EXEC SUMMARY: Welcome to our final media digest of 2019. This is a twofer: A look back at the year in media, tech and culture... And then a look further back at the full decade. Scroll down for Monday's biggest stories, as well!
REVIEWING 2019
Our top 9 stories
What were the nine biggest media stories of the year? Here are our picks... hat tip to producer Laurie Frankel for steering this list:
#9: Jeff Bezos versus the National Enquirer
#8: The ongoing crisis in local news
#7: Triumphs of investigative journalism like Julie K. Brown's reporting about Jeffrey Epstein
#6: #MeToo two years later, with "Catch & Kill" and other new revelations
#5: Media companies try to replicate Netflix's success in the streaming Olympics
#4: Shep Smith leaves Fox as tensions between news and opinion escalate
#3: Impeachment unfolds in dueling media bunkers
#2: The misinformation age
#1: The war on truth, exemplified by the Trump admin's daily assault on facts
| | What happened this year
In January of this year, Disney was still waiting to buy Fox, Deadspin was still challenging the worlds of sports and politics, and Sarah Sanders was still the White House press secretary. Here's my very incomplete look back at the year in media, especially when it intersected with government, business, culture, and entertainment –>
"The ___ president"
In year three of the Trump presidency, journalists reached for new ways to describe the tumultuous times — I noticed "the victim president," "the Infowars president," "the conspiracy theory president," "the 'say anything' president," and "the grifter president," just to name a few.
Meanwhile, in Foxland, Lou Dobbs called him "the greatest president in our history." And at the end of the year, it was "the impeached president."
Entertainment's new world order
The Disney-Fox deal took effect in March, and Disney+ launched in November. All the talk about new streaming services reflected the fact that Netflix is the pace setter, establishing the model for the new streaming world order.
Meanwhile, upheaval in digital media continued... Losses accumulated in local news... Papers explored new models to stay in business... And big tech companies pledged to help... Despite the hardships and headwinds, news organizations produced ambitious work. Read on...
Everyone wants your attention
In news and in entertainment, execs increasingly came to believe that their competitors weren't just down the street or across the country, but across platforms and around the world. The short-form video sharing app TikTok was a sensation, and it originated in China. Esports consumed more and more viewing time. The massive multiplayer game "Fortnite" collapsed into a black hole, then reinvented itself and, in the words of the LATimes, "remained a massive force." Attention was the currency, whether people were recording a funny video on a phone or buying tickets for a live taping of a podcast or getting news alerts on a smart watch or riding a connected bike. What captured your attention in 2019?
Media Matters says "Trump's Fox obsession reshaped the political universe in 2019"
Matt Gertz, who studies this subject for the progressive watchdog group Media Matters, says "Trump's Fox fanaticism" is driving "the federal policymaking process and political reality" more than ever before. His recap of 2019: "The Trump-Fox feedback loop powered scandals, pardons, policy, and more than 600 live tweets..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Some things never change: "As he has done since entering the political scene in 2015, Donald Trump dominates our list of whoppers of the year..." (FactCheck.org)
-- The AP's annual poll of news editors and managers found that impeachment "was the top news story of 2019..." (AP)
-- Final reminder: The Newseum is open for just one more week... (Newseum)
Reflections from our media reporters
What the heck happened this year? And what should you expect on the media beat in 2020? We have answers on this special podcast episode. I sat down with Oliver Darcy, Chloe Melas, Kerry Flynn, and Frank Pallotta to reflect on this year's biggest stories in media, culture and entertainment... I bet you don't even remember some of the stories that broke earlier in the year... Tune in to the conversation via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or whatever podcasting app you use...
NiemanLab's 2020 predictions for journalism!
This is one of my favorite things about December: NiemanLab's collection of predictions about the year ahead from some of the news industry's best and brightest. Check it out...
Hopeful signs for publishers
Gerry Smith's newest piece: "Publishers see 2020 as the year more start to get paid for news."
He says publishers "are hoping to turn the tables on tech platforms that have profited from their work by getting them to pay for stories. So far, the amount of money flowing back to newsrooms is still relatively small, but media executives are encouraged by what they say is a willingness to pay for news in some corners of the tech industry."
