Forward

Vultures circling Gannett

Cara Lombardo's unsettling Sunday night scoop for the WSJ: "A hedge-fund-backed media group known for buying up struggling local papers and cutting costs is planning to make an offer for USA Today publisher Gannett, according to people familiar with the matter."

The would-be buyer is Digital First Media, which in turn is controlled by Alden Global Capital. The operation already owns dozens of local papers. It is notorious for slash-and-burn tactics. Last year, employees at the Denver Post garnered national support when they rose up against the "vultures" at Alden.

Now Alden, through Digital First Media, is looking to acquire Gannett and its dozens of papers. Digital First will "offer to buy Gannett for $12 a share, they said, which would represent a 23% premium over Friday's closing price of $9.75," Lombardo reports. She says Gannett has rebuffed past approaches from the firm...

--> Jim Romenesko tweeted: "Haven't newspaper employees suffered enough?"

--> Remember, Gannett CEO Robert Dickey is scheduled to retire in May... The CEO search is actively underway...

What's going to happen next?

Per the WSJ, "Digital First Media wants Gannett to hire bankers to consider a sale, enter into talks with Digital First about a deal, review its strategy before hiring a new CEO and halt acquisitions of digital assets."

What's left to cut?

WSJ's Keach Hagey tweeted: "After watching what Gannett has done to my hometown paper -- cutting most of the staff, outsourcing printing so far away local sports scores can't appear the next day -- I'm fascinated to learn what fat Digital First thinks is left..."

This is the age of "ghost newspapers"

Hearing about this possible battle made me more afraid of "ghosts." Have you heard of this concept before? Researchers and activists have started to make reference to "ghost newspapers."

Penelope Abernathy defined it this way last fall: "As hundreds of small weeklies and dozens of dailies vanished from the U.S. news landscape in recent years, thousands of other dailies and weeklies became shells, or 'ghosts,' of their former selves. Many of these papers are still published – sometimes under the same name as in the past – but the quality, quantity and scope of their editorial content are significantly diminished. Routine government meetings are not covered, for example..."

Stephen King helps out Maine's main paper

"This is a hoot," Dan Kennedy writes, and he's right: "After the Portland Press Herald made it known that it would drop freelance-written reviews of local books as a cost-saving measure, Maine's favorite author, Stephen King, lodged a protest on Twitter and urged his followers to do the same. The Press Herald responded that if King could persuade at least 100 people to buy digital subscriptions, they would restore the reviews to the Sunday edition, known as the Maine Sunday Telegram."

That was on Friday. By Sunday, the paper had gained 200 new subscribers using the promo codes KING and CARRIE.

Kennedy adds: "I hope this doesn't become a habit. Hey, let's tell everyone we're going to stop covering restaurants unless we can sell 1,000 more subscriptions. Still, this is a great story. I'm glad King's influence did the trick."

Shutdown, week four

How many times can we say "no end in sight?"

All the polls are pretty clear: Trump and the GOP are sharing most of the blame for the shutdown. That's not surprising, given the fact that Trump forced it to happen and that he only has the support of 40% of Americans. CNN's poll makes it clear that Trump's much-hyped, much-scrutinized prime time address didn't move public opinion in his direction at all. His disapproval rating has climbed five points since last month...

Call it the "conservative media shutdown?"

That's what I asked Oliver Darcy on Sunday's "Reliable Sources."

His POV: "Trump understands that conservative media personalities like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh hold the keys to his base -- and so it's unlikely he's going to stray from them on the govt shutdown / border issue. Democrats are effectively negotiating with the right-wing media..."

THIS JUST IN...

"Game of Thrones" will return on...

April 14. HBO aired a new teaser clip for the series on Sunday night, ahead of "True Detective," and announced "Sunday, April 14 as the debut date for the show's six-episode, eighth and final season." Brian Lowry has more here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- New column by E.J. Dionne: "The media's bias should be toward democracy" (WaPo)

-- Jim Rutenberg, writing about "the progressives' political caper in Alabama," warns that "reality-warping attacks are now coming from inside the house..." This looks likely to get worse in 2020... (NYT)

-- Viacom is "in talks to sell a majority stake in some of its China operations after running into difficulties trying to scale its business" there... (WSJ)

-- Another take on Bob Iger's 😲 salary: He "missed out on a $60 million bonus, but still collected a record payday last year..." (Bloomberg)

-- Amanda Whiting's latest: "Meet Britt McHenry, the Fox News star for Millennials..." (Washingtonian)

Sorry, Mr. President, the Post is not for sale

The National Enquirer flipped on Trump last year. But Trump has not flipped on the Enquirer.

