Category: media

The podcasting business is changing at the speed of sound. There’s a pivot toward profit. And while that’s great in the short run for public podcasting, it also attracts new players and an aggressive new business model. Public podcasts that often started as spinoffs or experiments are becoming lucrative. NPR recently projected that podcasting would account within three years for 20% of its revenues. In public-broadcasting–adjacent venues, The Daily reportedly made millions last year, and Slate draws half its revenue from podcasting. – Current

Cultural institutions and restaurants, whose revenue has been largely wiped out by the coronavirus epidemic, have been among the biggest underwriters of local public media outlets. Reporter Julian Wyllie looks into how several local stations are dealing with the sudden changes in their sponsors’, and their own, fortunes. – Current

“Amid the far-reaching impact of the coronavirus pandemic, … domestic ticket sales turned in a combined $1.81 billion from Jan. 1 through March 19, the day when Comscore stopped reporting theater grosses. That compares to $2.41 billion for the first full three months of 2019.” – The Hollywood Reporter

“Timur Bekmambetov, best known outside Russia for making the Angelina Jolie thriller Wanted, was midway through filming his second world war fighter-ace film V2: Escape from Hell when the coronavirus pandemic broke. So [he] sanitised his shooting schedule and, last week, pulled off what he believes was a cinematic first: a feature-film scene shot entirely inside a live video game.” – The Guardian

“Hours after municipal authorities in Shanghai gave more than 200 cinemas the greenlight to re-open Saturday, national-level Chinese authorities on Friday ordered all theaters throughout the country shut again …, without saying exactly why or when they might hope to re-open.” (The general presumption is that the government fears another coronavirus outbreak.) – Variety

Schantz, 51, currently the executive vice president and chief operating officer at the New-York Historical Society, will take up the position in May. She succeeds Jacqueline Davis, who has led the library for two decades. The performing arts library, located in Lincoln Center, is one of the New York Public Library’s four research divisions, with a collection of some 8 million items that extend far beyond books to include manuscripts, photographs, scores, ephemera, sheet music, stage designs, costume designs, video and film. – The New York Times

Film at Lincoln Center announced massive internal upheaval on Friday. A longtime hub of film culture in New York City with an influential reach around the country, the organization furloughed or laid off approximately 50% of the full-time staff as well as all of the part-time staff. – Los Angeles Times