Smith says "the most prominent example is Facebook," but the others include Medium, SmartNews, and Pocket. "One big question is whether Apple and Google will follow suit and start paying for news like Facebook," Smith notes. "Google already pays some outlets for audio news on its version of Amazon's Alexa, but publishers say they've gotten no indications that either company is considering paying the same way Facebook does..."
Better stories, best stories, top stories
-- Chartbeat presents the 100 "Most Engaging Stories of 2019"
-- Here are "CNN's top 100 digital stories of 2019," with a foreword by EIC Meredith Artley
-- The Center for Cooperative Media looks back at ten "collaborations that left a mark on 2019"
-- For deeper reading: Best of 2019 lists from Longform and Longreads
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- Hank Stuever's newest column: "2019's best TV moment? It was Stephen Colbert answering Anderson Cooper's question about grief..." (WaPo)
-- Nicholas Quah's final Hot Pod of the year: "The big story of podcasting in 2019 was all about Spotify. Will 2020 be the year Apple strikes back?" (NiemanLab)
-- Best of 2019 in video games: Todd Martens writes about how "diverse storylines and streaming platforms shaped culture..." (LAT)
-- Variety has the year's biggest box office hits and flops. Atop the hit list: "Avengers: Endgame." At the bottom of the flop list: "Playmobil..." (Variety)
-- Correction: When I wrote Jonathan Swan last night, I meant Jonathan Martin! I guess I had Axios on the brain. Thank you for all the emails flagging the error...
| | REVIEWING THE 2010s
The biggest difference this decade...
In 2010, the iPad was just being introduced (see above) and Instagram was just being launched. The biggest media world story this decade, for my money, is the rise of social media. CNN Business tech writer Kaya Yurieff has a great look at the decade in social media here.
When I asked USA Today EIC Nicole Carroll what was unexpected about the past decade, she answered, "how quickly social media changed everything." Carroll joined Twitter 11 years ago. "It has changed everything -- the speed that news travels, how we report the news, how we spread the news. For the better, we now have instant access to information. For the worse, many times that information is wrong." And "social has forced us into echo chambers," she said. "We are not getting exposed to as many things as we should..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- Charlie Warzel's takeaway from his recent "One Nation, Tracked" reporting: "This is the decade we were brainwashed into surveilling ourselves. In just over 10 years we were sold a future of personalization and convenience and paid for it with little pieces of ourselves that we can never get back..." (NYT)
-- Don't miss "Alienated, Alone And Angry: What The Digital Revolution Really Did To Us" by Joe Bernstein... (BuzzFeed)
-- Colby Hall has a list of "the cable news moments that defined the 2010s..." (Mediaite)
-- "The Decade We Reclaimed Our Stories -- and Ourselves:" Monica Lewinsky created this timeline of "women's acts of reclamation..." (VF)
-- The Decade in Pictures, as selected by the NYT photo squad... (NYT)
A decade of patterns
The WSJ analyzed "millions of articles" from 2010 onward, showing "how coverage of hot-button topics changed" with time.
Take Trump, for example: At the start of the decade, words associated with Trump in news coverage "included celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Paris Hilton." Once he entered the GOP race, his name was linked to his primary rivals. "More recently? Vladimir Putin and Rudy Giuliani are among the terms tied to Mr. Trump frequently."
The results for Facebook are interesting too – terms like MySpace and Foursquare showed up in relation to FB in 2010, but now it's Cambridge Analytica, misinformation, and privacy...
How to understand this decade
Katie Pellico's summary of the best of the "Best Of"s, round-ups and look-backs:
-- It was the decade "Big Brother came home," "conspiracy theories went mainstream," and "the Kardashians took over everything..."
-- The NYT offers "an oral history of the 2010s" -- "The Decade Tech Lost Its Way" -- letting the "people who brought us the decade" explain, from Mark Zuckerberg to Alex From Target...
