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Harry Hoffman, Who Turned Waldenbooks Into A Retail Colossus, Dead At 92

“Hoffman was one of the first book retailers to employ aggressive marketing techniques in the service of creating mass market bookselling. Despite occasional criticism from authors and publishers that Walden emphasized the sales of commercial books over more literary ones, Hoffman never backed down on his belief that more books should be published with mass appeal.” – Publishers Weekly

A Plan To Insure Media Production In Canada

“Without the availability of insurance policies to cover future COVID-19 risks, most production in Canada will not resume. A government-backstopped insurance program will provide confidence to the marketplace, encouraging insurers to offer COVID-19 coverage, allowing producers to purchase policies, and ultimately allowing Canada’s production sector to re-open, once it is safe to do so.” – Variety

AMC Theatres Warns Of $2.4 Billion Loss, ‘Doubt’ About Remaining ‘Going Concern’

The world’s largest movie theater chain revealed that it expects its financial report for the first quarter of 2020, during which the COVID lockdowns began, to show a loss of up to $2.4 billion. The announcement also said publicly that management has “substantial doubt” that AMC can “continue as a going concern for a reasonable period of time.” – The Hollywood Reporter

How American Theater Pros Are Figuring Out The Logistics Of Safely Reopening

“The COVID-19 Theatre Think-Tank (CTT) deliberately draws from as many of theater-making corners as possible, from stage managers to directors, from the Great White Way to regional theaters. Since March, the group has been in talks with public-health officials, pooling knowledge and letting epidemiology experts steer the conversation about what a post-shutdown theater might look like. [Founder Matt] Ross and one of the first additions to the group, Hadestown director Rachel Chavkin, spoke to [Helen Shaw] about the think tank and what it hopes to achieve.” – Vulture

Royal Shakespeare Co. Cancels All Scheduled Performances For 2020 (“Scheduled” Is The Key Word)

Due to the ongoing coronavirus epidemic and social distancing rules, the company is postponing everything through the end of the year that had been announced for its Stratford-upon-Avon headquarters and its annual residency at the Barbican in London as well as its West End production of Matilda the Musical. However, the RSC is “actively exploring” a potential reopening of its main Stratford theatre in the fall, safety measures permitting, with productions that were canceled this spring or new projects. – Variety

How Awful Was It To Work For Akron Art Museum’s Ex-Director? Let His Former Employees Tell You

“Carol Murphy, whom [former director Mark] Masuoka fired in 2015 as director of external affairs, painted him as a boss who was ‘quiet,’ ‘strange’ and ‘extremely introverted’ yet also paranoid and retaliatory.” Another ex-employee says, “I was told by coworkers that Mark would sit in empty cubes and listen to the staff talk throughout the day.” By early 2019, things had gotten so bad that a basement room had become the designated place for employees to go and cry. – Akron Beacon Journal