 ☊ Audio Spooky, scary: Max sat down with Ashley Flowers, host of the seminal true crime podcast “Crime Junkie,” at Cannes Lions last month for a Q&A about brand safety and what it’s like working with SiriusXM. One highlight of their discussion: Max: You approach very sensitive subjects and subjects that often can be very upsetting. I know you said you said you try to approach it with some sensitivity and a sense of purpose and activism. But the subjects that you’re talking about, crime, can be very political. So I’m curious how you navigate not contributing to a climate of fear around crime? Ashley: The climate of fear around the content for us goes back to education. It’s not saying, “Everyone needs to be terrified all the time.” But there is this element, we call it “paranoid.” Some of you might seem a little a little paranoid, but you’re prepared. The world is what it is. But here are the tools. Here’s the things you need to know, to better arm yourself. And I mean, we had literally just got this email a couple of days ago from a listener. We did an episode on online scams. And she wrote in and said that 30 seconds after she finished the episode, she got a call. That was the exact scam that we did an episode on. And she’s like, I would have never known otherwise. And so we don’t go there with like, the world is terrible, lock your doors, don’t go out, hide your kids, hide your wife, none of that stuff. But if you can make people feel empowered, then it’s a completely different spin. ⁛ NewsNo to RTO: While most newsrooms have long since reopened their offices for at least a few days a week, staff at the LA Times are continuing to resist the paper’s attempts to mandate their return. Last week, unionized staffers in the newsroom circulated a document titled “Return To Office Mandate Refusal Pledge,” which said that requiring staff to return to the office two days a week is a “major change to our working conditions” and should be a part of the union’s ongoing contract bargaining with the paper. The Guild instructed unionized staff not to comply with the paper’s two-day-a-week RTO mandate. “I commit to holding management accountable and ensuring they respect the bargaining process. I will continue to work from home or occasionally from the office based on what makes the most sense for my job, as my colleagues have for the last several years, until we have agreed upon the terms of a new contract,” the Guild pledge said. ⁋ PublishingSkimm possible: The Daily Mail Group has held talks recently about buying the Skimm. One person familiar with the talks told Semafor that the Mail has been interested in the digital media company’s strong, largely female audience and its newsletter offerings. The Skimm and DMG declined to comment. | 
