Forward

EXEC SUMMARY: As America waits to read Robert Mueller's actual report, the political divide is deeper than ever. Scroll down for the latest... Plus Michael Avenatti's arrest and much more...

Apple's pitch

How many people are willing to pay $9.99 a month for a bundle of magazines and news websites? Apple doesn't know. But the company is about to find out. In a bid to help the news biz and help its bottom line, Apple is assembling some of the country's biggest news and magazine publishers for a service it calls News+.

This service is a big deal. It's is available right now to iOS users. And Apple is looking for additional partners.

At the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino on Monday, I spotted execs from Condé Nast, News Corp, New York Media, the LA Times and other firms. Here's my recap of the event. In sum: Apple is taking Texture, the "Netflix for magazines" app it acquired last year, and turning it into News+. Texture (which never attracted a big audience) will be shutting down at the end of May, and its users will be steered to News+. Apple is pitching access to 300 magazines, plus a select group of other outlets.

"This is really important to us. We believe in the power of journalism and the impact it can have on our lives," Apple CEO Tim Cook said at Monday's launch. The message: Apple is a friend to publishers, not a foe. But not everybody is buying it...

Can Apple help smaller papers?

The NYT and WaPo decided not to join Apple's news bundle. But the WSJ and the LA Times are on board. (There's some confusion about what, exactly, the WSJ is providing to Apple. The paper charges a lot of $$$ for digital subscriptions. Scroll down for the details.)

For now, regional and local newspapers are not part of the News+ package. I suspect some publishers will be interested in talking with Apple about potential deals...

Hundreds and hundreds of staffers...

Apple says the company has hundreds and hundreds of people working on News now: Editors like Apple News EIC Lauren Kern curating articles... engineers working on the app... marketers selling News+ subscriptions... and so on.

And the company plans to take News+ around the world...

What the WSJ is doing

The WSJ's Lukas I. Alpert, covering his own paper's deal with Apple, calls it a "significant shift in strategy." He says the goal is to "draw in new readers and paying subscribers without undercutting the publication's core business." How so? If the Journal charges $39 a month, and Apple is opening up a new door to Journal content for $9.99 a month, isn't that a problem?

Well, a memo from Dow Jones CEO William Lewis framed it differently -- he said the Apple deal will "drive scale among new readers" and "as a result, our newsroom will grow." Lewis said "WSJ members will continue to have exclusive access to the rich business reporting and analysis about which they are so passionate."

But it sounds like News+ subscribers WILL have full access to Journal articles. The paper is, perhaps cleverly, trying to have it both ways. As Alpert wrote here, "the Apple app will surface stories thought to be of interest to a general reader -- that could be national news, politics, sports and leisure news, but also some business news, people familiar with the situation said. The paper's entire slate of business and financial news will also be searchable within the app, but the thinking is that most users won't consume much beyond what is actively presented to them."

The Journal is hiring...

In a follow-up memo on Monday, WSJ exec editor Matt Murray said Apple "has the potential" to grow the Journal's audience "further and farther, and at a much faster rate, than we have experienced before. That's an incredible opportunity." He said the paper plans to hire "several dozen people in the coming weeks, including reporters in politics, US News and features, as well as editors," in part to serve the Apple News audience. Jennifer Hicks will be editor of news partnerships, in charge of the Journal's presence on Apple...

Dow Jones and Apple are working together

I see Rupert Murdoch's fingerprints on this! The memo from Lewis to Dow Jones staffers said that "our collaboration with Apple will also extend to areas like video, voice, market data and AI. I will have more to share on those plans in the coming weeks and months." Very interesting...

IN OTHER APPLE NEWS...

Apple's original shows will debut this fall

Monday's event was a showcase for Apple's TV app; its new TV Channels storefront; and Apple TV+, an ad-free subscription service for a forthcoming set of TV shows, movies and documentaries. Reporters grumbled afterward about the lack of detail, since Apple didn't share a launch date or a price tag for the new service. But the company did give everyone a glimpse of what's coming. Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, the former Sony execs who were poached by Apple nearly two years ago, appeared on stage for the first time... And spoke about "a new service dedicated to the best stories ever told..."

