Top News:
Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
NYT Opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury explains her digital-first focus and more: “you can be provocative, but you shouldn't be provocative by accident” — Kathleen Kingsbury took the reins at The New York Times' opinion section at an especially fraught moment.
Discussion:
Raju Narisetti / @raju: “Opinion is going to be a place where debate is elevated and ideas will be pressure-tested and audiences will hear from people they agree and disagree with.” @nytimes newly elevated opinion editor @katiekings on reimagining opinion journalism https://www.niemanlab.org/... @NiemanLab
Mara Ramrez con / @mariaramirezny: Another example of how volume is not the answer 👇 https://twitter.com/...
Laura Hazard Owen / @laurahazardowen: The @nytimes reduced its Opinion output by 25% — and saw pageviews for the section increase, @katiekings tells @SarahScire https://www.niemanlab.org/...
Keith J. Kelly / New York Post: NY Times spikes column that criticized paper's handling of N-word controversy
RELATED:
Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
In a staff meeting, NYT Executive Editor Dean Baquet retracts a recent statement that the news outlet does not “tolerate racist language regardless of intent” — New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet on Thursday rolled back a controversial standard regarding the use of racial epithets at the newspaper.
Discussion:
@studentactivism, @marcatracy, @studentactivism, @tripgabriel, @studentactivism, @studentactivism, @tripgabriel, @gerrycanavan, @studentactivism, @nhannahjones, @tripgabriel, @studentactivism, @studentactivism, @studentactivism, @byronyork, @jeremymbarr, @nhannahjones, @nhannahjones, @nhannahjones, @katierogers, @benyt, Mediaite and The Wrap
Discussion:
Angus Johnston / @studentactivism: Four times. The column used the n-word (in the context of a quote) four times. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Marc Tracy / @marcatracy: Statement from the unit chair of the New York Times union. Key part: As Donald McNeil and Andy Mills both reached settlements with company, Guild was not directly involved; letter from employees was not sent under Guild imprimatur. https://twitter.com/...
Angus Johnston / @studentactivism: This is really well said, and it reflects the evolution of my own views on the topic. https://twitter.com/...
Trip Gabriel / @tripgabriel: Dean Baquet addresses Donald McNeil episode on NYT in-house broadcast: “Of course intent matters,” he says, reversing a statement about McNeil earlier from top brass that “We do not tolerate racist language, regardless of intent.” 1/
Angus Johnston / @studentactivism: I've asked Byers to clarify, but as I read this tweet, it seems that Bret Stephens included an unredacted use of the n-word in his column this week to make a point, and the column got spiked—maybe as a result? https://twitter.com/...
Angus Johnston / @studentactivism: Would Don McNeil have been fired if he hadn't quit? We don't know. Why don't we know? BECAUSE HE QUIT.
Trip Gabriel / @tripgabriel: “...It was a deadline mistake, and I regret it. Of course intent matters when we're talking about language and journalism...The author and his or her history and purpose also matter. The moment matters.” 3/3
Gerry Canavan / @gerrycanavan: One of the things my students have taught me in recent years is that my standard for what constitutes “gratuitous” may be far higher than theirs and in fact at this point it may be that all white “mention” of racial slurs is becoming, or already just is, “use.” https://twitter.com/...
Angus Johnston / @studentactivism: It was gratuitous. And the gratuitous use of racial slurs is vile. To put it another way, the gratuitous use of racial slurs is USE. Not “mention,” use.
Ida Bae Wells / @nhannahjones: One can argue whether McNeil should have resigned or not — he was not fired — but one cannot justify using that word in that context or pretend that finding a Black reporter saying it, writing it, is somehow the same as a white person. The history and context matters.
Trip Gabriel / @tripgabriel: “Look, in our zeal to make a powerful statement about our workplace culture we ham-handedly said something that some of you rightly saw as threatening our journalism. It was an oversimplification of one of the most difficult issues in American life....” 2/
Angus Johnston / @studentactivism: I find that distinction a useful one myself, but here's the thing that folks like Bret need to remember: IT'S NOT A MAGIC WAND.
Angus Johnston / @studentactivism: Stephens and folks like him tend to lean heavily on something called the “use-mention distinction,” which is the principle that using a word yourself isn't the same as quoting someone else using it.
Angus Johnston / @studentactivism: Also, just to reiterate: The reporter at the center of the original scandal, Donald McNeil, WAS NOT FIRED. He was reprimanded privately, and quit when the story became public.
Byron York / @byronyork: Thread. Times management has acted foolishly here. Said clearly they would ‘not tolerate racist language, regardless of intent.’ Have now backtracked to say they *will* tolerate racist language, just that they'll decide when. https://twitter.com/...
Jeremy Barr / @jeremymbarr: Wemple, spoken like someone who has run a news org: “Straddling the line between public transparency and personnel sensitivity at a place like the New York Times is one of the toughest tasks in media. It's much easier to write about it all.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Ida Bae Wells / @nhannahjones: To my fellow journalists reporting on this like as simply a case of uniformity or policy, this is a failure. We know the power/impact of words. If we didn't we wouldn't have chosen this profession. You can't write this story & ignore the very thing that makes this word a taboo.
