Mediagazer: Spotify says its CFO Barry McCarthy, who pioneered the direct listing model for IPOs, is leaving in January and will rejoin Spotify's board (Theodore Schleifer/Vox)

11:10 AM ET, October 28, 2019

Top News:

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 and Variety

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 — AT&T delivered a mixed bag of third-quarter results, beating Wall Street estimates for adjusted earnings per share by a penny but falling short of revenue expectations.

Discussion: New York Times, Hollywood Reporter, @reckless, @pkafka, @reckless 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 — AT&T has struck a deal to sell its majority stake in Central European Media Enterprises for $1.1 billion as part …

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, Newser, CNN, New York Times, USA Today, The Wrap, 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 — Barry McCarthy at a conference for other dealmakers. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images — Spotify's CFO Barry McCarthy is leaving the company in January.

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, VentureBeat, @teddyschleifer, @claireatki, @ncsh, Reuters, Hollywood Reporter and Engadget, 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.

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

Discussion: Press Gazette, @mrjohnnicolson, @floellabenjamin and @davidlammy

Fred Nicolaus / Business of Home:

Profile of Food52, a media and ecommerce platform majority-owned by The Chernin Group that began as a recipe blog and now sells a wide range of home products — Summer is wedding season, but summer's over. This autumn, it's media companies that are getting married.

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Trump's South Lawn press gaggles, of which there have been 75, allow him to grab the spotlight while marginalizing the press — A great racket rises, like a symphony of a thousand hedge trimmers, from the South Lawn of the White House. A shambling pack of men and women …

Deanna Ting / Digiday:

In Q3, Snapchat says total daily time spent on Discover increased by 40% YoY and 100+ Discover channels saw a monthly audience of more than 10M viewers — What was once a money pit for some publishers is now becoming more of a gold mine. — Snapchat Discover has become a profitable venture …

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

RAJAR: podcasts now reach 8.4M listeners in the UK, up from 6M in 2018, with 7.4M people listening to the BBC online or through apps — LBC's audience has grown by almost 500,000 people in the past year to reach 2.6m, the highest weekly reach in the station's 46-year history.