Good morning. Here are 10 media stories, then let’s get to the weekend.
- A New York Post/New York Daily News collaboration? Joe Pompeo reports the rival papers had unsuccessful discussions about “a number of potential business deals that would have made unlikely bedfellows of enemy combatants.” “Many deal points were on the table,” a source tells him. Another source tells Pompeo talks about a digital-only Daily News are “not about if, they’re about when.” (Capital)
- Earnings: Broadcast ad revenues way up, print ad revenues down nearly 8 percent at Meredith. (MediaPost) | McClatchy had “a rocky third quarter,” plus what it called “important events that have sealed our financial flexibility” — some substantial assets sales. “An unfriendly commentator might describe those ‘events’ as a yard sale,” Rick Edmonds writes. (Poynter)
- Some less-than-worshipful takes on the Dave McKinney affair: His now-former Sun-Times colleague Neil Steinberg writes: “I sincerely believe that had McKinney managed to just step around this mess and gone back to doing his job, an important life skill in journalism, instead of pouring gasoline over himself, and the paper, and striking a match, the whole thing would be over by now and he’d be back to kicking [Illinois gubernatorial candidate Bruce] Rauner’s ass, which is what this is supposedly all about.” (Every goddamn day) | Erik Wemple on the “monster ethical issue” underneath all this: “Either the Sun-Times should have bumped McKinney from the race early on, or it should have run disclaimers on his stories.” (WP)
- AMC buys half of BBC America: The deal may help the BBC World News channel get on U.S. cable and satellite systems, Brian Stelter reports. (CNN)
- Guardian’s lawyer honored: The National LGBT Bar Association will honor Gill Phillips, who runs editorial legal services at Guardian News & Media Limited. The Guardian’s Edward Snowden stories were “one of many challenges the openly lesbian Phillips has faced during her tenure at the paper, which has also included breaking the phone-hacking story, The Trafigura Super Injunction Saga and the Leveson Inquiry.” (PinkNews)
- The Queen sent a tweet: “It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R.” (@BritishMonarchy) | Other tweets by royals. (Twitter UK) | One used an iPad: “Here’s a photo of the man who actually typed the tweet and prepared the iPad for the Queen.” (Business Insider)
- National Report defends bogus news reports: “We like to think we are doing a public service by introducing readers to misinformation,” National Report publisher Allen Montgomery (whose name is also fake, but let’s move on) says. Craig Silverman: “They may say this is an educational effort, but all the education has come from the other people debunking their stuff.” (Digiday)
- “Sometimes the size is so overwhelming, it’s hard to find a picture”: NYT photographer Ozier Muhammad takes Deborah Acosta with him on assignment as he tries to get (and transmit) photos from last month’s People’s Climate March. He finally gets an image through by hitting a Starbucks and using its WiFi. (NYT)
- Front page of the day, not curated by Kristen Hare: A great photo of yesterday’s solar eclipse from The Plain Dealer’s John Kuntz, with a solid headline: “Moon takes a spectacular bite out of the sun.” (Courtesy the Newseum.)
- Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin: Callie Schweitzer has been named editorial director of audience strategy for Time Magazine and Time Inc. Previously, she was director of digital innovation at Time magazine. (Poynter) | Peter Lattman will be deputy business editor at The New York Times. Previously, he was media editor there. (The New York Times) | Paul Greenberg is chief executive officer at Nylon Media. Previously, he was CEO of CollegeHumor.com. (prnewswire.com) | Stefano Fusaro is now a sports anchor for WTVJ in Miami. Previously, he was sports director at KXLN in Houston. (TV Spy) | Roxane Gay is a columnist at Guardian U.S. She is the author of “An Untamed State” and “Bad Feminist”. Jeb Lund is a columnist at Guardian U.S. He has written for Rolling Stone, GQ and The New Republic. Trevor Timm is a columnist at Guardian U.S. He is executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. Steven Thrasher is a columnist at Guardian U.S. He is a contributing editor at BuzzFeed. Jess Zimmerman is a columnist at Guardian U.S. She is a technology essayist. (Email) | Job of the day: Euclid Media Group is looking for an editor-in-chief for the San Antonio Current. Get your résumés in! (Journalism Jobs) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org
Suggestions? Criticisms? Would like me to send you this roundup each morning? Please email me: abeaujon@poynter.org.
