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NOVEMBER 30,  2022

LIKE WATCHING THE TITANIC SINK:  The bloodbath at CNN has started.  Will other "news" outlets follow in kind?  From the Washington Post: 

CNN is laying off hundreds of employees in a cost-cutting effort that illuminates the financial challenges facing a wide array of media companies as the economy teeters toward a possible recession.

The cuts began on Wednesday and finished on Thursday, with affected employees notified in person or via Zoom.

“It is incredibly hard to say goodbye to any one member of the CNN team,” CNN chief executive Chris Licht wrote in a Wednesday staff memo obtained by The Washington Post, describing the cuts as a “gut punch.”

Chris Cillizza, who joined CNN as a politics reporter and editor-at-large in 2017, confirmed to The Post that he has been laid off. Susan Glasser, a CNN global affairs analyst, also said that she was “one of many” part-time commentators affected by the cuts. Rachel Metz, a senior technology writer, said she was “devastated” to have been laid off on Thursday.

Other television networks are planning cost-cutting measures over the winter.

NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News and MSNBC, will lay off employees in January, according to a Business Insider report, though a news division spokesperson declined to comment Thursday. ABC News parent company Disney is similarly planning cuts under the leadership of Bob Iger, who recently returned as the company’s chief executive.

The country’s largest newspaper chain, Gannett, is undertaking a round of job cuts that is expected to affect roughly 200 journalists — at papers large and small — over the next two days. The company also laid off about 400 employees in August and froze hiring for hundreds more positions. “While incredibly difficult, implementing these efficiencies and responding decisively to the ongoing macroeconomic volatility will continue to propel Gannett’s future,” Gannett spokesperson Lark-Marie Antón said in an email.

Among those laid off was USA Today sports investigative reporter Rachel Axon, who has reported on sexual abuse in competitive sports. “I’m grateful for all those who trusted me with their stories,” she wrote on Twitter. “I’ve never forgotten the privilege of that — whether it was showing their triumphs or holding those who harmed them to account.”

One journalist for a Gannett-owned publication told The Post of being laid off over Zoom, leaving behind a newsroom of less than a dozen reporters. “They read from a script and thanked me for my service, which I find laughable,” the person said, spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly.

NPR is also facing a financial shortfall that will require $10 million in budget cuts over the next 10 months, chief executive John Lansing told employees on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, Washington Post executive editor Sally Buzbee informed employees of plans to close the company’s weekly print magazine, citing The Post’s plans for “global and digital transformation.”

“A lot of media companies right now are looking at the economy and saying to themselves, ‘We’re about to go into a recession and we’re going to need fewer people,’” said Chris Roush, dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University.

CNN employees have been no stranger to cutbacks this year, since Licht moved quickly to shut down the network’s expensive new streaming service, CNN Plus, in April, barely three weeks after it launched. At the time, a network spokesperson said that about 350 employees would be affected, though some of the star journalists hired for the service — including Chris Wallace, Audie Cornish and Kasie Hunt — have remained with the network. CNN leadership also decided to part ways earlier this year with media correspondent Brian Stelter and the staff of his weekly “Reliable Sources” show in August, as well as White House correspondent John Harwood.

At a companywide meeting last month, Licht defended the need for layoffs but said he would aim to minimize the impact on newsgathering operations, according to an audio recording obtained by The Post. The cuts, he said, are part of a “strategic reimagining of how we do business” and an attempt to better position the network for 2023. Asked whether CNN expected more layoffs next year, he told employees “not at this time.”

In a memo on Thursday afternoon, Licht said that sister network HLN — once known as Headline News — will stop producing live programming, including the morning show hosted by Robin Meade, who has also been let go. The network now mostly airs unscripted shows focused on crime and mystery.

“These are painful decisions. They’re nerve-racking for everybody involved,” said digital media executive Jon Klein, who oversaw CNN U.S. between 2005 and 2010. “The only bright side is that you come away with a clearer understanding of where the value lies in your organization.”

Cutting costs “forces executives to look hard at their business and understand what does the audience value,” he said.

Roush, of Quinnipiac University, said that some media companies “grew way too fast” and over-invested in talent before establishing a sizable audience and business model. Klein added that television news has been hit hard by the trend of “cord-cutting,” struggling to offset the loss of cable subscription revenue and advertising dollars with gains in digital subscriptions.

Although the impact on journalism is hard to predict, the cuts come at the worst possible time for American democracy, argued Victor Pickard, professor of media policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.

“This is about maximizing profits for shareholders,” Pickard said in an interview. “These are crass business decisions, and they are not considering the implications for democratic society. At this time in our nation’s history, any layoffs in media workers is a step in the wrong direction.”

At the company’s town hall meeting last month, Licht urged his journalists to keep reporting and developing sources but to do so cost-efficiently in what he said is a “tough economic environment” that could continue into next year.