-- NY Mag's Brian Feldman plucked out "34 Emblematic Posts" of the decade. He is careful to qualify, posts are "the raw matter out of which memes... are born," those "individual instances of human ingenuity, or derangement, that best expressed digital culture as it crystalized in the 2010s..."
-- The staff over at The Verge put together a comprehensive catalog of the "84 biggest flops, fails, and dead dreams of the decade in tech..."
-- The Guardian's André Wheeler underscores the force of "Black Twitter," "a merciless watchdog for problematic behavior" that "touched nearly every sphere of American culture and politics this decade..."
-- A final chaser: Amanda Mull sizes up "the real problem with rankings" and round-ups. "It doesn't have to be like this..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- The ebook revolution never came. Print is still holding strong! "Ebook sales seem to have stabilized at around 20 percent of total book sales, with print sales making up the remaining 80 percent." Constance Grady explored why... (Vox)
-- The "Fifty Shades" trilogy takes the first three spots on the top 10 best-selling novels of the decade list, Chauncey Alcorn reports... (CNN)
-- "Monsters of the 2010s:" Rebecca Leber wrote about the "pivoters to video," including her experience at The New Republic under the ownership of FB cofounder Chris Hughes... (Mother Jones)
-- "Race to the Bottom:" Alex Kantrowitz created a timeline of Facebook's and Twitter's decision-making in the 2010s... (BuzzFeed News)
-- On a more uplifting note, CJR picked "20 for 2020," stories that "moved and inspired us" in the past ten years... (CJR)
IN TODAY'S NEWS...
WaPo editorial: "Saudi Arabia's Khashoggi verdict is a mockery of justice" | | The news from Kareem Fahim and Sarah Dadouch: "Saudi Arabia says five sentenced to death in killing of Jamal Khashoggi."
And the WaPo editorial board's reaction: "Saudi Arabia has delivered a shameful travesty of justice... Two men who are known to have directed the operation, former deputy chief of intelligence Ahmed al-Assiri and Saud al-Qahtani, a top aide to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, were exonerated. Most likely they were excused at the direction of the crown prince, who, according to the CIA, is the real author of the crime. The result is an insult to Khashoggi's family and to all those, including a bipartisan congressional majority, who have demanded genuine accountability in the case. International acceptance of the result would not only be morally wrong but dangerous, too: It would send the reckless Saudi ruler the message that his murderous adventurism will be tolerated."
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- Comcast and Lions Gate have reached a new distribution deal for Starz. Lillian Rizzo has details about the terms here... (WSJ)
-- With Eddie Murphy hosting, "SNL" "scored its top-rated show in nearly three years," Alexis Benveniste writes... (CNN)
-- Ben Strauss has a brand-new look inside Sports Illustrated in the Maven era. "Chaos" is the key word... (WaPo)
-- New from Chloe Melas: John Mayer has debuted a catchy Christmas song called "CVS Bag..." (CNN)
-- One more item from Chloe: Harry Styles' "Fine Line" album has hit number one... (CNN)
The fallout from California's AB5
Kerry Flynn emails: California-based freelancers are still grappling with the ramifications of AB 5, a new law going into effect Jan. 1 that limits them to 35 stories per outlet. As I wrote last week, many publishers — from alt weeklies to digital outlets — have relied on freelancers for coverage but now have to adhere to these restrictions. Freelancers are only just now being told what that means for them — and for some, these changes are devastating. Take Monday's thread from Whiston Gordon, who wrote, "I cannot begin to explain the stress this has put on me and my family. I know there are no guarantees in this business. I could lose clients to layoffs, or to a recession. But I never thought the government would just take work away from me arbitrarily..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
By Kerry Flynn:
-- The Daily Beast's Pervaiz Shallwani announced that "I'm joining CNN as Senior Editor of Investigative-Enterprise, overseeing a four-person law enforcement team in New York..." (Twitter)
-- Vice's Matt Taylor is joining The Daily Beast as national editor... (Twitter)
-- Kevin Delaney is joining NYT Opinions to lead a new project for six months... (NYT)
-- Laura Blasey, formerly of Newsday, is joining the LATimes as newsletter editor... (LATimes)
| | Lowry recommends "1917"
Brian Lowry emails: 2019 saved one of its best movies for last in "1917," a World War I epic designed by director/co-writer Sam Mendes to look like one continuous shot. What could be a gimmick is beautifully executed in one of the year's most impressive films. Read on...
