Meanwhile. . .

 7 Abandoned Towns Where You Can Step Into the Past

Nation -  Everywhere you look, the culture industry is shrinking. It’s a moment when the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike only cracks the top 10 list of things going wrong. In the last two weeks, a perfect storm of industry trends converged to reshape the experience of dramatic entertainment—decisively for the worse. The Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles canceled its 2023–24 theater season and laid off 10 percent of its staff, citing $8–9 million annual shortfalls in fundraising, and an audience that has not come back since the pandemic. Paramount+’s merger with Showtime brought not only the cancellation of several shows but also their wholesale removal from its platform, for the sake of tax write-offs. Then, WB Discovery continued its companywide crop burn by laying off top executives at the beloved cable channel Turner Classics Movies.

As its fiscal year comes to an end on June 30, New York Public Radio is facing an $8 million deficit, which is causing the parent company of news/talk combo WNYC-AM/FM to institute a hiring freeze and eliminate bonuses for the senior leadership team.