Mediagazer: Amid the spring pandemic lockdown, people in the book publishing industry say book sales jumped at big-box chains, grocery chains, and pharmacies (Elizabeth A. Harris/New York Times)

Brian Fung / CNN:

Jack Dorsey says Twitter is actively exploring additional ways to make money from its users, including through a subscription model — Washington (CNN Business)Twitter (TWTR) is actively exploring additional ways to make money from its users, including by considering a subscription model, CEO Jack Dorsey said Thursday.

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

Twitter misses Q2 expectations with revenue of $683M, down 19% YoY, but reports 186M mDAUs, up 34% YoY, and ad revenue of $562M, down 23% YoY; stock up 8%+ — - Twitter reported second-quarter earnings Thursday that missed analyst expectations on revenue, but showed strong growth in users.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Input, @twitterir, @twitterir, @twitterir, @twitterir, @twitterir, The Hill, @twitterir, The Wrap, @twitterir, @carnage4life, @twitterir, CoinDesk and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Rachel Abrams / New York Times:

NYT to buy Serial Productions, maker of the podcast Serial for, source says, $25M; NYT also enters marketing and ad sales partnership with This American Life — The Times, capitalizing on the success of its “Daily” podcast, continues an expansion into audio journalism.

Todd Spangler / Variety:

AT&T Q2: WarnerMedia operating revenue fell 22.9% YoY to $6.8B; HBO/HBO Max subscribers grew 5% in H1 2020 to 36.3M; premium TV subscribers shrank 18% YoY — That included a 22.9% plunge in WarnerMedia revenue, which the telco said was partly due to lower content and ad sales related to COVID-19.

Discussion: Variety, Multichannel News, CNN, TechCrunch, The Wrap, MediaPost, The Wrap, @thr, Hollywood Reporter, AdExchanger, Decider and Reuters

Julia Alexander / The Verge:

AT&T says HBO Max has 4M+ customers; users spend 70% more time on HBO Max than on HBO Now, which is available on Roku and Amazon Fire TV — The question is whether those numbers were hurt by ongoing Roku and Amazon deals — HBO Max has signed up more just over four million customers since …

Discussion: /Film and The Streamable

Julia Alexander / The Verge:

TikTok says it is launching a new $200M creators fund to pay creators directly for their content — The first major monetization effort from the company — As TikTok continues to grow in popularity and its personalities become mainstream celebrities in their own right …

Discussion: Newsroom | TikTok, Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch, Reuters, @sarahfrier, @taylorlorenz, @lmatsakis and @apompliano, more at Techmeme »

Sahil Patel / Wall Street Journal:

Sports media company Religion of Sports, co-founded by Tom Brady, Michael Strahan, and Gotham Chopra, raises $10M Series A — Religion of Sports Media Inc. has produced series for Apple, Facebook and Showtime — Religion of Sports Media Inc., a media venture co-founded by NFL legends Tom Brady …

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

Fox says it's sold 90% of its ad inventory in its share of MLB games for the 2020 season, the latest sign that sports will lead TV through the financial crisis — Baseball advertising appears to have pivoted from a months-long slump to hitting above average.

Discussion: CNN, MediaPost, @ourand_sbj, @dianepavlick, CNBC, Sports Business Daily and Adweek

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Daily Mail owner DMGT: ad revenue fell 45% YoY and circulation revenue 12% YoY in 3 months to June 30 with an operating loss of £2M vs. £22M profit last year — The Mail titles returned to profit in June but saw revenue down 30% in the second quarter of the year.

Discussion: @pressgazette

Anthony D'Alessandro / Deadline:

AMC Theatres again delays reopening to mid-to-late August in the US, but says one third of its cinemas in Europe and the Middle East are open — Just because Warner Bros. took Christopher Nolan's Tenet temporarily off the release schedule doesn't mean that the No. 1 theater chain isn't going to reopen.

Discussion: Variety, The Playlist and Vanity Fair

Tom Kludt / Vanity Fair:

Sports journalists describe experiencing and chronicling the unprecedented NBA bubble, the strict restrictions on access, Zoom press conferences, and more — With a frat party-meets-biopshere vibe, quarantining in Disney is a once-in-a-lifetime assignment—and a precarious one, as an outbreak could cost billions.

Discussion: @ben_espn, @tomkludt, Deez Links and @tomkludt

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Plex launches 80+ free live TV channels accessible by both free users and subscribers with news, sports, film, classic TV, comedy, anime, and more — Streaming media platform Plex announced today it's further expanding into live TV with the addition of over 80 free live TV channels accessible by free users and subscribers alike.

Discussion: The Streamable, Gizmodo Australia and Plex, more at Techmeme »