Ida Bae Wells / @nhannahjones: For the record, I never called for Don McNeil to be further punished nor to resign. I did ask the NYT for transparency. But let's also be clear, there was no need to for Don McNeil to say that word in that context.
Ida Bae Wells / @nhannahjones: Of course journalists should, carefully and thoughtfully, use the word IN PRINT if directly quoting someone or an historic text and the word is deemed necessary for the story. That is not what happened with Don McNeil.
Katie Rogers / @katierogers: “You can frame this as the end of the asshole era at The New York Times.” Oh, I don't know about that. https://www.vanityfair.com/... via @VanityFair
Ben Smith / @benyt: He said this in an internal meeting, which @NYTeileen put on the record, after sending an email criticizing Donald McNeil “regardless of intent.”
Marisa Sarnoff / Mediaite: NYT's Dean Baquet Walks Back Position on Racist Language: ‘Of Course Intent Matters’
Lindsey Ellefson / The Wrap: NY Times Newsroom in ‘Chaos’ Over Departures, Fears of Cancel Culture
The Daily Beast:
NYT Opinion editor says it was her decision to spike a Bret Stephens column criticizing Baquet's reasons for firing McNeil, not Sulzberger's as Stephens claims — A top New York Times columnist claims the paper's publisher shelved his opinion column defending Donald McNeil …
Discussion:
@dylanbyers, @nytimespr, New York Post, @meredithshiner, @dylanbyers, @wesleylowery, @oliverdarcy, @wesleylowery, Beyond Search, @saletan, @sarahscire, The Wrap, @armystrang, @billgertz, @scottshanenyt, @lisang, @davekarpf, @weareyourfek, @jolentag, @jackmurphyrgr, @ranjona, @zaidjilani, @530bruceross, @zaidjilani, @niemanreports, @marlownyc, @jaynordlinger, @davekarpf, @jbenton, Crikey, @ggreeneva, @dgisserious, @wesleylowery, @shortformernie, @dylanbyers, @maxwelltani and @jacobrubashkin
Discussion:
Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers: #Scoop: New York Times columnist Bret Stephens says that publisher A.G. Sulzberger “spiked” his column that was supposed to run on Monday morning in which he took issue with NYT's handling of the Donald J. McNeil case (McNeil was ousted for his use of racial slur). Thread....
@nytimespr: In today's State of The Times, an all company meeting for @nytimes employees, our executive editor Dean Baquet clarified some comments from last week. https://twitter.com/...
Bret Stephens / New York Post: Read the column the New York Times didn't want you to read
Meredith Shiner / @meredithshiner: Do you know what would help the @nytimes in this case? A PUBLIC EDITOR. Reporters whose beat is “media” are not a public editor. Bret Stephens is not a public editor. Twitter is not a public editor. HIRE A PUBLIC EDITOR, @NYTIMES. https://twitter.com/...
Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers: Stephens took issue with the fact that NYT Exec Editor Dean Baquet said “We do not tolerate racist language regardless of intent.” “Do any of us want to live in a world, or work in a field, where intent is categorically ruled out as a mitigating factor?” BS asks. “I hope not.”
Wesley / @wesleylowery: what I had heard from a few folks, fwiw, is that Stephens' own editor rejected the column, then he appealed to AG - who sided with the editor (as opposed to Dylan's framing, which makes it sound like the publisher swooped in to kill something he didn't like) https://twitter.com/...
Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy: New York Times Opinion editor @katiekings responds, telling me, “We kill columns all the time for various reasons. The bar is especially high for columns that could reflect badly on colleagues. And we decided that this column didn't reach that bar.” https://twitter.com/...
Wesley / @wesleylowery: The most wrong take I ever had on this website was that the industry rending of garments over NYT ending the public editor position was overblown https://twitter.com/...
Stephen E. Arnold / Beyond Search: Who Knew That Journalism Could Channel the Worldwide Wrestling Federation?
Will Saletan / @saletan: Good thread chronicling today's Stephens-Sulzberger-Baquet episode. https://twitter.com/...
Sarah Scire / @sarahscire: For @niemanlab, I spoke to @katiekings about the changes she's made in her newly-official role, “challenging readers,” and the innovative work @nytopinion is doing in audio, video, and graphics. https://www.niemanlab.org/...
Ross A. Lincoln / The Wrap: NY Post Publishes Bret Stephens' Spiked NYT Column About Reporter Ousted Over N-Word Use
American Propagandist / @armystrang: Imagine what we could get done if Bret Stephens cared as much about elevating minorities as he does about white people being allowed to say the N word https://twitter.com/...
Bill Gertz / @billgertz: The late NYT editor Abe Rosenthal is rolling in his grave https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Scott Shane / @scottshanenyt: I wholeheartedly agree (though most of the newsroom is against it). I had some painful tangles with public editors as a reporter before they eliminated the job. But the recent NYT drama has shown how valuable a strong, independent voice inside the company could be. https://twitter.com/...
