TELEVISION
Fine retiring as general manager of WCVB-TV
Bill Fine, one of the most prominent executives in the broadcasting industry, on Thursday announced his plans to retire from WCVB-TV after serving as general manager of the Hearst-owned station for 15 years. Fine, 64, said this retirement has been in the works for about two years, but he wanted to ensure a smooth transition for the next general manager, so he plans on stepping down later this year. Hearst hasn’t named a replacement yet, but it’s likely that the person will come from within the company’s ranks. Fine oversees a team of more than 200 employees at the Needham station. During his tenure, the station has racked up a long list of journalism awards, and played a key role in the community, most recently by helping several nonprofits raise more than $13 million for COVID relief efforts. “The goal is to keep WCVB as this wonderful Boston institution,” Fine said. “It’s not just a television station. It’s an institution.” — JON CHESTO
PHARMACEUTICALS
Sanofi backs off vow to give US access to any COVID-19 vaccine first
French pharmaceutical group Sanofi promised Thursday that it would make its COVID-19 vaccine, when ready, available in all countries, hours after the company’s CEO said the United States will get first access. Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson’s comments that a vaccine would go first to the US prompted an angry reaction from the French government. “Equal access for all to the vaccine is not negotiable,” French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said in a tweet. Hudson told the Bloomberg news agency that the US government has the right to the largest pre-order of an eventual COVID-19 vaccine “because it’s invested in taking the risk.” — ASSOCIATED PRESS
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CRUISE LINES
Carnival to cut jobs, as Norwegian says people are booking cruises again
Carnival Corp. plans to cut jobs, reduce salaries, and shorten work weeks to cope with the pandemic-driven halt of cruising. The job cuts will include furloughs and permanent reductions, according to a statement Thursday from Carnival, the world’s biggest cruise company. Carnival said the cost-cutting moves, which will also hit senior management, will save hundreds of millions of dollars in cash on an annualized basis. Like the rest of the cruise industry, Carnival suspended voyages in mid-March after a series of coronavirus outbreaks on ships led to deaths and mass quarantines. Meanwhile, Norwegian Cruise Line shares climbed Thursday after the company reassured investors that consumers are continuing to book new cruises. CEO Frank Del Rio said most of the bookings were “good old cash bookings,” not just people rescheduling cruises that were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Glut sends US oil to Ireland for storage
A cluster of ships with American oil has been heading to a small terminal in southern Ireland as buyers search for places to store crude in the wake of a global demand slowdown. Since April, four vessels carrying a total 2.4 million barrels of American oil have set sail for the Bantry Bay terminal operated by Zenith Energy Management, according to ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Two of those tankers, which loaded oil on the US Gulf Coast, were originally set for the Netherlands and the UK, but were rerouted to Bantry Bay. The US oil deliveries last month were the first ever for the facility. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
British Airways blasts government reponse to virus
British Airways owner IAG SA said it plans to go ahead with plans to cut up to 12,000 jobs, while its CEO Willie Walsh castigated the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis. The decision to quarantine travelers, along with Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s recent statement that “big, lavish international holidays” likely weren’t be possible this summer, “have seriously set back recovery plans for our industry,” Walsh said in a letter to the chairman of the UK’s transport committee. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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The Russian Coffee Room?
As the land of the samovar, Russia has historically been viewed as a tea-drinking culture. Not any more, according to an industry lobby group which says coffee is now the nation’s preferred hot beverage. Coffee consumption rose 12 percent in Russia last year to 180,000 tons, overtaking tea for the first time, the RusTeaCoffee association said in a newsletter on its website. Demand for tea fell 8.5 percent to 139,000 tons in the same period, it said. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
Free service finds its moment during the pandemic
When the free streaming service Pluto TV launched in 2014, one of its most-watched programs was a YouTube channel from Japan that showed cat videos 24 hours a day. The platform didn’t have the budget for premium content. Even the aging 1960s sitcoms that remain a staple of low-power TV stations were too pricey for the fledgling online business, according to Pluto co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Tom Ryan. “We would have loved to have ‘Gilligan’s Island,’” Ryan said in an interview. It’s a different story today. On May 1, the service, now owned by ViacomCBS Inc., began airing the first five seasons of “The Walking Dead,” the megahit zombie series from cable’s AMC network. It joins a binge-worthy lineup on Pluto that included all of the James Bond films and a channel devoted solely to the reality show “Cops,” which started in March. With the United States and much of the world locked down, no-cost services, which rely on advertising for revenue, see it as their time to shine. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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POST-PANDEMIC
Don’t sidle up to the bar without a reservation
Finding a spot at a bar for a post-pandemic drink will in some cases mean using an app in advance as establishments look for ways to assure patrons they can avoid lines and imbibe at a safe distance. Kind Regards and the Flatiron Room in New York City, Austin’s The Roosevelt Room, and the En Garde Winery in Sonoma, Calif., are among those that have signed on for a reservation service with OpenTable, the online platform said Thursday. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
E-COMMERCE
Amazon making face shields for health care workers
Amazon is mass-producing face shields for health care workers using engineering tools and expertise borrowed from its drone unit, the latest retooling of the retailer’s resources to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The company says it will sell the face shields on its website at cost, at a price to be announced, starting “in the next few weeks.” Amazon has already given some 10,000 units of its newly designed face shields to health care organizations and plans to donate an additional 20,000, Brad Porter, a vice president with the company’s robotics group said in a blog post on Thursday. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
Airbus readies for permanent job cuts
Airbus is preparing for permanent job cuts after warning unions that it needs to rein in production amid a collapse in demand, people with knowledge of the situation said. Discussions have begun with labor groups in Germany, France, and Spain, the people said, with the formal process expected to start next week. The number of positions to be eliminated hasn’t yet been decided, according to the people, who asked not to be named disclosing private information. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Fine retiring as general manager of WCVB-TV - The Boston Globe
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