Weirdly soothing after such an insane day

Media statistic of the week 

What gets someone to pay for their news? According to a new study by Weiyue Chen and Esther Thorson of Michigan State University’s School of Journalism, one of the biggest motivators for subscribing to certain news outlets is that it helps people maintain and promote their social status among peers. 

Overall, the study’s authors note, “perceived quality of news, habit strength, motivation of social–cultural interactions, and entertainment spending are positively predictive of how much people pay, after demographic controls.” They add that the findings “not only suggest practical implications for news organizations seeking to increase subscriber support but also raise critical questions about how Americans’ relationships with newspaper news is degrading.”

This week in media history 

March 19,1953 marked the first time that the Academy Awards were broadcast on television. The 25th annual awards ceremony was broadcast live by NBC from Hollywood’s RKO Pantages Theatre, with Bob Hope hosting.

This week in the media industry

Pandemics need radical transparency

 We hope everyone is staying safe and as reasonably calm as possible in light of the COVID-19 news we’re all immersed in every day, whether we’re covering it or just reading about it. 

For reporters covering the story, it hasn’t always been easy to get the information they need. One of the reasons: Sources tell Aram Roston and Marisa Taylor of Reuters that the White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified. Gady Epstein describes it as “When your priority is preventing leaks, not protecting the public,” while Natasha Mitchell says it’s “Appalling. Pandemics need radical transparency not secrecy.”

That story has gotten more than 448,000 social shares, including by attorney Mark S. Zaid, who tweeted out this message last week: “To all journalists: If you #FOIA documents on #COVIDー19 & response is ‘classified,’ we'll represent you pro bono (for free - you just pay minimal court filing fee) in litigation. You can e-mail me at [email protected] for further discussion. This is unacceptable.” 

Meanwhile, Casey Newton of The Verge revealed last week in his “The Interface” newsletter that Google has joined the coronavirus fight. He refers to the article by Bloomberg’s Mark Bergen and Gerrit De Vynck on how Google is scrubbing coronavirus misinformation on search and YouTube. 

Bergen and De Vynck report that Google searches related to the virus now trigger an “SOS Alert,” with news from mainstream publications including National Public Radio, followed by information from the CDC and WHO displayed prominently. “Nothing described here is extraordinary,” says Newton. “But it is responsible, and represents a departure from the Google of even two years ago.”

This is nuts

But in this case, as Matt Rosoff says, “I mean, come on, they’re not even trying…” Ben Collins of NBC News reports that coronavirus books plagiarized from news outlets dominate Amazon search results. 

Basically, the books are straight-up verbatim copies of news stories, including from The Guardian and NBC News, along with information pulled directly from websites like “Nancy’s Cleaning Services” and blog articles. And yes, “This is nuts,” as Olivia Solon says. “Great job Amazon,” adds Jeff Roberts. 

If a tree falls…

If you’ve ever wondered what live TV would be like without an audience, now’s your chance to find out. With several daytime and nighttime talk shows canceling studio audiences, Daniel D'Addario of Variety takes a look at how different the vibe is on sets like “The View” and “The Wendy Williams Show” when there’s no one there to react. He highlights the example of “the airless interview with Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt on ‘The View,’” which “seemed diminished by the fact that its participants were playing to no one.” Ultimately, D'Addario decides, it feels a bit cable-access-y.

Meanwhile, Emily Yahr of The Washington Post checks in on the audience-less late-night shows for her piece, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon go off the rails as their late-night shows have no audiences. “Stephen Colbert sipped bourbon and jumped around like a deer and yelled at coronavirus for infecting Tom Hanks and it was...weirdly soothing after such an insane day? I don’t even know anymore,” she admits.

Deadline is keeping tabs on the growing list of movie and TV production halts resulting from coronavirus concerns. 

A few more

What else is canceled? In short, a lot. Kristen Hare of Poynter is keeping a running list of the journalism and media conferences that aren't happening because of the coronavirus

Reuters reports that TikTok is launching a content moderation center called “The Transparency Center”  in a bid to boost transparency as it faces scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers who have accused it of sharing user data with the Chinese government.

In a piece for Better News, Rachel Piper of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel explains how the paper drove subscriptions by asking journalists to promote the value of their work. Simon Owens shares, “I’ve now encountered several case studies of subscription publishers seeing a lot of success by enlisting their journalists as ambassadors to push subscriptions.”

On Twitter, Erica Palan of the Philadelphia Inquirer shares, “Amid a crazy news week, a small break to share that we’ve redesigned the print pages for op-eds and editorials in @PhillyInquirer! (Pictured here with the inflatable space friend who lives on our team couch.) Allow me to take you on a tour  of our new pages.” With, a standing sidebar glossary and, as Palan puts it, “Labels like whoa!” the clean and clear redesign will help readers understand the difference between editorials, op-eds and columns.

Don’t count them out

And finally, check out the Columbia Journalism Review op-ed by Ryan Binkley, CEO of Anchorage Daily News, and Francis Wick, CEO of media company Wick Communications, on what ‘Death of the Newspaper’ stories leave out. “An argument that family-owned local newspapers are in a much better financial position than newspapers that are owned by large chains operated by hedge funds,” explains Simon Owens.

Joshua Benton notes, “The Anchorage Daily News may be one of the rare newspapers where the Internet's harm (in offering infinite new competition) is *slightly* counterbalanced by the extra distribution it offered (Alaska’s a really big place!)” 

“If you hear that hedge funds are strangling the news business and papers are dying every day,” Binkley and Wick write, “remember that there is a third group of us who clearly see a bright future for newspapers.” And that’s enough for Pete D, Camarillo, who says, “This makes me happy.”

From the Muck Rack Team:

1. As the media landscape continues to grow and evolve, PR pros face new challenges when it comes to building effective relationships and communicating with journalists. Some tactics still work, but many just can’t keep up. For Muck Rack’s annual State of Journalism survey, we surveyed more than 1,000 journalists to bring you actionable insights about pitching, social media, the industry and more. On the Muck Rack Blog, you’ll find some key findings from the survey, and you can also download the full report. This one’s a must-have: Check out the new Muck Rack survey on how journalists find their news, use social media and work with PR teams in 2020.
2. With coronavirus leading to more and more event cancelations, many brands and companies are harnessing the power of digital to connect and host events online and implement remote work policies. Also on the Muck Rack Blog, Emma Haddad looks at how companies are embracing remote work in a time of crisis.

Question of the week

How is your workplace handling COVID-19 concerns? Have you moved to a remote work policy?