--> Cook: "We feel we can contribute something important" to society "through our great storytelling." This is key. Apple says it isn't just dipping its toe in the TV waters. This is a big bet for the company...

Apple's version of a TV upfront

Frank Pallotta emails: Apple's event on Monday didn't feel like a normal "one more thing" affair that ends with a brand new innovative piece of tech. Instead, it felt like a TV upfront. Apple brought out Steven Spielberg, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston and other starts. But instead of talking to advertisers, the stars were talking to Wall Street analysts, reporters, Apple super-fans, and viewers watching at home. The viewers were left wanting to see more of the actual shows...

-- Recode's recap of Peter Kafka's story: "We still don't know what's in Apple's video service, how much it will cost, or why we should pay for it..."

-- Matt Donnelly's Variety story about Spielberg's on-stage promo for Apple: "Many industry watchers were shocked by his proximity to a streaming platform only weeks after appearing to lobby for considerable changes to Netflix's eligibility for Academy Awards..."

Lowry's analysis

Brian Lowry emails: Apple's star power -- and much-buzzed-about Hollywood plans -- might have actually been the least distinctive aspect of Monday's presentation, at least, for anyone who has ever sat through an upfront presentation. In a way, it felt like the opening acts -- in news, gaming and credit cards -- overshadowed the ostensible headliner. Read the rest here...

Introducing "The Morning Show"

Apple's secretive drama set inside the world of morning TV now has a name: "The Morning Show."

I'm interested in this for a couple reasons: One, because I'm a consultant on the show, and two, because staffers at "Today," "GMA" and other real-life shows have been wondering what this fictional show is all about. Co-stars Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell dropped some hints during Apple's event: They said the show will pull back the curtain on "the power dynamics between men and women" in the workplace.

Hmmm. Think about how A.M. TV has been reshaped by the #MeToo movement...

Long on celebs, short on details

CNN Business deputy tech editor Heather Kelly emails: Apple's big Hollywood announcement was long on celebs (hi, Big Bird!) but short on key details, like how much its TV streaming service will cost. The company didn't say how much TV+ will cost. It didn't reveal how much the new gaming service Arcade will cost, either.

What is clear is that Apple wants to collect money from its users monthly -- instead of every few years when they upgrade devices. The company also hammered home its privacy features, like the new Apple Card credit card that won't share data with marketers or advertisers. It's a brilliant selling point at a time when other major tech companies are struggling with the side effects of, and scandals around, their data-collecting, ad-based business models. However, while it's beginning to look like people who want privacy online can have it, it seems to be a luxury reserved for those can afford Apple devices and services...

A standing O for Oprah

The crowd applauded wildly when Oprah Winfrey took the stage on Monday. Her content deal with Apple includes documentaries and a rebooted book club -- but not a regular talk show. In her comments, she summed up a key part of Apple's pitch to Hollywood: "They're in a billion pockets, ya'll. A billion pockets!"

Sandra Gonzalez emails: "Oprah's conversations with authors for her book club won't be putting her back in front of a broadcast TV-sized audience... It's putting her in front of a BIGGER one! Consider this my early appeal to have these conversations staged in front of a LIVE AUDIENCE and not in a boring, empty studio..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- Here, Sandra Gonzalez has a complete recap of the shows Apple teased on stage... (CNN)

-- Shira Ovide's critique of the Apple event: "Even Oprah Can't Paper Over Apple's Services Flaws" (Bloomberg)

-- Andrew Wallenstein nailed it: "The blinding wattage of all the assembled stars (from both sides of the camera) at #AppleEvent is a very muscular demonstration of how 'top shelf' Apple TV+ aims to be. Very on-brand for a company that strives to be best of class in everything it does." (Twitter)

-- Susan Chira is succeeding Bill Keller as the editor in chief of The Marshall Project...

-- Gerry Smith's latest for Bloomberg: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is creating a "Trump bump of her own for the news media..."

