#quarantinelife week 5, aka it's groundhog day, again and again and again...and we are resilient

We are preparing for a shift metaphorically and physically. We are beginning to hear rumblings of a slow, gradual return to normal. But what is normal? We’re learning that businesses will operate differently. People will interact differently. And that will be our normal for some time, at least until we get a vaccine or some semblance of reliable and available testing. 

But each day, I’m reminded we are a day closer to being let out of our houses and free to roam with our friends on trails, in restaurants and to sporting events. Major League Baseball may play with empty or lightly filled stadiums (they are still hashing it out), and we will be able to watch in small groups or from our homes. That’s an upgrade from watching reruns of sporting events or, out of desperation, turning to marble racing, which even the Washington Post has written about.

We are trying to be normal, even as our life has changed. Families met for Seder and Easter this past week(end), though many were gathering on Zoom, or in our case, Messenger. For us, my aunt couldn’t figure out how to get out of a Zoom call she had somehow created when trying to sign up for the service. Meanwhile, we were all sitting in another queue waiting for her, though one of my cousins couldn’t get the microphone to work and just kept laughing at us (she couldn’t hear or us either). Finally, my other cousin dialed us all into Messenger, my aunt couldn’t figure out how she got there, and laughs were had by all. Sound familiar?

Here is the past week's roundup. Enjoy.

Media count sill high, and so is fake news. This week there were 958,000 coronavirus headlines when we did our Meltwater search — just down from last week’s one million, but up from the previous high of 617,000. And a new number, 1.7 million, has surfaced as the number of Facebook shares of social media posts containing false information on coronavirus. This could include everything from fake news on who’s susceptible to bogus remedies. All the more reason to trust only the most valid sources for your news and information.

Media moves. Several reporters have moved on and around at Forbes. Alex Konrad (The Midas List) is now a senior editor in finance, with a new hire, David Jeans, who is joining him as a reporter from The Deal. Alex Knapp moved up to senior editor of science and healthcare, with a Columbia fellow and former Politico writer, Katie Jennings, reporting into him. Biz Carson also left Forbes to join the new outlet Protocol, which we’re watching as it takes shape. And former Forbes Silicon Valley bureau chief (and senior tech editor) Laura Mandaro just joined The Information to oversee finance, with Kate Clark and Zoe Bertrand reporting into her. 

Ad budgets plummet. We are going to see many more media moves as this cycle progresses, especially as outlets cut their ad budgets and the media is forced to get lean again. BuzzFeed has been hit hard with ad cuts from big advertisers like Expedia. We expect local media to be impacted as well, particularly the American Business Journals (parent of the San Francisco Business Times, Portland Business Journal and Silicon Valley Business Journal), which makes its money on local advertising. The last recession (paired with the rise of Internet reporting and blogs) led to the demise of local media dailies across the nation and consolidation in the regional business journal markets. Stay tuned as this plays out further.

Analysts capitalize on coronavirus. Something else we are watching is the changing industry analyst marketplace as analysts scurry to both cash in and lead with insight into how coronavirus will impact every aspect of business. We are keeping an eye on which firms are addressing coronavirus as a practice area and what they will be covering. IDC, for example, announced a tech index that will look at both areas of decline and opportunity. Forrester has launched webinars, research and blog posts on the state of remote work and even leadership in crisis. And firms like McKinsey have their own briefing notes. We’ll be keeping our clients posted as we learn more about what analysts are watching, thinking and potentially writing…and whether you should be included.

Loan relief not much of a relief yet. The SBA ran out of funds for PPP loans and changed the rules on its disaster relief loans, putting more pressure on small businesses to get up and running on their own. The Federal Reserve has launched a Mainstreet Lending Program that is not as forgiving, but may be a good alternative for some, as Diana Ransome reported for Inc. Kimberley Weisul also reported for Inc. that some fintechs like PayPal and Inuit Quickbooks will start issuing their own loans. Update: We hear there is hope for an extension of the program, as the WSJ just reported.

