Journalism

Beginning Oct. 1, Newsy will be available over the air in at least 80% of U.S. television homes — and in all major markets — carried primarily by Scripps-owned Ion stations and select Scripps stations plus those of other station groups.

A Maryland hotel magnate and a Swiss billionaire have made a bid for Tribune TPCO 0.22% Publishing Co. that the newspaper chain is expected to favor over a takeover deal it already struck with hedge fund Alden Global Capital. A special committee of Tribune’s board has determined that a roughly $680 million, $18.50-a-share bid submitted late last week by Choice Hotels International Chairman Stewart Bainum and Hansjörg Wyss is reasonably likely to lead to a proposal that is superior to Alden’s $635 million deal, people familiar with the matter said. That is legal deal-speak indicating Alden may need to raise its bid or risk losing the deal.

In The Moms of Magnolia Street, the Bay Area’s KNTV followed three women and their families who illegally moved in and occupied a single-family home that had been vacant for years, beginning a movement addressing government-sanctioned home discrimination, predatory lending and the corporatization of housing.

New TV jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for an Executive Producer, a digital sales coordinator and a graphics design manager for stations owned by Hearst, Gray and Nexstar.

If defamation suits, even valid ones, are successful, long-standing First Amendment protections could be weakened; aggrieved subjects of news stories, especially those with deep pockets, may be encouraged to go after media companies of all kinds, not just hyperpartisan ones. And long, expensive court battles could put them out of business.

Don Farmer (c), a TV news veteran who was one of CNN’s original anchors, died Wednesday in Naples, Fla., after battling a rare neurological disease known as PSP. Farmer and his wife, fellow broadcast journalist Chris Curle (l), were among the first anchors hired in 1980 when Ted Turner (r) launched CNN. Among Farmer’s early assignments was a week of live coverage from Cuba that included an interview with then leader Fidel Castro. He was 82.

If Jonathan Adkins, who oversees the broadcast news operation at Cleveland’s WKYC, wants to see the dramatic effects of COVID-19 on TV news production, all he has to do is go downstairs. “If a year ago, you had told me I could sit in my basement in my house and see 16 live feeds from the field, have direct interaction with the talent on the set, and be able to watch feeds and our broadcasts with less than a half second delay, I would have thought you were crazy,” he says. Adkins can even re-set the teleprompter from home. “If we go back to the way things were, we failed.” Above, part of the makeshift control room in Adkins’ basement.

A rejuvenated cable TV brand name is a gavel-to-gavel source for the highly anticipated case.

Anchor Bret Baier has renewed his contract with Fox News Channel, extending a pact that was last negotiated in 2019. The deal will keep Baier at the network through 2025 and will maintain his roles as anchor and executive editor of the Fox Corp. network’s Special Report and as the outlet’s chief political anchor.

Beginning April 5, the 10-minute weekday digicast exclusively for Roku, Apple TV and streaming audiences will feature local and national headlines, the latest weather, in-depth reporting and entertainment and lifestyle programming.

She may not be on the masthead, but Soon-Shiong has become a regular voice in the Los Angeles Times newsroom. That might normally be cause for tension, but many staffers say it’s a welcome change.