Julia Boorstin in her article for CNBC covered the recent furloughing of at least 43,000 workers, mostly in the theme park division of the company.  Many estimates place the number closer to 100,000 workers which means a substantial number of the company’s employees will be without pay for an extensive amount of time.  Disney is now facing strong criticism as their contemporaries which include NBCUniversal and AT&T’s WarnerMedia have yet to furlough or even lay off any of their employees.  The article points out that more then one-third of the company’s revenue alone comes its parks and resorts.  This contrasts Disney’s competition which has a far less substantial stake in the theme park business.  NBCUniversal for example only accounts five percent of the company’s revenue as coming from its theme parks.  Despite this, the article makes evident that Disney’s market capitalization is $185 billion which puts the company in the position of appearing greedy and out of touch with the needs of their army of workers.  With their theme parks not opening potentially until next year, this move will obviously have a detrimental affect on the tens of thousands of employees who rely on the company to make ends meet. 

I found this article to be compelling for its analytical breakdown in terms of hard statistics regarding why Disney made the decision to furlough a significant portion of its workers.  Its unfortunate to say the least that the company was not able to work out some form of compensation for their dedicated employees who in their time of need are being left by the wayside. 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/20/why-disney-is-furloughing-workers-and-the-other-media-giants-arent.html

In his article for The Hill, Chris Mills Rodrigo covered the recent bill introduced by GOP lawmakers which would make it mandatory for apps considered to be national security threats to place warnings in their user interface.  Specifically, apps like TikTok and FaceApp that are linked to China and Russia respectively, would be forced to warn users of the dangers of using said applications inside the United States.  Representative Jim Banks stated that “some phone apps are fun and useful, others are counterintelligence threats”.  He went on to say “Americans should know which is which before they hit the download button. Parents and consumers have a right to a warning that by downloading some apps like Russia’s FaceApp or China’s TikTok, their data may be used against the United States by an adversarial or enemy regime.”  Countries including Venezuela, Syria, Sudan, Iran, and North Korea would also be forced to include warnings on their published applications.  TikTok has responded to the bills introduction by stating “While we think the concerns about TikTok are unfounded, we understand them and are continuing to further strengthen our safeguards while increasing our dialogue with lawmakers to help explain our policies”. 

 I found this article to be particularly interesting as it demonstrated the growing concern among lawmakers in the United States about apps developed by nations considered to be adversarial to the interests of this country.  As apps such as TikTok have exploded in popularity over the past year, calls for regulation of some kind have increased substantially as the reality of American data being used by rival nations increases in likelihood.

 https://thehill.com/policy/technology/493887-gop-rep-introduces-bill-to-put-warnings-on-tiktok-faceapp

In an article for BBC, streaming giant Netflix recently announced to shareholders that the company saw a massive boost in subscriptions as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown currently affecting nearly every stretch of the globe.  The company stated that they brought in sixteen million new subscriptions in the first three months of 2020, an impressive number by all estimates.  Last year during the same period the streaming service saw roughly half of the number of new subscriptions they are seeing now.  Not only that, but the company has seen their stock price gain thirty percent in value in this year alone.  Obviously with people stuck inside constantly the demand for in home entertainment has gone up considerably as a result.  Netflix also has the benefit of a strong list of content and trendy shows like Tiger King which have surely helped to bolster intertest in the platform.  Interestingly, the article stated that the highest growth for the company in this quarter was seen in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. 

This article was interesting in that it highlighted an example of a company that is flourishing as a result of the pandemic currently uplifting nearly every aspect of normalcy around the globe.  However, the article did point out that with production on hold for nearly every studio, it remains to be seen if the delay in new content will have a negative effect on the streaming services momentum once the lockdowns are eventually lifted.  It will also be interesting to see how the other major players in the streaming wars fare as a result of the pandemic. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52376022

The president of AT&T John Stankey stated that as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic consumer behavior will be permanently altered.  In his article for CNBC, Kevin Stankiewicz reports that the far-reaching consequences of the pandemic have yet to be fully understood and consumer behavior will inevitably shift as a result according to Stankey.  He also made it clear that these impacts will not just affect companies like AT&T but also nearly every player in the business landscape.  Stankey argued that these unprecedented last few weeks have shown the incredible value of connectivity and the important role it will continue to play in consumers lives going forward.  Services like Zoom, despite coming under fire for privacy issues recently, have demonstrated that technology has the potential to give our lives a sense of business as usual and normalcy despite the circumstances.  Stankey in the same interview also pointed out  that this health crisis has further shown consumers seemingly insatiable desire for more content and stories to engage with.  He states that this will impact the entertainment industry in unforeseen ways in the coming months and years. 

This article for me was eye opening in that it helped me to put in perspective how far reaching the consequences of this pandemic will be in the future.  Nearly every aspect of life has been changed in some way as a result of the virus sweeping across the globe.  It will be interesting to see in the coming weeks as life slowly returns to normal what aspects of life will be changed as a result of COVID-19. 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/01/atts-stankey-consumer-behavior-will-be-changed-from-coronavirus.html

In their article for The New York Times, Tiffany Hsu and Marc Tracy cover the coronavirus global pandemic and the effect the stay at home orders are having on local newspapers across the country.  COVID-19, the virus that originated in Wuhan, China and has now swept across the globe is having devastating consequences on local economies which includes daily papers struggling to hang on.  One example of this that the article covers is in St. Louis Missouri where a paper known as the Riverfront Times tries to cope with the global health crisis.  The already struggling paper apparently knew they were in dire trouble when the local restaurants that provide the organization with advertising revenue began shutting down as a result of government containment efforts.  The loss of local events that provide sponsorship money for small papers such as the Riverfront Times have decimated these small businesses revenue streams and threaten to end their publications once and for all.  With lay offs across many of these local publications, newspaper owners are looking for creative ways to help stimulate life into their businesses. 

While I find this news to be incredibly sad and disheartening to learn how far reaching the COVID 19 virus’s affects are on our economy, I am not at all surprised.  With digital news completely overtaking print media in recent years, small newspapers have been playing catch up to try and remain relevant for years now.  All it took was one massive and unpredictable financial downturn to serve as the final nail in the coffin for many of these small businesses.