Residents in more than half of U.S. counties have very limited access to a reliable local news source. More than two newspapers a week have shut down during 2023, with just an estimated 1,200 daily papers still publishing. Since 2005, Medill reports, the number of newspaper journalists has fallen by 66%, or 43,000. - InsideRadio
Automakers have been gradually leaving AM receivers out of their new-model cars, and they really want — for legitimate reasons — to drop AM from their electric vehicles. Yet there are legitimate reasons for regulators and lawmakers to insist that AM radios remain. Ernie Smith explains. - Tedium
"KCRW, which has an annual operating budget of about $23 million, relies on member contributions and corporate sponsorships, including studios looking to promote their movies and television shows" — meaning the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes cost the station a lot of revenue. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
This year, any discussion of Golden Globe snubs and surprises ought to start with the show itself, since this once-snubbed awards ceremony has engineered a surprising comeback. - The New York Times
"We went from not having any protections — they would be pulling our members off to go get scanned and think that was OK and they could just use it in perpetuity — and now we’ve put it into the members’ decision. They’re in the driver’s seat now." - Rolling Stone
On shows like The Jeffersons and Good Times, there were still stereotypes (hotly debated even now), but Lear's "full-rounded view of Black life in America — through characters who had failures and triumphs, struggles and aspirations — helped usher in ... the era of 'social relevance' in television." - The New York Times
"Judge Brian Kennedy ordered the BBC to release more emails - saying the corporation had been 'inconsistent, erroneous and unreliable.'" The emails still haven't been released. - BBC
The game Baldur's Gate 3 had a gonzo night at the Game Awards - it won "Game of the Year, the Dungeons and Dragons epic won Best RPG, Best Community Support, Best Multiplayer, the Players' Voice Award — and one of its actors, Neil Newbon, won Best Performance." - NPR
Popular Santa Monica station KCRW has a $3 million budget shortfall. The station generally "relies on member contributions and corporate sponsorships, including studios looking to promote their movies and television shows." - MSN (Los Angeles Times)
Does France regret not submitting this one for an Oscar? It definitely should. Anatomy (the Palme d'Or winner) just won the European Film Awards, and Justine Triet won the best director award. - Variety
The movie - C'è ancora domani, or There's Always Tomorrow - is the first film directed by comedian Paola Cortellesi, and it's about a surefire winner at the box office: Domestic abuse. - The New York Times
Actress Uhm Jung-hwa says there's a shift from the 1990s, when women characters were focused on finding husbands: "Now we can see many strong female characters boldly embracing life on their own terms." - BBC
There are so many potential bottlenecks for the speed of something we rely on: "Each part of the network (such as switches, routers, modems, etc.) has its own limit on how much data it can handle." Can this change? - The Verge
Streaming giants in the region are increasingly placing their series bets on creators armed with a glittering list of prizes from the international festival circuit, and independent filmmakers and producers are making high-production-value shows with small-to-midrange budgets. The result? A veritable “prestige TV” wave on streamers. - The Hollywood Reporter
According to the Otis College of Art and Design’s study, the first released under the college’s ongoing Otis College Report on the Creative Economy, following the WGA, 24,799 entertainment industry employees in Los Angeles were let go, or more than 1.5 in every 10 workers. - Variety