THE MUELLER FALLOUT

The divide is deeper than ever

This brief argument on Fox News summed up the divide. Brent Bozell said to Jessica Tarlov on Monday night, "You haven't accepted the Mueller Report." And Tarlov said, wait, "have you seen the Mueller report, and I haven't been given my copy?" Bingo. No one has seen the actual report. And that reality has helped cause a divide between Trump boosters and everyone else.

On Sean Hannity's show Monday night, the host lobbed fresh attacks against the "HATE-TRUMP MEDIA MOB." His hour was full of calls for "accountability," targeting people who wondered whether Trump was under Russia's influence. "I'm naming names," he said. "Media, deep state, abuse of power. I'm not going to stop." At one point Hannity said "you can never trust people who lie like this" -- he was talking about Dems like Eric Swalwell and Maxine Waters, and not, umm, the president.

At the same time over on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow asked "15 questions" about the Barr letter that summarized Mueller's findings. Channeling the views of her audience, she said the full Mueller report needs to be released ASAP...

"Apologize!"

This was one of Monday's most popular talking points on the right. "This network should apologize," Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told CNN's Chris Cuomo on Monday night. Giuliani listed off other outlets too, like NBC and the NYT. He said "everybody should apologize for accusing the president falsely of collusion."

But the president's own actions spurred these questions -- not answers, but questions. Cuomo's response to Rudy was perfect: "I didn't do anything wrong. These questions are real." He said they were "tough questions, but I believe they needed to be asked..."

Zucker's reaction to the "reckoning" talk

CNN president Jeff Zucker is "entirely comfortable" with the network's coverage of Trump and Russia, per Amy Chozick's story in Tuesday's NYT.

"We are not investigators. We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did," Zucker said. "A sitting president's own Justice Department investigated his campaign for collusion with a hostile nation. That's not enormous because the media says so. That's enormous because it's unprecedented."

Read Chozick's full story here...

The skepticism we haven't learned

CNN Business managing editor Alex Koppelman emails: It's incredibly clichéd at this point, but there really is a good reason for that old journalism saying, "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." It's a basic responsibility: Don't print something you don't know to be true, and for God's sake, don't assume anything.

Which is why it was so dispiriting to see so much of the discussion of William Barr's summary of the Mueller report assume that it is a complete account of the Mueller team's findings. It wasn't just headlines, like the NYT's much-derided banner, but also stories and even the overall tone of coverage.

This is not an easy thing to get right: The summary IS news, after all, and comes from the highest-ranking law enforcement official in the United States. But it was still written by a political appointee, and it is still true that none of us have seen the full report or really have any idea what it might contain.

To be clear, this critique still applies if we ultimately discover that Barr's summary was completely faithful to what Mueller wrote, or even if we learn it didn't fully capture the degree to which Mueller exonerated Trump and his campaign. It comes down to this: If the only thing we in the media have learned from covering this era is that we have to fact-check everything Donald Trump says -- and not, for instance, that we need to be skeptical of all sources, no matter how official -- that will amount to a monumental failure on our part.

Lowry's view

Brian Lowry emails: At the risk of sounding cynical... A day after the Barr letter, the result seems to have been about the most advantageous possible to the media, on all sides, in terms of clicks and ratings. It's a document that clearly left behind as many questions as it answers, while offering little closure and inviting partisan debate on both sides. In that context, Sunday's event represents an inflection point, but in hindsight doesn't feel like the end of anything so much as a key mile marker on a much longer road...

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- Great read by NYT's Astead W. Herndon and Richard Fausset: How Mueller super-fans are taking the news... (NYT)

-- "Frontline" and the "NewsHour" teamed up for a 90-minute "Mueller Report" special on PBS Monday night... (PBS)

-- Don't miss Charlie Warzel's piece about "the conspiracy around the corner" and how the public gets "more agitated by the anticipation of political revelations than by the actual findings..." (NYT)

Views from the left, right and in between

-- The NYPost created a "Mueller Madness" bracket to call out Trump critics, and W.H. press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted it out. She was immediately criticized for doing so...

-- David Harsanyi's piece for The Federalist: "Journalists used fears over Russia and anger over Trump to try to reverse the results of a legitimate election."

