In Tuesday’s newsletter, I wrote about how two of the biggest newspaper chains in the country — Gannett and McClatchy — have announced they are dropping The Associated Press from their content. The news sent shockwaves throughout the media industry.

So, today, let’s start the newsletter with thoughts from Rick Edmonds, Poynter’s media business analyst. Take it away, Rick.

Why an insurrection at the AP could succeed this time when others have failed

Defections by Associated Press news members are nothing new. Typically they haven’t worked out a lot better than secession did for the Confederate states.

But the announcement Monday that both Gannett and McClatchy newspapers and sites are quitting as AP clients looks to have a better chance to stick. An AP spokesman reiterated Tuesday that negotiations will continue. But a full subscription to the wire service is back-breakingly expensive and no longer a basic need when the chains’ strategy is to become more digital and more local.

Gannett has been minimizing its use of AP content for several years, instead relying on stories from USA Today and its 200+ regional papers. A check of USA Today’s site Tuesday morning found that none of the top five display pieces — including coverage of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and the Federal Reserve — were from wires other than their own.

When the Chicago Tribune and other Tribune papers dropped the AP in 2013, they switched to Reuters for international and business coverage. But the experiment was abandoned two years later when Reuters was judged, among other flaws, not to be able to match the depth and quality of the AP’s sports report.

That’s no longer an issue, Gannett chief communications officer Lark-Marie Antón emailed me. “We believe the scale and strength of the USA Today Network will be able to provide all the content necessary.”

In past dustups, the AP practiced diplomacy, sending its top executives to visit disaffected member papers and trying to identify changes in price or coverage that would keep them in the fold. But that was back in the day, when a full national and international report was expected of any ambitious regional newspaper. I can’t locate the clips anymore but I recall a meeting in the 2000s where an angry editor compared AP’s near-monopoly to the Politburo.

No longer is AP considered so essential. The thinking is that readers can get a broad swath of news, typically for free, from a variety of sources. That means high-end local news should get what resources are available.

Weakening ties run in the opposite direction as well. According to the AP’s 2022 annual report, only 10% of revenue still comes from U.S. newspapers. The rest — and all of the growth — is from international and broadcast clients. AP CEO Daisy Veerasingham is from that side of the business, whereas all her predecessors came from U.S. newspaper backgrounds.

An eccentricity of AP’s business structure could come into play as the expected loss of the two large chains plays out. The service is not conventionally incorporated but instead is a nonprofit cooperative controlled by its newspaper members. Its 11-person board of directors tilts toward current or former newspaper executives — three of the latter are alumnae of Gannett (Gracia Martore, Mi-Ai Parrish and Maribel Perez Wadsworth).

I don’t look to the AP’s managers and board to be locked into history, tossing favors to newspapers. It is a business as anxious as any other to find a winning combination of services for its current market and where growing opportunities are. That’s not newspapers.

Thanks to Rick Edmonds for that lead item. Now onto the rest of today’s newsletter …

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Going after Murdoch

Prince Harry and others are pointing a finger at media mogul Rupert Murdoch, claiming Murdoch was aware of efforts to cover up the phone hacking scandal at News of the World and The Sun, his British tabloids.

Representatives for Prince Harry, actor Hugh Grant and others are seeking to amend their lawsuit against Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers to include Murdoch, executive Rebekah Brooks and Will Lewis, the recently named publisher of The Washington Post. They claim executives knew of the plan to cover up the scandal that allegedly took place from the late 1990s through 2016.

Attorney David Sherborne said in a court filing, “It is inferred that they would not have been carrying out this extensive concealment and destruction strategy without the knowledge and approval of Rupert Murdoch.”

The Daily Beast’s Corbin Bolies wrote, “Murdoch’s alleged knowledge of the company’s phone-hacking scandal has been speculated on for years, but Lewis’ alleged knowledge has faced increased scrutiny since his appointment as The Washington Post’s publisher late last year.”

NPR’s David Folkenflik looked into Lewis last December, just a couple of weeks before he took over as the Post publisher. (Here’s a Post story from last November from reporters Elahe Izadi and Karla Adam where Lewis downplayed his role on the News Corp.’s Management and Standards Committee that was set up in the wake of the scandal.)

Defense lawyer Anthony Hudson criticized the proposed amendments to the suit, saying, “They appear to be designed to grab headlines.”

The Associated Press’ Brian Melley has more on this story.

Hallie Jackson’s new gig

 

Hallie Jackson has been named anchor of the Sunday “NBC Nightly News.” She takes over for Kate Snow, who announced last month that she was stepping away to focus on other duties at NBC News, including being a host on “NBC News Daily.”

Jackson starts her anchoring duties on April 7. The Sunday evening newscast will come from Washington, D.C.

In a statement, Janelle Rodriguez, NBC News' executive vice president of programming, said, “Hallie is an exceptional journalist and an extraordinary broadcaster, representing the very best of NBC News. She is a natural fit to anchor our flagship newscast on Sundays.”

Jackson, who has been at NBC since 2014, will continue with her other duties at NBC, including anchoring “Hallie Jackson NOW” each weekday on NBC News NOW, NBC News’ 24/7 streaming news network. She also will carry on as senior Washington correspondent, frequently appearing on the “Today” show,  “NBC Nightly News” and “Meet the Press.”

