The media landscape continues to shift, and 2023 was certainly an eventful year. Layoffs abounded based not just on the slash-and-burn tactics deployed by private equity to gut local newspapers, but also on the national level...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled on Feb. 6, 2024, that a news organization's use of a photograph of musician Ted Nugent did not constitute fair use, siding with the photographer who argued that the news...more
The New South Wales Supreme Court has recently delivered its judgment in Newman v Whittington [2022] NSWSC 249 (Newman), providing the first Australian judicial consideration of the "serious harm" threshold now found in the...more
The Governor has signed Assembly Bill 1506 (AB 1506) which extends the existing exemption for three more years for newspaper distributors and carriers from the “ABC Test” under Dynamex and Assembly Bill 5. The bill takes into...more
Chinese antitrust officials hit Alibaba with a “record” $2.8 billion fine over the weekend—the “biggest move yet in the government’s campaign to tighten its supervision of Big Tech.” ...more
One of South Carolina's oldest and largest newspapers may soon become unionized. An affiliate of the Communication Workers of America recently filed a petition seeking to unionize all non-supervisors who work at The State...more
NY AG Letitia James is suing Amazon, accusing the online retail giant “of not doing enough to protect workers in the state from the coronavirus” and calling its response to the pandemic “deficient.” ...more
In a recent post about Ruel Gridley's famous 50 lb. sack of flour, I mentioned The Reese River Reveille. The Reveille began publishing in Austin, Nevada in 1863 and was published continuously for 130 years. Nevada seems to...more
On September 30, 2020, the Governor signed Assembly Bill 323 (“AB 323”), which is intended to support local journalism. Part of the new law focuses on California’s official advertising, requiring the Department of General...more
As business owners and members of the labor and employment law community know all too well, California’s AB 5 went into effect on January 1 of this year. The law imposed the “ABC test” for determining whether a worker should...more
Broadcast has always been the hardest medium in which to secure opportunities for clients. The reasons are numerous, including its focus is narrower than a daily newspaper’s, commentary openings are time-sensitive and go...more
In law school, the correct answer to in-class queries was frequently “it depends.” In law, often there is no black or white, right or wrong – it all depends on the facts and the analysis of the law. This dynamic also applies...more
Major shakeup at Ford, where CEO Jim Hackett is out after a three-year stint in which he “achieved mixed results” but didn’t impress Wall Street enough to keep his job. Ford has installed COO James Farley, a Toyota alum who’s...more
Recently, the US Federal District Court for the Southern District of Iowa in Meredith Corp. v. United States, No. 4:17-cv-00385 (S.D. Iowa Mar. 20, 2020), held that a magazine publisher was entitled to refund of federal...more
Full power commercial and noncommercial radio stations and LPFM stations licensed to communities in Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee must begin airing pre-filing license renewal announcements on February 1, 2020. License...more
Sending a shot across the bow of the gig economy, New Jersey is seeking nearly $650 million from Uber for “years of unpaid employment taxes for its drivers, arguing that the ride-hailing company has misclassified the workers...more
A New York Post article headlined “Hostile Mega-Lawyer Accused of Abusing Pregnant Wife,” was a fair report of a bitter custody trial, the 2nd Circuit ruled recently. Zappin v. NYP Holdings Inc., 769 F. App’x 5 (2d Cir....more
The English courts have traditionally been a popular forum for defamation claims, not least because English law allows even non-residents who have minimal reputation in the UK to sue for defamation in the English courts and...more
The increasing accessibility of digital media has enabled businesses to become not only readers, but also publishers of their own information and opinions. This in turn requires due consideration of the limits of what can,...more
Press and Journal, Inc. v. Borough of Middletown, Civil Action No. 1:18-CV-2064 (M.D. Pa. 2018) (Borough faces a civil rights claim for retaliation against newspaper for unfavorable press coverage). BACKGROUND - The...more
Late last week, several major news organizations were hit with a ransomware attack believed to involve Ryuk ransomware that affected several Tribune newspapers around the country and two newspapers formerly owned by Tribune....more
We’ve been keeping tabs on the high-profile CEOs who have withdrawn from Saudi Arabia’s coming investment conference over the past few weeks. But pulling out the conference is very different from severing ties with the...more
The ABA Center for Innovation released a survey that will hopefully assist you with determining what resources you, the legal professional, should turn to and how best to access those materials when answering this question:...more
Its not easy running a newspaper these days. Half the country will think you’re fake news and the other half will wonder why you’re even printing stuff on paper anymore (even the picture of the newspapers above makes me think...more
In the past year, allegations of sexual misconduct have regularly made headlines in top news outlets across the United States. The #MeToo movement has encouraged many individuals to make public the details of sometimes...more