🦃Happy Thanksgiving! Mark Zuckerberg will not step down and hopes to work with Sheryl Sandberg "for decades more."

November 21, 2018 | Virginia Beach

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Good morning. For the first time in history, all five of the FAANG stocks are in a bear market: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google's Alphabet have lost more than $800 billion in value in less than three months.

🦃Happy Thanksgiving. Here's the dry-brine recipe you were asking about. Redskins-Cowboys is at 4:30 ET on FOX. 
 
Byers Market will be off for the holiday break.
 
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Moving the Market: Zuck Defiant — Mark Zuckerberg told CNN last night that he will not step down as chairman or CEO and that he hopes to work with Sheryl Sandberg "for decades more," putting the kibosh on critics' calls for a C-suite change amid revelations about the leadership.

Instead, Zuckerberg criticized the media:

• "A lot of the criticism around the biggest issues has been fair, but I do think .... there is this bigger picture as well, which is that we have a different world view than some of the folks who are covering us."• "There are big issues, and I'm not trying to say that there aren't ... But I do think that sometimes, you can get the flavor from some of the coverage that that's all there is, and I don't think that that's right either."

• "It is not clear to me at all that [the recent New York Times] report is right. A lot of the things that were in that report, we talked to the reporters ahead of time and told them that from everything that we'd seen, that wasn't true and they chose to print it anyway."

The Big Picture: What I said Monday: "Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg believe Facebook's negative image is a public relations problem that stems from a bungled press strategy and sensational media coverage, not a structural or philosophical shortcoming that requires a wholesale course correction."

The Latest: Facebook Finds its Fall Guy â€” Outgoing head of public policy Elliot Schrage sent a memo to staff last night in which he blamed himself for hiring Definers, the Washington-based PR firm that Zuckerberg and Sandberg sought to distance themselves from in the wake of the Times report.

• "Responsibility for these decisions rests with leadership of the Communications team. That’s me," Schrage wrote. "Mark and Sheryl relied on me to manage this without controversy."

Conveniently, he's already on his way out the door.
 
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Big in the Beltway: Fred Ryan takes on Trump — The Washington Post publisher and CEO has accused President Donald Trump of a "failure of leadership" after he stood by Saudi Arabia despite its role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi:

 

• "President Trump’s response to the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is a betrayal of long-established American values of respect for human rights and the expectation of trust and honesty in our strategic relationships."

 

• "He is placing personal relationships and commercial interests above American interests in his desire to continue to do business as usual with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia."

 

• "An innocent man, brutally slain, deserves better, as does the cause of truth and justice and human rights. In this failure of leadership from President Trump, it now falls to Congress to stand up for America’s true values and lasting interests."

 

What's Next: Ryan's statement is likely to fuel President Trump's anger toward The Washington Post and its owner Jeff Bezos.

 

The Big Picture, via Khashoggi's former editor Karen Attiah: "If the administration continues down this path, it will further destroy whatever is left of America’s moral credibility on global human rights and freedom of expression. It puts truth-seekers and journalists who dare challenge the Saudi regime and other intolerant governments in grave danger, no matter where they live."

 

Meaning ... far more is at stake in Trump's handling of the Khashoggi case than was ever at stake in his so-called war with CNN and Jim Acosta.

 

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Talk of Tinseltown: Jeff Bezos Eyes Local Sports — Amazon has joined the bidding war for Disney's 22 regional sports networks, setting the stage for the biggest move yet by a tech company into the world of sports media.

 

What's Next: "The threat of Amazon buying sports rights ... should scare traditional media companies that are banking on owning must-see live content to stay alive in an on-demand world," CNBC's Alex Sherman writes:

 

• "Selling sports rights to a giant like Amazon, with a market capitalization of more than $700 billion, could spur other technology giants like Apple, Google and Facebook to bid on sports rights to stay competitive."

 

• "The sports rights for the big professional leagues are locked up through 2020. ... When current rights deals expire, tech giants could conceivably outbid the traditional media players for exclusive or digital-only rights."

 

• "If packaged with Amazon Prime, broadcasting regional games exclusively could help persuade customers to keep subscribing to the service ... [and] bring even more people into the Amazon tent, exposing them to all of the products and services Amazon offers."

 

The Big Picture: In the new Hollywood, content is marketing. Whether its live sports or on-demand entertainment, owning the content consumers crave translates to more Amazon Prime subscribers paying $120 a year for free two-day shipping.

 

Speaking of the power of sports ... the Los Angeles Rams 54-to-51 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs brought in a 11.3 overnight rating for ESPN, the best for "Monday Night Football" since 2014.

 

Market Links

 

•  Lachlan Murdoch sits out the RSN bid (CNBC)

 

•  Megyn Kelly nears deal to leave NBC News (WSJ)

 

•  Susan Zirinsky eyes the '60 Minutes' post (VF)

 

 

 
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Sign of the Times: Sam Barry's Glamour goes digital — Condé Nast "announced on Tuesday that it was ending regular print publication of Glamour," NYT's Jaclyn Peiser reports:

 

• "'This is my plan, because it makes sense,' Ms. Barry ... said in an interview. 'It’s where the audiences are, and it’s where our growth is. That monthly schedule, for a Glamour audience, doesn’t make sense anymore.'"

 

• "Glamour’s digital audience has grown since Ms. Barry took the helm. ... Monthly unique viewers have risen 12%, to 6.3 million ... YouTube [subscribers] have increased more than 110%, to about 1.6 million."

 

• "The end of Glamour as a regular print publication is [also] part of a general belt-tightening at Condé Nast ... The publisher lost more than $120 million last year and has sought buyers for three of its magazines ... It has also consolidated research and photo departments, and leased [office space]."

 

The Big Picture: Print is dying, or dead. But the future of print brands is an open question and will depend on the digital savvy and editorial creativity of the specific individuals leading each title through its transition.

 

What's Next: Turkey. "The Bird Rules the Thanksgiving Magazine Cover," NYT's Tejal Rao writes. "November is the high-stakes Super Bowl for editors at food magazines. Here’s how they strategize their cover images."

 

Happy Thanksgiving. See you Monday.

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