Mediagazer: Nexstar, which owns the most US TV stations, says it will sell ads based on impressions instead of ratings, following similar announcements from NBCU and Hearst (Brian Steinberg/Variety)

2:15 PM ET, October 28, 2019

Top News:

Deep dive inside Condé Nast amid years of drama, downsizing, and shakeups sheds light on Anna Wintour and others' struggle to revert falling influence and sales — “It's dreadful,” Anna Wintour said in early October, looking out the south-facing windows of her 25th-floor office …

Discussion: @kerrymflynn, @petersterne, @sruthijith, @lisatozzi, @teri_ktm, @chaykak, @tomgara, @mradamtaylor, @buzzfeedben, @leonoraepstein, @eiffeltyler, @cd_hooks, @simonowens and @kerrymflynn

Dade Hayes / Deadline:

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson says the company forecasts that HBO Max will reach 50M US subscribers in its first five years after launching next spring — HBO Max will reach 50 million U.S. subscribers in its first five years after launching next spring, according to a forecast issued Monday …

Discussion: CNBC, Business Insider, Variety and @dadehayes

Wall Street Journal:

AT&T reaches a truce with activist investor Elliott Management, agrees to regular share buybacks, new directors, no more major M&A, and more in three year plan — Elliott had challenged telecom giant's strategy; AT&T commits to regular share buybacks, plans to avoid major acquisitions

Discussion: Variety, Variety, Reuters, CNBC, Business Insider, Fox Business, CityAM, Ars Technica, The Verge, Bloomberg, Deadline, The Verge, @xpangler and New York Times

Dade Hayes / Deadline:
AT&T lost 195K AT&T Now customers and 1.2M premium TV subscribers in Q3, reports revenues of $44.6B, says Randall Stephenson will stay on as CEO in 2020

Discussion: @lucas_shaw, @reckless, @pkafka, @reckless, Hollywood Reporter and AT&T

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
AT&T says it will sell its majority stake in Central European Media Enterprises to Czech investment firm PPF Group for $1.1B in cash, shedding $575M in debt

Discussion: The Wrap, Deadline and Hollywood Reporter

Justine Coleman / The Hill:

WaPo drew backlash for its digital headline on an obit of ISIS's Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, calling him an “austere religious scholar”; the headline has been changed — The Washington Post changed the headline on its obituary for ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after initially calling him an …

Discussion: @kriscoratti, Washington Post, Fox News, The Wrap, CNN, New York Times, The Wrap, Newser, Washington Examiner, The Daily Beast, Mediaite, Fox News and Fox News

Theodore Schleifer / Vox:

Spotify says its CFO Barry McCarthy, who pioneered the direct listing model for IPOs, is leaving in January and will rejoin Spotify's board — Spotify CFO Barry McCarthy is leaving the company in January. — Barry McCarthy, the pioneer behind a novel method to take companies public …

Discussion: @teddyschleifer and New York Times

Spotify:

Spotify Q3: paid subs rose 31% YoY to 113M; MAUs grew 30% YoY to 248M; revenue up 28% YoY to €1.73B; net income of €241M, up from €43M in Q3 '18; stock up 16%+ — NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)— Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) today reported financial results for the third fiscal quarter …

Discussion: Variety, AdExchanger, @ncsh, Hollywood Reporter, Engadget, @teddyschleifer, @claireatki, @brettbivens, VentureBeat, @matt and Reuters, more at Techmeme »

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Nvidia unveils new $149 Shield TV and $199 Shield TV Pro with a faster Tegra X1+ processor, AI-based 4K upscaling, Dolby Vision HDR, and Dolby Atmos support — Nvidia has a new family of Android TV-based streaming devices, as tipped early via a couple of leaks from online stores.

Discussion: The Streamable, VentureBeat and Variety, more at Techmeme »

Ben Lindbergh / The Ringer:

With WaPo's new vertical Launcher, mainstream coverage of video games may finally overcome the “generational myopia” that excluded gaming from culture sections — With its new vertical Launcher, The Washington Post is the latest big outlet to dedicate resources to covering video games in a comprehensive manner.

Discussion: @genepark and @latoyapeterson

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Nexstar, which owns the most US TV stations, says it will sell ads based on impressions instead of ratings, following similar announcements from NBCU and Hearst — The nation's largest owner of television stations said it intends to drop the use of traditional TV ratings as the basis for advertising deals …

Discussion: TVWeek.com, MediaPost, Deadline and Nexstar Media Group, Inc.

Judd Legum / Popular Information:

How Ben Shapiro's massively popular right-wing site The Daily Wire gets promoted in an inauthentic, coordinated manner by 14 Facebook pages followed by millions — This is the online version of the Popular Information newsletter. You can get independent accountability journalism in your inbox every week.

Discussion: @juddlegum, @juddlegum, @oliverdarcy, @oliverdarcy and @juddlegum, more at Techmeme »

Nieman Lab:

Reuters Institute: how Rappler, Daily Maverick, and The Quint are retreating from engaging audiences at-scale via social media to build stronger communities — Dramatic shifts in the media landscape over the past two decades — including the advent of social media, the rise of participatory audiences …

Discussion: @risj_oxford, @membershippzzle, @risj_oxford, @emgollie, @_felixsimon_ and @andrewhaeg

The Guardian:

BBC presenter Samira Ahmed launches equal pay case, says she was paid £440/episode for Newswatch while Jeremy Vine was paid £3,000/show for Points of View — Presenter claims being paid one-sixth of Jeremy Vine's pay amounts to unfair treatment