'Skywalker' chat ↓
Brian Lowry emails: Frank Pallotta and I engaged in a spoiler-heavy discussion of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," an exercise that merely underscored my belief that Disney/Lucasfilm erred by not entrusting the trilogy to a single filmmaker, as opposed to trying to prove it could accommodate multiple artistic visions in telling one story. Wherever you stand on the "Rise of Skywalker"/"The Last Jedi" divide, it was unfair to all concerned to put them in a position where their divergent plots basically have prompted fans and critics to choose sides...
Pay hikes for Netflix execs
Variety's Todd Spangler recapping Monday's 8-K filing from Netflix: CEO Reed Hastings "is to receive a salary of $650,000 and $34 million in stock options" in 2020 while chief content officer Ted Sarandos "will hit the same total figure with a $20 million salary and $14.65 million in stock-option allocations." That's a raise: "In 2019, both Hastings and Sarandos were set to receive $31.5 million in total comp..."
Entertainment in 2019...
Megan Thomas emails: Entertainment in 2019 could be defined by the roughly 58 franchise films that dominated theaters, the endless viewing options on the 20+ (and counting) domestic streaming services, a few high-profile celebrity scandals or the simply the end of "Game of Thrones." But I'll remember this year in entertainment most for both the fresh voices who broke through and the inspiring, experienced storytellers who just keep getting better. Here are a few:
-- Regina King's Oscar speech
-- Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's Oscar performance
-- Lil Nas X's genre blending
-- Every live Lizzo performance
-- Billie Eilish (she's only 18!)
-- Jennifer Lopez in "Hustler"
-- Anything Lena Waithe writes
-- Reese Witherspoon's producing work
-- The final, hilarious season of "Veep"
-- The real time and real excellent culture takes by Trevor Noah, Sam Bee and Stephen Colbert
-- Beyoncé's "Homecoming"
-- When Marie Kondo became a verb
-- The "hot priest" in "Fleabag"
-- The heartbreaking performances in "When They See Us"
-- "The end of "The Americans"
Lowry's recap of the decade in Hollywood
Brian Lowry emails: Thinking back on the decade, a few key events come to mind, and it's pretty remarkable how recent they were in historical terms: In 2012, "The Avengers" premiered to a then-record $207-million opening weekend, establishing Marvel as the dominant commercial entity in pop culture; that same year, Disney acquired Lucasfilm, adding "Star Wars" to its arsenal; and in 2013, Netflix premiered "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black," essentially marking the beginning of its major push into original programming, with the wave of streaming that has followed. The trip from there to here has virtually reshaped the entertainment industry during less than two presidential terms.
The other signature moment around that time was the premiere of "Game of Thrones" in 2011, not just the landmark drama of the decade, but one whose scope further narrowed the shrinking gap between movies and television...
"Decade in Disney"
Matthew Ball tweeted out this "decade in Disney" list:
-- "25 $1B+ films (everyone else has 13 combined)
-- 3 $2B+ films (everyone else has 0)
-- Biggest film of all time • 8 years with #1 film of the year
-- Owned top 5, then 8 films of the year (prior industry record: top 3)
-- Created Baby Yoda"
For more, read Frank Pallotta's new story here...
LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
Sunday on "Reliable..."
It is never too early to set your DVR for Sunday at 11am! On the December 29 telecast, I will be joined by two media moguls, the TIME owner and Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff and the Salt Lake Tribune publisher Paul Huntsman. Plus: Amy Webb, Oliver Darcy, Nicole Carroll, David Zurawik, and Jennifer Kavanagh. You know the drill: 11am ET on CNN.
🎄🎄🎄
I'm signing off for the holidays... Barring any huge breaking news, this newsletter will resume on New Year's Day... I just want to thank you for reading and wish you a happy new year 😊 Email me your feedback anytime. See you in 2020!
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