Lemon speaks

Don Lemon was a guest on Mediaite’s “Press Club” podcast and talked with host Aidan McLaughlin about his now infamous interview with X owner Elon Musk. It was supposed to be the first show in a new series on X for Lemon, but Musk ended their business partnership after that one interview, which was posted on Monday.

Lemon will continue doing his show for YouTube and iHeart.

The interview — which was described as “tense” by many, including Lemon himself — included Musk’s views on hate speech on his platform, Musk’s use of ketamine, presidential politics and a bunch of other topics.

Musk never seemed as if he wanted to be there and said at one point, “I don’t have to answer these questions. I don’t have to answer questions from reporters. Don, the only reason I’m doing this interview is because you’re on the X platform and you asked for it. Otherwise, I would not do this interview.”

Lemon told McLaughlin, “I just wanted people to get to know about him, to learn about him. I wanted to just ask very simple questions and let him answer so that the world could get to know about him because he’s so interesting.”

Lemon later added, “It wasn’t a gotcha interview, it was just a straightforward interview, and I thought that he would appreciate it.”

Apparently, Musk did not appreciate it.

Oh, McLaughlin smartly brought up CNN. Lemon was fired by CNN a year ago, yet was asked to go back on the air as a guest to talk about his Musk interview.

“Aidan, you couldn’t write that (expletive),” Lemon said. “Come on, let’s be honest about that. … I swear to you. I was like, I can’t believe this is happening. Can you imagine the week that I had? I go to interview Elon Musk. I had this deal with him (and) many people, many of my fans, people who love me for a long time are like, ‘Why are you doing this? It’s so toxic. Do you see the stuff he puts out into the universe?’ Then I go to interview him, which is a very big interview. Look, it’s all me, it’s my production company, so I’m like, what do the lights look like, the setup, everything. Plus, I had to get in front of the camera to perform. So it was all that going on. And then he says deal off or deal canceled, and then all of a sudden I end up back in my same studio.”

In the zone

Are you familiar with the NFL RedZone? It’s only the greatest thing ever — well, if you’re a fan of the NFL. The channel, run by the NFL Network, swings around from game to game on Sunday afternoons so viewers can watch all the pivotal moments from every game.

Its host, Scott Hanson, famously says each week that it’s “seven hours of commercial-free football!”

And like I said, it’s pretty much the best thing to happen to TV since the remote control was invented.

NBC will once again bring the same idea to this summer’s Olympics with something called the Gold Zone. It will stream live on Peacock from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day from July 27-Aug. 10. And just like the NFL RedZone, the Gold Zone will whip around from one event to another. In a statement, NBC Sports announced, “With up to 40 events happening simultaneously during the Paris Olympic Games, Gold Zone will present viewers with the best and most compelling moments happening at any time.”

And who do you get to host such a thing? Why, Scott Hanson, of course. The host of the RedZone will also be one of four hosts for the Gold Zone. The others are Andrew Siciliano, Matt Iseman and Akbar Gbajabiamila. Siciliano, by the way, hosted DirecTV’s version of RedZone from 2005 to 2022.

NBC Sports said the hosts will often be joined by special guests throughout the day. Aside from Peacock, Gold Zone will also be available on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app via “TV Everywhere” for customers with pay-TV subscriptions.

Molly Solomon, executive producer and president for NBC’s Olympics production, said in a statement, "The Olympic Games are like no other sporting event with up to 40 competitions happening simultaneously. Given that scale, Gold Zone is designed to be the viewer’s best friend, streaming the most important moments in real time.”

A quick plug

I’m one of the guests of the latest “Sports Media Podcast” from Sports Business Journal and the New York Post. Host Austin Karp from SBJ and I talk about Peyton Manning’s media career, March Madness for both the men and women, what’s next for Sports Illustrated, and more.

Karp also asks me an important question: What is my favorite Tom Jones song?

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Media tidbits

• Loreben Tuquero of Poynter’s PolitiFact with “AI-generated audio deepfakes are increasing. We tested four tools designed to detect them.”
• Analysis from The Washington Post’s Will Oremus: “The Supreme Court looks unlikely to overhaul online speech after all.”
• The Wall Street Journal’s Jessica Toonkel with “Apollo Offers $11 Billion for Paramount’s Hollywood Studio.”
• Awful Announcing’s Daniel Kaplan with “Who is Minute Media … and can they save Sports Illustrated?”
• The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand writes about ESPN’s direct-to-consumer plan, including what prices will look like, in “ESPN is open for business: How the coming months will shape the sports TV giant’s future.”
• And speaking of ESPN, CNBC’s Alex Sherman has a documentary that publishes today on CNBC.com. Here’s Sherman talking about it on X.

Hot type

Just one item today because it’s a long one. ESPN’s fabulous senior writer Wright Thompson writes about the most popular college basketball player in the country: “Caitlin Clark and Iowa find peace in the process.”

More resources for journalists

• Essential Skills for Rising Newsroom Leaders (Seminar) (May) — Apply by March 26.
• Poynter Producer Project (Seminar) (June 4-Sept. 10) — Apply by April 14.
• Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative (2024-25) (Fellowship for public media journalists) — Sept. 30, 2024-April 13, 2025. Apply by April 22.
• Work-Life Chemistry (Newsletter course) - Ditch work-life balance for a more sustainable approach. Sign up for this six-week email course.
• Got a story you’d like to write for Poynter? Email [email protected] with your idea, approximate timeline and word count.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].