On Sunday night he lobbed a middle school insult at WaPo owner Jeff Bezos and praised the Enquirer without citing the tabloid by name.

"So sorry to hear the news about Jeff Bozo being taken down by a competitor whose reporting, I understand, is far more accurate than the reporting in his lobbyist newspaper, the Amazon Washington Post," Trump tweeted. "Hopefully the paper will soon be placed in better & more responsible hands!"

The Enquirer's parent company, of course, "admitted to federal prosecutors that it made a hush money payment to an ex-Playmate in order to help Trump in the 2016 presidential election," CNN's Erica Orden noted. The Post declined to comment...

One-two punch from the Times and the Post

The greatest competition in news continues: The NYT owned Friday night with, "F.B.I. opened inquiry into whether Trump was secretly working on behalf of Russia."

The WaPo owned Saturday night with, "Trump has concealed details of his face-to-face encounters with Putin from senior officials in administration."

Trump's fans on Fox played "blame the media" on Sunday, but these two stories showcased the profound concern that exists *within the federal government* about Trump's behavior.

So why are these stories leaking? And why now?

The most-read story on the WaPo website right now...

...Belongs to Post columnist Max Boot. It's a list: "18 reasons Trump could be a Russian asset."

Boot says, "I can't think of anything that would exonerate Trump aside from the difficulty of grasping what once would have seemed unimaginable: that a president of the United States could actually have been compromised by a hostile foreign power."

White House's hollow responses

When the Post's Greg Miller reached out for a comment, a spokesman for the W.H. only spoke on condition of anonymously. After the story hit, Sarah Sanders called it "outrageously inaccurate," but didn't say what was inaccurate. If journalists are going to devote time to these "responses," we need to emphasize just how hollow and meaningless these quotes are...

Trump's defense strategy: Phone a friend

"Phone a friend" was my favorite lifeline on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire." And it's exactly what Trump did on Saturday night, phoning into Jeanine Pirro's show and going through his list of grievances. "Your audience knows that I'm a straight shooter," Trump told Pirro. He said things like, "I haven't actually left the White House in months," even though he's been to Iraq and Camp David and Texas in the past few weeks. Pirro let it all slide, like usual. To her credit, she did ask, "Are you now or have you ever worked for Russia, Mr. President?" Trump called it "the most insulting thing I've ever been asked," but didn't just say "no..."

>> Peter Baker's lead on NYTimes.com: "So it has come to this: The president of the United States was asked over the weekend whether he is a Russian agent. And he refused to answer."

Top reactions

>> Chris Cuomo tweeted: "The question and has always been: if there is nothing wrong, why lie, conceal and distort?"

>> Juliette Kayyem on CNN: "I personally think that what Mueller is heading to, is not only the indictments, but also a report that discloses the extent to which Trump and his family are compromised by the Russians."

>> Jonathan Turley's column: "What if there were no collusion or conspiracy but simple cognitive bias on both sides, where the actions of one seemed to confirm precisely the suspicions of the other?"

How much longer will we have to wait?

Here's what I said at the start of Sunday's "Reliable Sources:"

The news is not just a "rough draft of history." It's a woefully incomplete rough draft -- there are gaping holes in the story. Sometimes the most important facts, the single most important details, are not filled in until years later. Sometimes the secrets are buried so deep. Other times, the truth is staring us all right in the face, but it's so uncomfortable that we try to look away.

So what will the final draft say about President Trump? What does Robert Mueller know that we don't? And how much longer will we all have to wait for answers?

