Media Moves

[Kendra]

@AnaCabrera
joins the MSNBC Reports lineup Monday, April 10. Watch Ana Cabrera Reports on MSNBC, weekdays at 10am ET.

[Kriselda Gray]

Who's she replacing?

[p0rtia]

Who's she replacing?

Jose Diaz-Balart, apparently.

I like him a lot, but I have never been able to get into his show. I know not why. Hope he lands somewhere where his skill set can shine.

[AndyinPA]

Has anyone seen anything about why Chris Hayes has not been around much, even as they are celebrating his tenth anniversary?

[Kendra]

Has anyone seen anything about why Chris Hayes has not been around much, even as they are celebrating his tenth anniversary?

Not here. I'll keep him on the radar if I hear anything.

[AndyinPA]

Thanks!

[RTH10260]

Hollywood writers vote on strike: ‘At stake is the viability of TV as a career’
WGA union argues companies have ‘leveraged the streaming transition to underpay writers’

Michael Sainato
Sat 15 Apr 2023 06.00 BST
Hollywood writers have until Monday to authorize their union to call a strike amid contentious contract negotiations with major studios.

The authorization, based on a vote by guild members, would grant the leadership of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) the ability to call a strike if it can’t reach a contract with Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) by 1 May.

“Writers are not keeping up,” the WGA argues in a 2023 report. “The companies have leveraged the streaming transition to underpay writers, creating more precarious, lower-paid models for writers’ work.”

In the report, the WGA, which has more than 11,000 members, argues the shift in the entertainment industry to streaming services has resulted in cuts to pay for writers, despite an increase in investments in content and consistent profitability.

“What’s at stake is the viability of television as a career,” said Brittani Nichols, a writer on Abbott Elementary and WGA member. “Right now a lot of people are struggling to string together quality jobs that can allow them to exist in a city like Los Angeles.”

Nichols compared the demands of members to those of other workers facing increasing pressures of economic inequality and rising costs of living.

“It’s not that the studios can’t afford these things. It’s, in my opinion, that they don’t care about what’s right or fair and they want to extract as much value from us for the least amount of money as possible, and that’s something we’re standing up to.”

The AMPTP represents entertainment media corporations that include Amazon, Apple, CBS, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sony and Warner Bros Discovery.

Since 2013-2014, the proportion of writers working at minimum pay levels has increased from 33% of all TV series writers to 49% in 2021-2022, with recorded increases in all writer positions, according to the report. Over the last decade, median writer pay has declined by 4%, or 23% when adjusted for inflation.

The WGA is calling for increased compensation and residuals from features, ending the practice of mini-rooms (smaller writing rooms where a showrunner and a limited group of writers develop scripts), and increases in contributions to pension and health funds for workers.




https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/ ... -wga-amptp

[Kendra]

https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2023 ... s-central/

CNN Announces Premiere Dates for CNN News Central
John Berman, Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner to Debut April 3, 9am-12pm ET Weekday Program out of New York

Brianna Keilar, Boris Sanchez and Jim Sciutto to Debut April 17, 1pm-4pm ET Weekday Program out of Washington

CNN announced the premiere dates for CNN News Central today, the network’s new dayside programming lineup that will bring a more dynamic and illustrative approach to covering news and the developing stories of the day.

The weekday 9am-12pm ET programming block, anchored by John Berman, Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner, will debut on Monday, April 3 out of CNN’s New York bureau. The weekday 1pm-4pm ET block, anchored by Brianna Keilar, Boris Sanchez, and Jim Sciutto, will debut on Monday, April 17 out of CNN’s Washington bureau. Both programs will be produced out of Atlanta.

CNN News Central will serve as the core hub of the network’s best-in-class newsgathering operation during the day, bringing stories to viewers in real time, while offering perspective and context to key issues. Modeled after CNN’s special election programming, CNN News Central uses similar technology and storytelling tools, and applies them to news well beyond politics. The immersive approach will showcase what CNN does best – breaking news, visual storytelling, and factual, impactful reporting.

[AndyinPA]

Briana.

[Kendra]

Briana.

Yes, I like Boris too, but IMHO Sciutto can be put on the shelf, but that's my $.02.

[Suranis]

[RTH10260]

Reqading the memo it doesn't look like their closing the channel down. BuzzFeed continues to be mentioned at the end of the long first paragraph among other outlets.

[somerset]

Reqading the memo it doesn't look like their closing the channel down. BuzzFeed continues to be mentioned at the end of the long first paragraph among other outlets.

Just Buzzfeed News, not all of Buzzfeed

[Kendra]

Bye Don.

[p0rtia]

Don’t let the door…

[raison de arizona]

[Luke]

That kill story was clear as the sun, Discovery wanted him gone. Lousy way to do it after 17 years. Loyalty in the business has been gone a long time.

[AndyinPA]

When is Faux Noise going to fire the rest?

[Luke]

Completely missed this -- Spicy got dumped this month too also.

Sean Spicer Leaves Newsmax, Ending Nightly Show After Three Years
By Ted Johnson April 7, 2023 12:33pm

Sean Spicer has ended his nightly Newsmax show Spicer & Co. after three years. Spicer, who served as Donald Trump’s first White House press secretary, said it was “my honor to be part of the Newsmax team and I’m grateful for my time there. With all of that under my belt, it is time for me to move on to a new challenge, a new adventure and a new opportunity to serve the American people.”

