Daily Pulse: A Battle for National Geographic's Soul, Oil Could Reach $20 a Barrel

Will Nat Geo be better off with Fox? You could hear a collective groan in media and science-loving circles when it was announced that National Geographic magazine would 1) become a for-profit after 127 years operating as a non-profit and 2) be 73% owned, in a $725 million deal, by 21st Century Fox, which means Rupert Murdoch. The legendary publication dedicated to science and the wonders of the natural world in the hands of a self-described “skeptic” of anthropogenic climate change -- what could go wrong?

In the con column, fears that the magazine could never run a cover like this again or that at best it’ll scrape the bottom in search of sales, more Shark Week than science education. In the pro? NatGeo needs the money. Like all media outlets, it needs to operate its digital transformation and cope with a loss of subscribers. If we’re honest with ourselves, the institutions whose loss we mourn, we’ve rarely supported when they were around. Some point out that James Murdoch, not Rupert, runs Fox now, and that his environmentalist credentials are legit. Others that The Wall Street Journal has been under Murdoch ownership for seven years and that those fears have not come to pass. (In the con column, it’s also losing a lot of money.) Time will tell.

Author’s note: On purpose or not, the announcement coincided with the publication of a story that epitomizes the best of what National Geographic can be: the gripping narrative of the discovery of a new hominide species in South Africa that could upend all we know of our origins -- with science backed by the National Geographic Society. (The Society remains a non-profit and will retain half the votes on the media group’s board.) Read it.

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Oil prices aren’t going up anytime soon, seems to be the consensus. OPEC officials told The Wall Street Journal they see the Brent remaining between $40 and $50 through the end of the year, and generally low for at least the next six months. Chinese demand is tapering while production remains high -- and could soon prove higher as the Iran deal cleared the Senate yesterday. Saudi Arabia -- the de facto leader of OPEC -- dismissed the idea of holding an emergency oil summit since it’s got the best chances of being the last one standing in a price war… Goldman Sachs doesn’t see an end to it and its analysts predict oil prices could drop, albeit briefly, as low as $20 a barrell.

Because an image is worth a thousand words, and I’ve already written 130, here’s what that looks like:

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No, really, Uber… Uber got rebuffed again in California when arguing that its drivers are contractors, not employees. A former driver was granted unemployment benefits by the California Employment Development Department, a decision that was upheld twice by appellate authorities. The EED argued there was a hierarchical link between Uber and its driver — Uber enforces rules, establishes fares and can discipline drivers — so that "there was in fact an employer/employee relationship."

This follows a decision by a San Francisco judge last week to grant class-action status to drivers seeking to be requalified as employees. A judge in Florida, another case before the EED and the California Labor Commission all opted for “employee.” Eight states, including California, have handed decisions on the “contractor” side of the debate, however. Nothing is settled yet.  

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#Quote

"No more douchey companies, please. We don't have the time, or the patience, for them anymore."
- NewCo CEO John Battelle in a, er, spirited post about why Silicon Valley isn't actually like HBO's "Silicon Valley"

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• Missed the last update? Then check out John C. Abell's 'Pao Drops her Appeal, Clear Sailing for the Iran Nuclear Deal, The Return of Brian Williams'
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Photo: Guests tour the visitor center at the Flight 93 National Memorial on September 10, 2015 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The newly opened $26 million visitor center complex was dedicated in honor of the victims of Flight 93 on the eve of the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)