutors subpoenaing reporters or their phone or email records in federal investigations, but [...] stopped short of announcing an official endorsement on behalf of the Biden administration," Josh Gerstein of Politico reported Friday. During a Friday press conference, Garland "reiterated that he is planning both an informal directive and new regulations to implement the policy change he announced last month ending such demands" after President Biden "[expressed] outrage at recent disclosures that the Justice Department sought phone and email records from The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN reporters in connection with leak investigations" during the Trump administration. "You are right in suggesting that the only way to make it permanently durable is through legislation, and I personally will support working with Congress to develop legislation that would make protections for obtaining the press' records part of the legislation," Garland said in response to a question. A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to Gerstein's request for comment on the matter.

Charlotte Business Newsletter Reaches Six-Figure Revenue Threshold, Launches Spinoff Publications:

Local business newsletter The Charlotte Ledger "now generates around $12,500 in monthly recurring revenue from its 2,000 paid subscribers," according to Ted Williams of Axios Charlotte. Combined with advertising and grant funding, the Substack-based publication "is on pace to generate $175,000 in annual revenue." Publisher Tony Mecia started the newsletter as an experiment two years ago, employing a paper rolodex of local news contacts and 300 Twitter followers as his initial base. "There was no revenue for the first year," he said. "I had severance from a magazine job and I freelanced." The publication is adding as many as 80 net new paid subscribers a month, while more than 6,900 subscribers utilize its free tier. In addition to its business newsletter, The Ledger recently launched sister publications dedicated to obituaries and transit issues. Mecia and Managing Editor Cristina Bolling "have proven that readers are willing to pay for high quality, original local reporting," Williams added. "Instead of providing cash flow for newspaper-owning hedge funds, top tier local reporters now have a blueprint on providing cash flow to their families."

Stephen Dunn (1939–2021):

2001 Poetry winner Stephen Dunn died yesterday on his birthday at his home in Frostburg, Md. He was 82. His daughter, Susanne Dunn, said the cause was complications of Parkinson's disease, according to Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times. Born in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, Dunn first emerged as a star basketball player at Forest Hills High School and Hofstra University, playing guard during the latter team's celebrated 1959-60 season. Following a brief professional career with the Williamsport Billies of the Eastern Basketball Association, Dunn briefly worked in advertising and attempted to write a novel in Spain. At 29, he entered the graduate creative writing program at Syracuse University, where he received his master's degree in 1970. In 1974, he began his long association with Stockton University in Galloway Township, N.J., where he was distinguished professor emeritus of creative writing at the time of his death. As a writer, Dunn "specialized in poems about surviving, coping with and looking for meaning in the ordinary passages of life, or at least of the middle-class life he was familiar with," said Genzlinger. "He wrote of marriages under stress, the vicissitudes of aging, a hawk that smashed into his window but then flew again."

Amazon Acquires Art19:

Amazon has acquired Art19, "a major podcast hosting and monetization platform," for an undisclosed sum, Ashley Carman of The Verge reported Thursday. As a result, the platform "will now have a hand in hosting podcasters’ shows as well as selling ads against them because Art19 operates an ad marketplace that targets and inserts ads into programming." The acquisition follows Amazon's initial foray into podcasting in September 2020 and its purchase of independent podcasting network Wondery in December 2020. "Not only will it make content through Wondery and distribute shows through its app," added Carman, "but now, Amazon can host those podcasts, as well as third parties', and sell ads against them. This gives Amazon even more data about what’s happening both inside and outside its app" in a manner analogous to such competing products as Spotify's Megaphone and iHeartRadio's Triton Digital.