Mediaite reported that Spicer decided to leave the network after negotiations on a new contract fell apart. Co-host Lyndsay Keith departed last month. A spokesperson for Newsmax said, “In preparation for new programming, we decided to not continue Spicer & Co. with hosts Lyndsay Keith and Sean Spicer. The network wishes them both well in their new endeavors.” The show was launched in March 2020. After his White House stint, Spicer had, among other things, served as a correspondent for Extra and was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars.

https://deadline.com/2023/04/sean-spice ... 235320216/

Only learned it from Brian Stelter's column in VF about Tucker.

Sign-offs mean the world to the hosts who are allowed to give them. I could see it in Sean Spicer’s eyes when he said farewell to his fans on the Fox-wannabe channel Newsmax earlier this month. The former Trump White House press secretary tried to use his sign-off to turn Newsmax viewers into his own subscribers: He read aloud the URL for his personal website and plugged his Twitter handle and YouTube account. “Stay in touch,” he said, either eagerly or desperately, depending on your point of view.

For a TV host like Spicer, those last few minutes of airtime are close to priceless. (After I signed off on CNN, multiple people told me that I should have plugged a Substack or something, but I was eager to take several months off.) I’m telling you all of this to emphasize that Carlson is not saying goodbye. The takeaway, at least for some TV insiders, is that Carlson was shoved— hard—by Fox management. As Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman reported Monday, Carlson was blindsided by his own cancellation. Not being given a chance to sign off is the television equivalent of an execution.

“Damn,” a former Fox producer said to me right after it happened. “It had to be O’Reilly-level bad for him to not even get a goodbye show.”

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/04 ... -execution


ETA: Spicy seems to have forgotten about himself when counting to 3. MAGAts keep deluding themselves that because Bed Bath & Beyond stopped carrying My Pillow, that's why they're filing for bankruptcy. Ridiculousness.

[neonzx]

Oh, Spicymix is out at Newsmax??? Now what? Does he sing? He may be on the Masked Singer stupid show for a few bucks.

[neonzx]

When is Faux Noise going to fire the rest?

Ima guessing Tucker was the sacrificial lamb and no other big names are going to be ousted.

[Luke]

Yup, Spicy hit the bricks. Even Newsmax didn't want him. Shocking that wasn't national top-story news, right?

You might be right, Neon, but Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro are going to figure prominently in Smartmatic. But that trial is not for a while. Rumors have been afoot Maria and Jeanine are going to be kicked to the curb. That would be so sad.

Mike Lindell's stooge, Brannon Howse, has been trumpeting how his "source" told him "a week ago Saturday" that 1) Fox News was going to settle with Dominion for $600M and 2) Murdoch is selling Fox News to a massive hedge fund. Tonight, Brannon said that his source was right about the settlement, just that the number went up. Now he thinks Fox is "cleaning house" to prep Fox News to be sold. (Not sure why getting rid of the most popular hosts would make Fox News more valuable, but Brannon also laps up every ridiculous grift and lie going. So there's that.)

[RTH10260]

The digital graveyard: BuzzFeed News joins sites hanging on in eerie afterlife
The site will remain online as an archive, alongside the Gawker reboot, the Toast, and a host of other defunct outlets

Alaina Demopoulos
Mon 24 Apr 2023 11.00 BST

The closure of BuzzFeed News this week followed a familiar script for those who have followed the rise and fall of digital media. There were Twitter eulogies from current and former staff and op-eds on who was to blame for the site’s mismanagement.

Bosses promised to keep the BuzzFeed News site online as an archive, which means, like so many other failed online projects, whatever happened to be on the homepage that day will now be frozen in time forever. In this case: a feature on the history of Midge, Barbie’s pregnant sidekick, an explainer on what to do after “overdosing” on weed and a review of Le Creuset’s new “shallot” cookware shade, which called the color “the trend child of millennial pink and Alison Roman’s shallot pasta”.

BuzzFeed News will join an internet graveyard of shut-down sites, where homepages are left to memorialize whatever made headlines on the day a media brand tells its employees to return their work laptops.

The Gawker reboot, which ceased publishing in February, still hosts a front page that will for ever commemorate the lead up to the 2023 Oscars: its main story is about Andrea Riseborough’s best actress scandal. Next to it are pieces on George Santos’s affinity for Disney karaoke, and the fact that a man wolf-whistled at Kate Middleton during her tip to Leeds.

Input and the Outline – two millennial culture sites that, like Gawker 2.0, were also killed off after being acquired by Bustle Digital Group – endured similar fates. Input, which lasted until September of last year, shut down on the same day it posted an interview with Cameron Winklevoss, the crypto investor played by Armie Hammer in The Social Network.




https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/ ... wker-toast

[neonzx]

Honestly, Buzzfeed was never a "go-to" for me on anything. Okay, so they are dead. ..shedding no tears.

[Luke]

This was expected -- Nate Silver is out at ABC News. They'll keep and "streamline" 538.