Carl Bernstein's insights

On Sunday's "Reliable," Bernstein said the questions about Trump-Russia collusion and obstruction are connected. The looming Q, he said, is whether Republicans "believe that this president is a threat to the national security" of the country, whether they believe he is "fit..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- CBS tweeted Sunday: "Gayle King‬⁩ just sat down with the family of 13-year-old Jayme Closs, who was missing for 3 months in Wisconsin." The interview will air Monday morning... King will co-host "CBS This Morning" from Wisconsin... (Twitter)

-- Speaking of King: Page Six's sources said she was eyeing the exits, but "staffers now believe" she may stay "at the network after the hiring of Susan Zirinsky as the division's president..." (Page Six)

-- On Sunday's "Reliable Sources," I talked with Joanne Lipman about Zirinsky's promotion, the "glass cliff" for women in the news business, and potential solutions. Watch here... (CNN)

-- My wife Jamie's takeaway from the segment: "The lack of women leading newsrooms is a problem. But the onus is not just on women to raise their hands. It's on all managers and all men to call on qualified women who aren't raising their hands." (@JamieStelter)

TVNewser, fifteen years later

Some of you may not know this about me! It has been a long time. Fifteen years ago this month, as a freshman at Towson U, I set up a blog called CableNewser. It very quickly became a bulletin board for the TV news industry, devoured by everyone from Tucker Carlson to Greta Van Susteren to Brian Williams. Six months later I sold the site to Mediabistro, we renamed it TVNewser, and I kept running it until I graduated from Towson.

Nowadays, TVNewser is part of the Adweek Network. And Adweek is marking the 15-year milestone by "honoring the 30 most impactful TV newsers during that time frame: spotlighting the personalities and execs who were instrumental in the industry's incredible decade-and-a-half evolution." The feature will be in print on Monday.

Adweek also asked me to write about the founding of the blog. Here's the column. This, I said, was the simple idea behind the blog: "Television news matters. The networks should be monitored, scrutinized, criticized and applauded when appropriate. And all of the scrutiny makes TV news better."

Billy Bush's path back to TV

The Blast broke this news on Friday: "Billy Bush is close to locking down a deal that will bring him back to television after a two-year absence following his ousting from NBC."

Several other outlets have confirmed that Bush is in talks about joining the syndicated show "Extra," which is going to relaunch in the fall when it moves to Fox-owned stations...

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Two corrections: I don't know what I was thinking on Friday night. I accidentally wrote that Sam Stein still works at HuffPost, and that the Washington Post's Matt Viser works at the NYT. My apologies. Thank you for the Beast and Post staffers who flagged the errors for me...

-- Opening up the Senate to photographers on special occasions? Hopefully. Roy Blunt, chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, is "open to a rules change that would allow photography," Carl Hulse reports... (NYT)

-- Here's Joe Pompeo on the rollout of Jill Abramson's book "Merchants of Truth," out in February... (VF)

-- In this NYT op-ed, Lesley Stahl pays tribute to TV news pioneer Sylvia Chase... (NYT)

🏈 NFL PLAYOFFS 🏈

The Patriots beat the Chargers... and the Saints beat the Eagles... which means you won't see me and Jamie at the NFC Championship game next weekend... 😔

"NFL Playoff Ratings Keep Sizzling"

That's the headline at Deadline... Dade Hayes reports that "the return of divisional playoff football to LA proved a winner for Fox, and NBC's final NFL telecast of the season also posted stellar numbers" on Saturday...

--> Rams-Cowboys on Fox averaged 33.3 million viewers in prime time, up 25% over the comparable game last year...

--> "The game was also the most streamed NFL playoff contest ever on Fox, with an average minute audience of 618,673, an improvement of 7% over last weekend's wild-card round..."

--> Earlier in the day, Chiefs-Colts on NBC averaged 29.6 million viewers, up 8% "over the same slot in 2018..."

Super Bowl halftime show confirmed

CNN's Amir Vera writes: "After months of speculation and rumors, the NFL announced that Maroon 5 will be headlining the Super Bowl LIII halftime show in Atlanta. And there's an added bonus: Atlanta-native Big Boi and Travis Scott will also be performing during the show..."

