For the Record

Closure:

The Newseum announced Friday that it will sell its Washington, D.C. building to Johns Hopkins University for $372.5 million. The Baltimore-based university will use the facility for graduate programs. Its sale "resulted from a 16-month review of funding for the Freedom Forum, the journalism museum’s creator and primary funder." The facility is expected to remain open through 2019 as the sale clears regulatory hurdles. 

"The Aggregation Turbine":

A day after Verizon announced its intention to commence layoffs of 7% of its workforce, several employees were dismissed from the Verizon Media-owned HuffPost. The cuts included 2016 National Reporting finalist Jason Cherkis, drug and gun policy reporter Nick Wing and head of opinion Bryan Maygers. Alongside concurrent layoffs at Gannett and BuzzFeed, "the media industry lost about 1,000 jobs nationwide this week."

"Singular Drumming":

Nearly a decade ago, Paul Harding's "Tinkers" (2009) became the surprise winner of the 2010 Fiction Prize, elevating the Bellevue Literary Press to national recognition. According to Harding, "'Tinkers' getting the Pulitzer directed attention not only to the existence of the large, vibrant, ongoing, and I’d say perennial grassroots community of independent readers and purveyors of books in our culture, but also to the fact that 'Tinkers' made its way around the country pretty damn well before the prize, almost entirely by word of mouth and handselling."

"Open the Door":

Political consultant Roger Stone "was arrested early Friday morning by the FBI after being indicted on charges he lied to Congress and obstructed the House Intelligence Committee's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election." Grant Smith, an attorney for Stone, told Politico "that he expects his client to be released after his appearance in court Friday with an arraignment likely next week in Washington." Stone will plead not guilty to the charges.

"Dollars Against Titans":

Condé Nast said Wednesday that "it would put all its titles behind paywalls by the end of the year, as pressure builds on major publishers to generate more revenue beyond advertising." Three news organizations (The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Wired) already are behind paywalls.

"My Heart Aches For Journalism":

Gannett "began slashing jobs all across the country Wednesday in a cost-cutting move that was anticipated even before" the company's proposed acquisition by hedge fund-backed Digital First Media. Two to nine journalists were laid off or accepted early retirement packages at various publications, including Pulitzer-winning Arizona Republic editorial cartoonist Steve Benson.

Contraction:

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti announced Wednesday that the media company is preparing to lay off "about 15%" of its 1,450 employees. "This is going to be a tough week," BuzzFeed News Editor Ben Smith said in an email to his division.

Performance:

Despite achieving "record profits" and revenue of $11.8 billion in 2018, "fully one-third" of Hearst's profits "now come from Business Media — with units such as financial data company Fitch Group and aviation safety data company CAMP — as well as medical data and software operations." According to CEO Steve Swartz, "For 2019, we expect that number to rise to approximately 40 percent." The company's storied newspaper and magazine divisions (including the Houston Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire and Cosmpolitan) have also remained profitable despite turmoil in both industries.

"Increasingly Difficult":

Former Vanity Fair writer Maya Kosoff and former Cosmopolitan writer Anna Breslaw have left the revived Gawker "over concerns about Carson Griffith, the recently hired editorial director." "We’re disappointed it ended this way, but we can’t continue to work under someone who is antithetical to our sensibility and journalistic ethics, or for an employer [CEO Bryan Goldberg] who refuses to listen to the women who work for him when it’s inconvenient," Kosoff and Breslaw said.

"We're On Call 24 Hours A Day":

In a Wednesday appearance on "Fox & Friends," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the White House's de facto suspension of press briefings. "We’re in the business of getting information to the American people, not making stars out of people that want to become contributors on CNN," she said. "[T]hat is a lot of times what we see take place in the briefing room."