-- Margaret Sullivan's newest column: "Serious journalists should be proud of — not bullied over — their Russia reporting."

-- James Clapper told Anderson Cooper that he does not have any regrets about sounding the alarm about Trump. "I have tried to be factual and temperate and moderate about it, but I do have concerns. No, I don't have any regrets."

-- David French's piece for NRO: "The System Worked."

-- Trump should "take this moment to reset and relaunch his presidency," Laura Ingraham said on Fox... "Gloating won't get you re-elected," she told him, "but your record of success, properly framed and explained, WILL."

Tapper's four questions

Here's his list from "The Lead" on Monday:

-- Why so many lies from Trump's inner circle?

-- Will there be a reckoning for those who claimed collusion?

-- Will the full Mueller report be released?

-- What about all of the other investigations into Trump?

Avenatti arrested

Oliver Darcy emails: Michael Avenatti was arrested on Monday. He is facing up to 50 years in prison. Avenatti, who became a CNN and MSNBC regular through his former legal representation of Stormy Daniels, was charged in two separate cases -- one in New York, and one in California. In NY, according to SDNY's criminal complaint, Avenatti attempted to extort Nike for millions of dollars. In CA, he is accused of bank fraud and wire fraud. CNN's team has all the details here...

Toobin's take

Jeffrey Toobin speaking on "The Situation Room:" "You know, Michael Avenatti became a very familiar figure on CNN and elsewhere, but he has had a series of problems since he, you know, since he became famous."

Geragos, an unnamed co-conspirator, out at CNN

Darcy adds: Mark Geragos, a celebrity lawyer, was an unnamed co-conspirator in SDNY's case against Avenatti -- though he was not charged by authorities. Geragos had been a legal analyst on CNN. After his alleged role came to light, a CNN spokesperson said that the network had severed its relationship with Geragos. The network's newscasts repeatedly disclosed his former role while covering the case...

Dawsey's point

One more from Darcy: WaPo's Josh Dawsey observed, "Could you imagine 24 hours that Trump loves more than Mueller saying no conspiracy with Russia and Michael Avenatti getting arrested?" I cannot...

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST...

Vice hires its first-ever media reporter

Oliver Darcy emails: Vice is bringing on David Uberti as the news outlet's first-ever media reporter. The announcement will be made official on Tuesday morning. Uberti will cover stories at the intersection of media, politics, and tech. He was previously a media reporter at Splinter...

AND...

Vice's new digital boss

Darcy emails: Vice Media on Monday announced that Katie Drummond was joining the company as senior vice president of Vice digital. Drummond, who heads aboard the company just one month after it laid off 10% of its workforce as it restructures will "oversee Vice Media's growth across platforms with a focus on brand alignment, talent development, and the unification of video with editorial goals," per the press release. Previously she was deputy editor at Medium. Variety's Todd Spangler has more details here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

-- Emily Nassbaum's latest: The flashy pleasures of "Billions" on Showtime... (New Yorker)

-- Monday's "Tonight Show" episode was "shot with the Samsung Galaxy S10+ smartphone, which features an ultra-wide camera lens... The collaboration is part of a broad ad deal Samsung has struck with NBCUniversal..." (Variety)

-- Matt Wilstein reports: "Unlike some more serious pundits, Stephen Colbert did not even try to hide his disappointment in the outcome of the Mueller investigation..." (Daily Beast)

'Jesus: His Life' brings hybrid format to greatest story ever told

Brian Lowry emails: "Jesus: His Life" is the latest History project presented as a documentary-drama hybrid, mixing detailed dramatic reenactments with talking heads and experts. The result is a miniseries -- scheduled to count down toward Easter Sunday -- that revisits the greatest story ever told in mediocre fashion. Read more...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

By Lisa Respers France:

-- About that "Us" ending...

-- There was a "Clueless" cast reunion. AS IF we wouldn't be thrilled!

-- A high school's "Alien" play is the talk of Hollywood...

-- The new "Drake & Josh" project... isn't.

Thanks for reading! Email me feedback anytime. Hope you had a great weekend... see you tomorrow...