Good morning. The media world is still shaken by the news that two journalists for Spectrum News 13 in Orlando were among five people shot on Wednesday. One of them, 24-year-old Dylan Lyons, died. A 9-year-old girl and another woman also were killed in the shootings. So we start today with a link to a column about Lyons and local news reporting from a special guest to Poynter.
- Former CNN media reporter Brian Stelter reached out to Poynter to offer his thoughts following the horrific news that three people were killed, including a journalist for Spectrum News 13 in Orlando, and two others were injured in multiple but related shootings on Wednesday. Stelter’s insightful and thoughtful column: “Among journalists, shock at Dylan Lyons’ murder is coupled with a strong sense of ‘what if?’” Stelter reviewed some of Lyons’ recent work and wrote, “Glamorous, it was not. But a great example of civic journalism, it was. Lyons exemplified how local TV news is a glue that binds citizens and communities. I have seen it firsthand, as my wife works for Spectrum’s cable news channel in New York City. Spectrum’s newsrooms are the epitome of actual local media — full of tenacious, creative journalists who tell the stories the rest of us need to know. Anyone who knows local TV knows that it’s a grind, yes, and the gripes about being underpaid and under-appreciated are real. But there’s something else too: a pride that comes from outworking everybody else. A joy that comes from working the street and landing the interview and turning the tape. Scrolling back through Lyons’ tweets, I can see his exuberance. His love of the job.”
- Also, check out this report from Spectrum News 13: “Remembering Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylan Lyons.”
- Jesse Walden, the Spectrum News 13 photojournalist who was shot and hospitalized, talks about his colleague and his thoughts on what happened in this video report.
Gannett reports a profit
For this item, I turn it over to my Poynter colleague, Angela Fu.
Gannett, the largest newspaper chain in the country, announced Thursday that it had made a profit during the last quarter of 2022 after undertaking cost-cutting measures.
In the quarter ending on Dec. 31, Gannett generated a net income of $32.8 million after four straight quarters of losses. During the same period in 2021, Gannett posted a loss of $22.4 million. Company executives on an earnings call attributed this quarter’s results to growing digital-only subscriptions and “robust” cuts that reduced headcount and non-payroll expenses.
“2022 was a year of unanticipated volleys of volatility and of course, high inflation,” CEO Mike Reed said during the call. “Despite these challenges, we made great strides with the business. We focused on what we could control — providing unique and relevant content to our readers; helping local businesses find, convert and keep customers; as well as taking the necessary actions to significantly lower our cost structure.”
Gannett executed several rounds of layoffs in 2022 and early 2023, resulting in more than 600 cut jobs. The company also furloughed most of its journalists over the holidays, suspended contributions to employee 401(k)s and paused hiring.
Total revenue for the fourth quarter was $730.7 million, down 11.6% compared to the same period in 2021. However, digital-only paid subscriptions were up 24.2% at 2.03 million. Gannett repaid $47.3 million of debt last quarter and ended the year with $1.27 billion in outstanding debt stemming from its 2019 merger with GateHouse. To help pay off that debt, Gannett sold $67.9 million in real estate and other assets last year. This year, Gannett estimates it will sell another $65 to $75 million in real estate and other assets.
Reed said the company is entering 2023 with “a lot of optimism.” Inflation seems to have peaked, he said, and newsprint and distribution costs have largely stabilized. In response to a shareholder question about a possible recession, Reed said the company had not seen anything in the first quarter to indicate the country was moving in that direction.
Gannett’s stock closed at $3.19 a share Thursday, up from $2.58 the day before.
More media news and must-read links
- Today is the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Here are a couple of must-read stories: from The Washington Post, Chico Harlan, Isabelle Khurshudyan, Whitney Shefte and Whitney Leaming with “Separated by war, a Ukrainian family balances safety, duty and love.” Also, The Guardian’s Shaun Walker, Isobel Koshiw, Pjotr Sauer, Morten Risberg, Liz Cookman and Luke Harding with “Mariupol. The ruin of a city.”
- And one more from the war. Esquire’s Matt Gallagher with “The Secret Weapons of Ukraine.”
- The New York Times’ Luke Broadwater and Jonathan Swan weigh in on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy giving tapes of the Jan. 6 insurrection to Tucker Carlson in “In Sharing Video With Fox Host, McCarthy Hits Rewind on Jan. 6.” Broadwater and Swan wrote, “Some Republicans, too, said Mr. McCarthy was taking a political risk with his decision. Should Mr. Carlson use the video — through selective editing — to further false narratives, it could supercharge the appetite in the right-wing base for the continued re-litigation of Jan. 6. That could force the issue onto the agenda of more House Republicans, a move that is likely to turn off swing voters.”
- Speaking of Fox News, Washington Post media reporters Paul Farhi, Jeremy Barr and Sarah Ellison look into the latest on Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox. The opening paragraph: “The disclosure of emails and texts in which Fox News executives and personalities disparaged the same election conspiracies being floated on their shows has greatly increased the chances that a defamation case against the network will succeed, legal experts say.” The messages appear to suggest that some Fox News executives and on-air personalities knew Donald Trump’s claims of a fraudulent election were not true, but the network continued to have on Trump advisors who peddled such false claims. The Post wrote, “If so, the messages could amount to a powerful body of evidence against Fox, according to First Amendment experts, because they meet a critical and difficult-to-meet standard in such cases.” Check out the story for comments from those who specialize in media law, including one who said, “I think that Dominion both will and should prevail.”
- And speaking of Trump, The Washington Post’s Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey, Hannah Knowles, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Patrick Marley and Ashley Parker with “Trump’s grip on the Republican base is slipping — even among his fans.”
- From ProPublica (and co-published with USA Today Network-Wisconsin and El Faro) it’s Melissa Sanchez and Maryam Jameel with “Death on a Dairy Farm: What Really Happened to 8-Year-Old Jefferson Rodríguez.”
- Thanks to the folks at Muck Rack for linking to this wild story about the rock band popular in the 1990s called Live. They had hit songs such as “Lightning Crashes” and “I Alone.” Rolling Stone’s Andy Greene writes, “How an Alleged Con Man Tore Apart One of the Nineties’ Biggest Bands.”
- Politico’s Matt Dixon with “DeSantis wants to roll back press freedoms — with an eye toward overturning Supreme Court ruling.”
- Sophia Lada, a freelance journalist who graduated from Michigan State University in 2022, wrote this piece for The New York Times: “‘I’m a Journalist and a Spartan’: How a Graduate Covered the Michigan State Shooting.”
- Tonight will be Yamiche Alcindor’s last time hosting PBS’s “Washington Week.” She announced earlier this month that she wants to focus full time on her job at NBC News as a Washington correspondent, and finish her upcoming memoir. “Washington Week” airs at 8 p.m. Eastern on most PBS stations.
- Check out Rupert Murdoch’s new $30-million apartment overlooking Central Park in New York City. The Wall Street Journal’s Katherine Clarke has the details.
- Big transaction in the media world. Stephanie McCrummen is leaving The Washington Post to join The Atlantic. McCrummen has been with the Post since 2004 and, in 2018, was a leading member of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for work uncovering sexual misconduct allegations against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. In a note to staff, Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg wrote, “Stephanie is one of America’s most esteemed reporters; her stories are gorgeously written, memorable, and complicated in all the ways that Atlantic stories should be.”
- I can’t say that I totally agree with this list, but that’s kind of the point of lists, right? Everyone has an opinion. But I must say the explanations for where every movie is ranked are interesting and a whole lot of fun. It’s Uproxx’s Steven Hyden with “The Films Of Steven Spielberg, Ranked.”
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