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Azucena Rasilla, who was the associate editor of East Bay Express until Friday, when the paper laid off almost all of its editorial staffers, talking to the NYT about the awful inevitability of local news layoffs:

"We knew that the paper has been having financial issues for a while now, and we also thought eventually we're probably going to lose our jobs."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

-- Want to feel like you walked all of the show floors at CES last week? Read Steven Sinofsky's wonderfully long recap... (Medium)

-- Twitter is launching "a new beta program, where a select group of users will get access to features, by way of a standalone app, to use and talk about new features with others..." (TechCrunch)

-- Meaghan Mackey, a reporter for KRCR in Redding, CA, "was attacked while doing a Facebook Live at the scene of a mass overdose in Chico... Meaghan is very shaken up but is okay," the station said... (Facebook)

-- Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer, authors of the new book "Fault Lines," say this is "Network" nation now: "How our media became overrun by polarization, outrage and attitude..." (Daily News)

Highlights from Sunday's "Reliable"

-- Indira Lakshmanan and Mark Lukasiewicz, above, discussed what the broadcast networks should do the next time Trump requests air time...

-- Katie Rogers shared her reporting about Bill Shine's role as W.H. comms chief...

-- Oliver Darcy and I agreed that there's no obvious network home for Megyn Kelly, now that she has left NBC...

How to catch up on the show

Listen to the podcast via Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app... Watch the video clips on CNN.com... Or watch the entire episode through CNNgo or VOD...

Mooch on "Big Brother"

Last year Omarosa was on "Big Brother: Celebrity Edition." This year it is Anthony Scaramucci's turn. The show premieres January 21 on CBS...

--> Brian Lowry adds: This is a good question from EW's Kristen Baldwin: Will all editions of "Celebrity Big Brother" in the foreseeable future include Trump administration/inner-circle alumni?

The Critics' Choice winners are...

Chloe Melas emails: It was a big night for Lady Gaga at the Critics' Choice Awards. Gaga took home the award for best song for "Shallow" from "A Star Is Born" and she went on to win the coveted best actress award.

But in true awards show fashion, there was a twist! It was a tie between Gaga and Glenn Close for her role in "The Wife." Both women took the stage to accept their awards and Gaga couldn't hold back the tears during her emotional speech.

And that wasn't the only category with a double win -- Amy Adams and Patricia Arquette tied for best actress in a movie made for TV or limited series and together they gave a joint off-the-cuff speech, with Adams thanking HBO and Arquette thanking Showtime -- it got a roar of laughter from the audience... Read on...

Key wins for "Roma," "The Favourite" and "American Crime Story"

More from Chloe's story: "The historical comedy-drama 'The Favourite,' starring Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz, took the lead with 14 nominations and took home the award for best acting ensemble. Mahershala Ali and Regina King, who each won Golden Globe awards one week ago, were acknowledged again for their respective performances in 'Green Book' and 'If Beale Street Could Talk.'"

And: "It was a big night for 'The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.' Darren Criss won the best actor in a movie made for TV or limited series for his role as Andrew Cunanan and the show took home the award for best limited series. The big prize of the night went to the Netflix drama 'Roma' for best picture."

"The Upside" at No. 1

"Outperforming expectations, STXFilms's 'The Upside' debuted atop the weekend box office, upsetting 'Aquaman's' bid for four weekends in row," Box Office Mojo's Brad Brevet writs...

"Aquaman" crosses the $1 billion mark

Brian Lowry emails: Although "Aquaman" slipped to second at the domestic box office, the movie crossed the $1-billion global mark, a feat Warner Bros./DC previously achieved only with "The Dark Knight" films. The success of the aquatic hero, on the heels of "Wonder Woman," raises an interesting point about the studio – namely, if the company can get this much mileage out of those lesser "Super Friends," just imagine what the rewards might be if they can actually get their two signature franchises, Batman and Superman, back on track...

"Trump guy"

As teased last week, Fox's "Family Guy" went after Trump in a big way on Sunday night's episode. As EW explained here, "Peter and the Griffins relocated to Washington after Peter was tapped by the president of the United States to be his press secretary."

Of course, animated shows have such a long production cycle... "We knew, writing this episode, that what we were writing we weren't going to see on television for a year and a half," producer Alex Sulkin told EW. "So we just had to lay into the fact that luckily Trump has been consistently a disaster, so that hasn't changed at all. We knew that he was never going to be out of the news..."

That's a wrap. Send me your feedback anytime! See you tomorrow...