I’m Scott Nover. Welcome back to Pressing, a newsletter about press freedom. If you haven’t yet subscribed, you can do so here and receive this letter in your inbox every Tuesday morning.

This is the 38th issue of Pressing and it’s great to have you with me. Please send me feedback, thoughts, suggestions, and tips at sgnover@gmail.com.

Layoffs and Layoffs and Layoffs

I tried writing this newsletter last week, but it didn’t happen.

I live in Washington, D.C., but left a month ago to quarantine with my parents in South Jersey. It’s good to be with family, but it’s also a bit odd. I’ve been sleeping in my childhood bedroom, reporting from the quiet spots in a busy house.

I’m a big proponent of remote work, but this is not normal. I typically hop around between a WeWork, various coffee shops and my apartment. I’m grateful for my health, my family, and this whole setup, but it’s very hard to focus, to be productive, to clear my head day in and day out.

But I’m lucky: I still have a job.

So far, there have been no layoffs, pay cuts, or furloughs at Adweek, where I started working in February. Unfortunately, thousands of journalists haven’t shared my good fortune.

Poynter’s Kristen Hare is keeping a running list of U.S. news outlets closing, laying off and furloughing staff, and cutting pay. It’s an extremely long, terrible document. Here are some top-line highlights I just pulled:

• At least 27 outlets have canceled, suspended, or cut back their print products.

• At least 28 outlets have laid of staffers.

• At least 21 outlets have had furloughs.

• At least 17 outlets have had pay cuts.

• At least three outlets have shut down.

These aren’t just small news outlets or just local outlets. The Outline shut down. Conde Nast, BuzzFeed, and Vice had pay cuts. Gannett and McClatchy announced furloughs.

I wrote one piece about media layoffs when CQ Roll fired 30 employees, but my colleague Sara Jerde, who covers news outlets, is writing about this stuff every single day. It’s incredibly hard to do your job as a journalist—even if you’re not writing about coronavirus or layoffs—when your friends, peers and coworkers are losing work.

Samantha J. Gross @samanthajgross

It's been amazing to see the public turn to their local journalists for answers about #COVID19. I've gotten DMs, replies and even calls to my cell phone with smart, informed questions. At the same time, journalists are being laid off and their salaries cut. What a shame.

March 18th 2020

121 Retweets436 Likes

Some people are trying to help. The new group Microloans for Journalists is offering 0% interest loans for laid off journalists. The New York Times is giving small grants to freelance journalists who wrote for them this year. Facebook is giving $100 million in grants to local news organizations. And my colleagues Sara Jerde and Josh Sternberg are publishing the stories of affected journalists in hopes of connecting them to those who are hiring in media.

But we’re short on answers: Some like the liberal group Free Press are even calling for a government stimulus for the news industry.

Today’s top press freedom story, in the United States at least, is that this economic crisis poses a major threat to the news industry. At a time when the president is wrongly touting his “total authority” we need people to fact-check him and set him straight, like CNN’s Katlin Collins did yesterday. People around the country and around the world need reliable information about this life-and-death crisis. The need for journalists could not be greater.

Do you love Pressing and want to support it? If you are able and interested, please consider a paid subscription here! I produce this letter on my own dime and in my own time.

A quick programming note: Since I started working at Adweek full-time and the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the world, my ability to produce extra features for paid subscribes has shrunk. Hopefully, the world and my schedule will settle down and I’ll be able to do extra writing for paid subscribers soon. Until then, if you have paid and want a refund, just let me know! Otherwise, I really, really appreciate your patronage and your contribution helps me be able to produce this weekly newsletter for free for all 300-plus of my wonderful subscribers. Thank you for understanding and constantly supporting this project over the last 10 months!

Things Trump Said to the Press This Week

Michael Tackett @tackettdc

"You know your're a fake. Your whole network," Trump said to Paula Reid of CBS.

April 13th 2020

521 Retweets1,879 Likes

Aaron Rupar @atrupar

.@kaitlancollins: You said when someone is the president, their authority is total. That is not true. TRUMP: "Okay -- you know what we're going to do? We're going to write up papers on this. It's not gonna be necessary. Because the governors need us one way or the other."

April 13th 2020

784 Retweets2,020 Likes

Paul Farhi @farhip

Now he’s taunting @jonkarl. “You’re a third-rate reporter!...You’ll never make it.” (Karl is a respected veteran; he’s made it about as far as anyone can).

April 6th 2020

31 Retweets81 Likes

Aaron Rupar @atrupar

Straight up North Korea-style propaganda going on right now in the White House briefing room. Get a load of the dramatic music.

April 13th 2020

1,145 Retweets2,589 Likes

What Else Is New?

• The White House Correspondents Dinner was postponed until August. Plenty of advocates and media critics (like The Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan) don’t like it anyway.

• CNN (David Goldman): 'GMA' anchor George Stephanopoulos has been diagnosed with coronavirus

• Quill (Haisten Willis): CDC sued over release of policies restricting free speech

• The Wrap (Rosemary Rossi and Sharon Waxman): Hollywood Reporter Editor Matt Belloni Steps Down Amid Debate Over Editorial Independence

• CPJ (Jonathan Rozen): ‘An attempt to gag the media’: Journalists on Nigeria’s proposed social media bill

• The Wall Street Journal (Saeed Shah): Pakistani Court Overturns Murder Conviction in Killing of Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel Pearl

• Mediaite (Zachary Petrizzo): Hannity Unloads on NY Times and WaPo’s Erik Wemple, Threatens to Sue the Media

• CJR (Jon Allsop): The death of Hungary’s democracy is a worldwide press-freedom warning

Smart Takes

• Nieman Lab (Tom Trewinnard): The coronavirus crisis will eventually end, but the distributed newsroom is here to stay

• PressThink (Jay Rosen): Why don’t they just walk out?

• The New York Times (Ben Smith): The Times Took 19 Days to Report an Accusation Against Biden. Here’s Why.

• Recode (Peter Kafka): What went wrong with the media’s coronavirus coverage?

• The Washington Post (Jason Rezaian): The coronavirus puts press freedom on the endangered list

Those We’ve Lost to COVID-19

Marie Coronel @10NewsCoronel

The journalism community has been impacted by the coronavirus as the following lives have been lost, Larry Edgeworth, NBC News; Alan Finder, New York Times, Nick Jesdanun, Associated Press; Maria Mercader, CBS News. Condolences to their families & colleagues. Rest In Peace

April 3rd 2020

7 Likes

Thanks for reading Pressing today and always. Like what you read and want to support me? Consider a paid subscription here. I’ll see you next Tuesday! Send tips and feedback to sgnover@gmail.com.