Top News:
Reeves Wiedeman / New York Magazine:
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 …
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, Variety, Variety and @dadehayes
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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, The Drum, The Verge, Ars Technica, Fox Business, Reuters, CityAM, Business Insider, @xpangler, Bloomberg, Deadline, CNBC, New York Times and Variety, more at Techmeme »
Todd Spangler / Variety:
AT&T says it will spend $1.5B-$2B on HBO Max in 2020 and $1B per year in both 2021 and 2022, expects profitability in year four — AT&T is telling investors it has the intestinal fortitude to win in the streaming wars — even as its traditional TV business continues to crumble.
Maxwell Tani / The Daily Beast:
G/O Media memo to staff says “Deadspin will write only about sports” and to focus 100% of resources on sports; the site also covered politics, culture, and more — Sports—and sports alone—must be “the sole focus” of the website, new management said Monday in a memo obtained by The Daily Beast.
Discussion:
@russbengtson, @beyondreasdoubt, @revrrlewis, @icehockeystick, @_shireenahmed_, @passionweiss, @thescibabe and @ashleyfeinberg
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Kelsey Mckinney / @mckinneykelsey:
Deadspin writer says G/O Media management removed a letter to the readers from Deadspin staff that criticised the recent addition of autoplay videos to the site — Here is the post that G/O leadership has now removed from all of our sites without warning. Please continue to send emails to g-omediafeedback@googlegroups.com https://twitter.com/...
Discussion:
@gmgunion, Deadspin, @mckinneykelsey and @ashleyfeinberg
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, @aravosis, @kevinroose, @juddlegum, @oliverdarcy, @oliverdarcy and @zeynep, more at Techmeme »
Matthew De Silva / Quartz:
Spotify says 14% of MAUs listen to podcasts, podcast hours streamed grew 39% QoQ, and podcast engagement is driving increases in free to paid conversion — Spotify's stock price leaped 15% today (Oct. 28) as the music streaming service delivered a surprise profit for its third quarter.
Discussion:
CNBC and Complete Music Update
RELATED:
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 says its CFO Barry McCarthy, who pioneered the direct listing model for IPOs, is leaving in January and will rejoin Spotify's board
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 YoY; stock closes up 16%
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 YoY; stock closes up 16%
Discussion:
Variety, @ncsh, AdExchanger, @teddyschleifer, @claireatki, @brettbivens, @matt, Bloomberg, Reuters, VentureBeat, Engadget and Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »
Piya Sinha-Roy / Hollywood Reporter:
Netflix says it's testing a feature to allow users to speed up or slow down content on their phones, attracting criticism from filmmakers including Judd Apatow — Viewers can increase or slow down the speed of Netflix shows and movies on their smartphones.
Discussion:
The Playlist, The Wrap, The Guardian, @bradbirda113 and @juddapatow
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
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
NBCUniversal launches its ShoppableTV ad unit, which displays QR codes during TV shows that take viewers to ecommerce sites, across its unscripted programming — NBCUniversal has been testing out a new ad unit that allows viewers to buy — directly from their phone — products featured on the show they're watching.
Discussion:
Broadcasting & Cable and Editor & Publisher Magazine
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:
MediaPost, Deadline, TVWeek.com and Nexstar Media Group, Inc.