“Of course you should be doing source dinners,” he said. “Maybe don’t do it with a bottle of Dom Pérignon.”

COMMENT:  I'm struck by the comments of Professor Pickard of the Annenberg School.  He fears that the cuts will have an adverse effect on democracy.  Mr. Pickard might better spend his time contemplating what "journalists" actually do every day, and their effect on democracy. 

Indeed, one of the reasons for the mass cuts in news organizations is the loss of faith in journalism by the American reader and viewer.  It shows up in every poll.  Now is the time for improvement, and a new commitment to neutrality and quality. 

November 30, 2022       Permalink 

THE BOOK PART OF THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN HAS STARTED:  Ron DeSantis is writing a book.  Do you think this means he has an interest in running for president?  Well yeah, maybe...from Fox: 

EXCLUSIVE: Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida will chronicle his life in public service in a new book that will publish in late February in what will be seen by political pundits as another step by the conservative champion toward a possible 2024 presidential run.

The autobiography by DeSantis, who was overwhelmingly re-elected three weeks ago to a second four-year term steering the increasingly red Sunshine State, is titled "The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival." 

Word of the book, scheduled to be published Feb. 28 by Broadside, the conservative arm of HarperCollins Publishing, was shared first with Fox News Wednesday.

The publishers highlight that the autobiography will cover key moments in DeSantis’s life, from "growing up in a working-class family, playing in the Little League World Series, working his way through Yale University and Harvard Law School, volunteering for the Navy after 9/11 and serving in Iraq." 

The memoir will also detail his marriage to Casey DeSantis, their children and his wife’s battle with cancer.

Florida’s governor has seen his popularity soar among conservatives across the country the past 2½ years, courtesy of his forceful pushback against coronavirus pandemic restrictions and his aggressive actions as a culture wars warrior targeting the media and corporations.

The publishers note that the book "will center on critical issues that brought [DeSantis] to the center of the debate over the future of our country. He shares his thinking from when he was fighting back against COVID mandates and restrictions, critical race theory, woke corporations" and what they describe as "the partisan legacy media." They add that the memoir will chronicle what they call "his bold, substantial policy achievements."

DeSantis, in a statement, said that "what Florida has done is establish a blueprint for governance that has produced tangible results while serving as a rebuke to the entrenched elites who have driven our nation into the ground. Florida is proof positive that we, the people, are not powerless in the face of these elites." 

COMMENT:  Love it.  Just the right move for DeSantis, essentially launching his presidential campaign.  I can't wait to read the "reviews" in The New York Times and the Washington Post.

I wonder if anyone will make the movie.  Casting suggestions?

November 30, 2022       Permalink

NOVEMBER 29,  2022

ECONOMIC STRESS:  It isn't affecting everyone equally, but no one will call this an economic boom, or even a recovery.  From CBS News:

American consumers are entering the holiday season feeling gloomier about the economy amid ongoing high inflation and layoffs in the tech sector, depressing U.S. consumer confidence for the second straight month in November. 

The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell to 100.2 this month, down from 102.2 in October. November's figure is the lowest since July, and likely reflected an uptick in gas prices earlier this fall, said Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators at the Conference Board. 

Gas prices have since reversed and fell to $3.52 a gallon, on average, nationwide on Tuesday, according to AAA. That's down from $3.76 a month ago.

The data indicates Americans are taking a more gloomy view about the economy. Before the pandemic, the index regularly topped 120. With the cost of food, rent, clothing, and other essentials surging, inflation is near the worst in four decades, increasing 7.7% in October from a year earlier.

"Consumers' increased pessimism is consistent with our view that consumer spending and the broader economy are downshifting to a much slower growth path amid high inflation, rapidly rising interest rates and financial market volatility," noted Oxford Economics U.S. economist Gurleen Chadha in a Tuesday research note. 

Despite the negative outlook, however, most Americans — particularly those with higher incomes — are still spending, fueling a generally healthy start to the winter holiday shopping season last weekend.

The latest readings show a "tale of two incomes," according to Jeffrey Roach, Chief Economist for LPL Financial, in an email. 

"Inflation acutely impacts lower income households while upper income households feel less of the pain. Consumer confidence rose in November for those making $50,000 or more," he noted. 

The business research group's present situation index — which measures consumers' assessment of current business and labor market conditions — dropped slightly to 137.4 from 138.7 in October.

COMMENT:  Whether we like it of not, the 2024 presidential campaigns will start soon, and the economy will be the key.  But Republicans must approach the subject with care.  It will not be enough to point to Biden's failures.  Republicans must tell voters what they will do, economically, if elected.  That element of a "program" or a "contract with America" was largely missing this past fall.

November 29, 2022       Permalink