Entertainment
Andrew Morse Steps Down as Atlanta Journal-Constitution Publisher
Atlanta Journal-Constitution president and publisher Andrew Morse will leave the Georgia newspaper next month, ending a three-year term that saw him try to bring the state’s flagship publication into the modern age by bolstering its digital subscriptions and ending its print edition.
Morse shared the news in a staff meeting on Monday. Paul Curran, an executive at parent company Cox Enterprises’ Cox Media, will succeed Morse as president and publisher at the end of June.
“The AJC is essential to how Atlanta and the Southeast stay informed, engaged, and connected,” Curran said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to help advance Cox’s longstanding commitment to serving our communities through balanced, independent journalism. As we continue the AJC’s digital transformation, my priority will be empowering our journalists and evolving our products so even more readers turn to us for trusted news and understanding.”
Morse joined the newspaper in 2023, setting a goal to grow the Journal-Constitution’s digital subscriber base from 53,000 to roughly 500,000 by the end of 2026. The paper ended its print edition at the end of last year, and it currently has just over 100,000 digital subscribers, according to NPR.
“We set a very ambitious goal,” Morse told NPR. “It’s still very achievable based on the size of this market and the pace of our growth. What’s changed is the timing.”
Morse said he decided to step down to spend more time with his New York-based family, pointing to three years of commuting up the East Coast. “I needed to make a difficult personal decision to make a change,” he told NPR.
“We have been on a great journey with the AJC … trying to transform a really proud, storied daily newspaper into a modern media company,” Morse added. “The decision for me is really bittersweet.”
Cox Enterprises CEO Alex Taylor noted in another statement that the Journal-Constitution remains “an integral part of Atlanta’s story.”
“Good journalism makes us stronger as a community by holding public leaders accountable and helping all of us make sense of a changing world,” he said. “We embrace our responsibility to carry that legacy forward and invest in the next generation of journalists and readers, and we know Paul shares this commitment.”
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Entertainment
Trump Stops Speech to Survey Crowd on Possible Vance-Rubio 2028 Faceoff
Donald Trump stopped his speech at a White House event to take an impromptu poll regarding the 2028 presidential election, asking attendees to weigh in on two possible candidates.
During his speech at Monday’s Rose Garden Club Dinner, Trump stopped his address to survey the room to see if they supported Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a possible run for president.
“Who’s it going to be? Is it going to be JD?” the president noted after bemoaning about California Governor Gavin Newsom and his potential bid for president. “Is it going to be somebody else? I don’t know … Okay, let’s go. You ready? Who likes JD Vance?”
After the crowd burst out into applause at the mention of the vice president, Trump asked a follow up question: “Who likes Marco Rubio?”
This question also prompted a round of applause, inspiring Trump to suggest the two politicians could make decent running mates.
“All right, sounds like a good ticket … That was a perfect ticket,” Trump went on. “By the way, I do believe that’s a dream team, but these are minor details. That does not mean you have my endorsement under any circumstance.”
Additionally, Trump doubled down on his criticism of Governor Newsom, once again bringing up the California democrat’s learning disability. Specifically, Trump claimed Newsom called himself “a stupid person” for opening up about his life long struggle with dyslexia, adding, “He got bad test marks. He got bad this. He got bad that. He can’t read a speech.”
“He’s not a smart person,” Trump said. “He said, ‘I’m dumb just like all the people in this room.’ And now he was accused of being a racist … This guy, what he said is so bad. It was the worst interview I’ve ever seen by a professional politician.”
Watch the full speech below.
The president’s comments, which echoed a sentiment he shared back in March, appeared to reference backlash Newsom faced for telling a predominantly Black crowd at an Atlanta book event that he wasn’t “trying to impress [them]” before sharing his poor test scores.
“I’m no better than you,” the governor told Mayor Andre Dickens at the time. He later brought up his low SAT score, noting “Literally a 960 SAT guy, you’ve never seen me read a speech. Because I cannot read a speech. Maybe the wrong business to be in.”
Newsom called Trump “a brain-dead moron who bombs children and protects pedophiles” in response to the criticism in March.
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movies
SAG-AFTRA Board Approves AMPTP Deal
SAG-AFTRA‘s national board is recommending the guild’s latest contract with the major studios to its full membership for ratification.
The board “decisively” approved the deal, tentatively sealed earlier this month, on Monday, per the union. SAG-AFTRA did not specify how the vote shook out. Now, the membership will need to vote.
Among the provisions in the new TV/Theatrical agreement, the parties agreed to merge the SAG-Producers Pension Plan and AFTRA Retirement Fund with an additional 1% to the contribution rate effective on the target completion date of January 1, 2028. The agreement also bolsters AI protections, specifically around consent and compensation, and establishes minimum rate increases.
Additionally, the agreement builds on our existing guidelines around AI including new provisions strengthening consent and compensation and establishing new and enhanced guardrails on synthetics including:
The full summary of the tentative agreement can be read HERE.
The actors union managed to reach a new agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers just one week into resumed talks. After negotiations began on February 9, the parties had previously paused to make way for the WGA in March. Both guild and union sources had told Deadline that they were not far off from a deal, but a few key issues — including regarding AI measures — still needed to be ironed out.
As we reported earlier, labor sources told us SAG-AFTRA has received a “sizable” contribution to its pension fund from the AMPTP. This follows the WGA, which similarly agreed to an extended-length contract with the studios and streamers last month in its own negotiations, accepting a multi-million contribution to its ailing healthcare plan. As with the WGA, there were a series of AI “guardrail” measures put in place between the SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP parties.
SAG-AFTRA has not yet released the full deal. Details are expected upon ratification.
The labor news will keep on coming as the DGA steps up to the plate. The Christopher Nolan-led organization sat down with the AMPTP May 11 to begin bargaining.
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Entertainment
SAG-AFTRA Reveals Details of 4-Year Agreement With Studios, Including Merged Pension Plan
Following approval from its national board, SAG-AFTRA has released the details of its tentative bargaining agreement with Hollywood studios and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which like the one ratified by the Writers Guild of America will last four years instead of the usual three.
As part of the agreement, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP have agreed to merge the SAG-Producers Pension Plan and AFTRA Retirement Fund into a single merged plan with an additional 1% to the studio contribution rate. The merge is expected to be completed by January 1, 2028, nearly 16 years after SAG and AFTRA merged in 2012.
On the AI front, the union touted new and expanded guardrails regarding “synthetic performers,” the term used for performers created completely from generative AI that are not replicas of a specific performer. SAG-AFTRA says that the deal is based on a principle “strongly favoring human performances” and includes a memorandum of understanding stating that producers do not intend to use synthetic performers in a human role unless it would bring “significant additional value” to the motion picture.
Beyond synthetic performers, new language has been added to the contract forbidding producers from using a digital replica of a performer to replace them during a strike and requiring them to have an “articulable business reason” to scan someone for a digital replica to begin with. Further protections for digital replicas of minors were also negotiated.
“This contract is a testament to the incredible unity and determination of our members, and I am proud to deliver an agreement that results in meaningful gains across the board, from benefit plans to artificial intelligence to residuals, and beyond,” national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said in a statement.
SAG-AFTRA was the first union to begin negotiations back in February, and held talks with the AMPTP for five weeks before pausing to allow the studios to begin their talks with the Writers Guild. The two sides returned to the negotiating table on April 27 and announced their tentative deal on May 2.
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