In France, a page on a government website that purportedly pointed out misinformation about coronavirus in the French media was taken down. The site was removed after the the Syndicat National des Journalists union complained that it was an attack on press freedom.
The union representing newsroom employees of the Tribune Publishing Group—which owns the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the Hartford Courant and many other papers—is trying to unseat two board members representing Alden Global Capital. The hedge fund, which took a 32 percent share in the group in November, is the largest shareholder and has a history of large-scale layoffs at its papers.
Literary Hub runs down twenty new books coming out this week, including titles from Emma Straub, Percival Everett, Eimear McBride, and Tori Amos.
The New York Times gained 587,000 new digital subscribers in the first three months of 2020. Overall, the paper has close to six million subscribers, with the vast majority of those being digital subscriptions. Advertising revenue continues to fall drastically, though chief executive Mark Thompson says he is confident the Times will emerge unscathed: “We believe that the company will emerge from this global crisis with a distinctive and valuable advertising revenue stream to complement a digital news subscription business.”
On Monday, May 11th, McNally Jackson will host a Zoom event with Susan Choi in conversation with Michael Cunningham about Choi’s novel Trust Exercise.