Average Delivery Time Across Postal Service Network Remains Stable

Ballantine Communications Inc. has signed a deal to acquire The Farmington (New Mexico) Daily Times from Gannett, effective June 1. Terms have not been disclosed. Ballantine plans to merge the Tri-City Record, which it founded last year to cover the Aztec, Bloomfield and Farmington communities., with the Farmington Daily Times, the latter reports. Gannett has sold numerous papers to local owners. Gannett purchased the Daily Times in 2015.

Costco Wholesale Corporation announced its operating results for the first quarter (twelve weeks) of fiscal 2021, ended November 22, 2020. Net sales for the first quarter increased 16.9 percent, to $42.35 billion from $36.24 billion last year. Net income for the quarter was $1,166 million, or $2.62 per diluted share, compared to $844 million, or $1.90 per diluted share, last year. This year’s first quarter included tax benefits of $145 million or $0.33 per diluted share, $0.16 of which was due to the deductibility of the $10 per share special cash dividend, to the extent received by the Company’s 401(k) plan participants; and $0.17 cents related to stock-based compensation. Last year’s first quarter included a $77 million or $0.17 per diluted share tax benefit related to stock-based compensation. This year’s results reflect an expense for COVID-19 premium wages of $212 million pre-tax or $0.35 per diluted share.

A group of 10 organizations, including The Associated Press and Gannett, is calling for a legal framework to protect journalism from unregulated AI use. In an open letter titled, “Preserving public trust in media through unified AI regulation and practices,” the signees advocate regulatory and industry action to ensure: *Transparency about the makeup of training sets used to create AI models. *Consent of intellectual property rights holders on copying of their content in training data. *Ability of media companies to collectively negotiate with AI model developers about use of their intellectual property. *Requiring that generative AI models identify AI-generated content. *Mandating that generative AI model providers eliminate bias and misinformation.