Housing and real estate news. With skyrocketing unemployment, some jurisdictions have passed moratoriums on evictions. The CARES Act further outlined that federally backed housing units were protected. That said, some landlords are still evicting. ProPublica looks into this further. MarketWatch also wrote this week on what is happening with the commercial market.

Airbnb secures debt for the immediate future. People aren’t traveling and that industry is also hard hit. Corey Weinberg hosted a video panel on The Information to discuss the future of Airbnb, which this week announced it had borrowed $2 billion to deal with cash issues and hopefully delay layoffs. Speculation is still out on their public listing, and GGV Capital investor Hans Tung said he thought the company would wait to IPO.

Wait, it’s not happening? Events across the nation continue to be canceled, from Pride celebrations in San Diego to the 50-year running New Orleans Jazz Festival. The revised PGA schedule was released and the season is at minimum delayed until mid-June. And Burning Man announced it will not burn live this year, but instead will try to do some virtual format called Black Rock City.

Restaurants may not be the same…for years. USB analyst Dennis Geiger predicts that at 20% of more than 1,000,000 restaurants, or 200,000 restaurants, could close forever, as reported in Business Insider. Other changes to your night out may include temperature checks at the door, fewer tables for seating, and less crowded bars.

This week’s tracker. USA Today launched a guide to coronavirus and COVID-19 that includes basics like data on cases, safety like how to make a face mask, health including symptoms, rumors, questions, travel info, and even ideas on things you can do at home. It’s a good one to check out.

Put on your pants! Maryland police reminded locals to put their pants on before leaving the house. Newsweek reported on a Facebook post in Taneytown, MD, where the department was either being facetious or had at least one person in mind: "You know who you are. This is your final warning."

True love knows no bounds. PEOPLE published the sweetest story of an 88 year old man who used a crane to visit his wife’s hospital room, three floors up, when visits were cut off by the pandemic. 

The United Kingdom of America is reopening for business…or is it? Possibly a controversial title, but got your attention. Who decides, how it's done and when we reopen the country has been the growing debate over the past week, along with debate over presidential power during the coronavirus pandemic. Some argue that our president does not have a right to supersede the division of governmental power to protect our natural human rights by opening up our country too soon; that doing so could actually backfire, putting us back further than we are today. Some have questioned why he cannot make shelter-in-place orders mandatory across all 50 states for our own protection; after all, they are working in California. These arguments about presidential power create a conundrum; how can you argue on one hand that he should be executing power and on the other that he should not?

And so the controversy continues...To say the least, it has been an interesting week for the White House. In the controversy, some have pointed out that President Trump has been confused by his role, thinking that he has the omnipotent power of a king. There are also two views on whether we should now be casting blame on the World Health Organization for mishandling the pandemic early on, stopping their funding during that very pandemic. 

Guidelines, advisors and working together. We do know that Trump is relinquishing the lead on reopening the country to the 50 governors. He provided them with three guidelines, though as we all know this is happening without a real playbook. The governors are at the same time asking for the Federal government's support. For example, they say, states need the tools to test. The President also tried to bring together an advisory group of business leaders this week to convene on how to reopen the country, albeit their summons to attend came about a day in advance of the teleconference. Politico ran a report on this, citing that several business leaders, like David Solomon and Jamie Dimon, were unable to attend due to timing. In the end, despite much disagreement, we can be certain that at some point the U.S. will reopen for business. It is up to governors how this will happen, and many are working in regional cohorts to do this together. TIME published AP's synopsis of Trump’s three-phase plan and some governors’ reactions. When to open? That really is the question. 

People (or companies) come together. It’s fantastic to see what individuals and companies are doing to help out. Many of you are each doing your part in keeping some aspect of the economy that you touch rolling. Larger corporations like GM and Ford have moved mountains yet pivoted with grace from automobile production to ventilator production in a time of need, as The Verge reported. Amazon is building a lab to test its own workers, said The Wall Street Journal. And Forbes contributor David Hessekiel wrote about some creative ways other companies are getting involved. A lot can happen in a few weeks.

Now, back to birds chirping and funny photos. In closing, let's remember Robin Williams, a man who could make everybody smile, and somehow still does.