Lisa Goldman / @lisang: He did the same to me when I emailed him for comment on a piece for The Forward a few years ago. Then he tried to get me “fired,” though the piece was only a minor freelance commission for an honorarium that I might get paid...someday...if I pushed hard. https://twitter.com/...
Dave Karpf / @davekarpf: Should I email Bret Stephens and ask if he has any comments he would like to share with me?
Foster Kamer / @weareyourfek: oh, so they got excellent settlements, cool, cool cool cool cool cool https://twitter.com/...
Jolenta Greenberg / @jolentag: Happy Feb 11 to everyone in news and podcasting who are glad @oliverdarcy is pointing out that the @nytimes seems to need us as their external moral compass... https://www.cnn.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Jack Murphy / @jackmurphyrgr: Once you cave in to the mob, you place yourself in the kill zone of a pincer attack coming from both sides from which you will never survive. https://www.cnn.com/...
Ranjona Banerji / @ranjona: All very well to be sanctimonious about yourself and outraged about @nytimes , but where is there any level of transparency within the Indian media? Just look at the @IndiaMeToo movement and how they closed ranks against women who spoke up. https://twitter.com/...
Zaid Jilani / @zaidjilani: @530BruceRoss I think that may be the case but the columnists did all opine on the Tom Cotton/James Bennett stuff, multiple ones did, so I thought maybe there was a policy in place to allow them to do that, was it revoked?
Bruce Ross / @530bruceross: @ZaidJilani Doesn't seem unusual to run it up the food chain when a columnist decides to opine about the newspaper itself.
Zaid Jilani / @zaidjilani: Is it normal for the publisher of the NYT to serve as editor of the columnists? Is that an extraordinary intervention? And if it is normal, what kind of stuff does he normally spike? Are the other columnists just so goody two shoes they don't provoke his interventions? https://twitter.com/...
@niemanreports: “At the core of the divide: What is the best course of action to take when The Times' own reporters stand accused of violating some of the fundamental principles the newspaper champions? ” https://www.cnn.com/...
Marlow Stern / @marlownyc: *but he most certainly would email your boss if you wrote something mean about him https://twitter.com/...
Jay Nordlinger / @jaynordlinger: I wish Bret Stephens could find a paper that would just publish him, come hell or high water. He's one of the best columnists of our age — or any. If I could, I'd award him a second Pulitzer Prize. 1/2 https://www.thedailybeast.com/ ...
Dave Karpf / @davekarpf: This raises an important question that I should phrase as a Twitter poll... https://twitter.com/...
Joshua Benton / @jbenton: bretstephens dot substack dot com https://twitter.com/...
Greg Greene / @ggreeneva: Pretty sure the NYT opinion pages have a policy against writers using columns to air squabbles _within_ the opinion team. If the publisher wants to expand that principle to stop the airing of Times dirty laundry in print, I can't see how that should hit Stephens as a surprise. https://twitter.com/...
Danny Gold / @dgisserious: Oh hell yeah let's keep this going. I want to see a long form piece about the internal politics of the NYT and cancel culture blah blah blah in every issue of the 5 remaining magazines in America for the rest of the year. Maybe even some single topic issues? https://twitter.com/...
Wesley / @wesleylowery: And now we have the op-Ed editor, on the record, disputing the Bret Stephens/Dylan Byers version of this story https://www.thedailybeast.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Ernie Smith / @shortformernie: Today was the day that Bret Stephens registered his Substack account https://twitter.com/...
Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers: So it appears that NYT leadership actually agrees with the thrust of Bret Stephens column. Why didn't they run it? Maybe they didn't want him addressing something in print that they were getting ready to walk back. Waiting on NYT statement.
Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy:
Bloomberg is laying off employees as part of a “new structure to elevate editing”; sources: layoffs will affect about 90 employees — Bloomberg EIC John Micklethwait confirms layoffs in a memo to staff: “I am not going to pretend today is a happy day for the newsroom. It is always painful to tell journalists that they are losing their jobs.” I'm told the layoffs are affecting about 90 employees. https://twitter.com/...
Discussion:
New York Times, Insider, The Wrap, @perlberg, @nytmedia, @nytimesbusiness, @ericbolling, @emilybell, @sopandeb, @jeffyoung, @vtuss, @edmundlee, @markberman, @raju, @jessicalessin, @grace_panetta, @jenni_gritters, @ericnewcomer, @chrismessina, @freeblackgirl, @caleweissman, @ejacqui, @jhilburg, @jbenton, @nbj914, @mattrosoff, @heathat, @ericlach, @fmanjoo, @aleksnotalex, @derekahunter, @oliverdarcy, @kerrymflynn, @froomkin, @perlberg, @tombevanrcp, MediaPost and Talking Biz News
Discussion:
Katie Robertson / New York Times: Bloomberg News Is Laying Off Nearly 100 Journalists
Steven Perlberg / Insider: Bloomberg News has begun layoffs and nearly 100 people will be affected — read the full memo to staff
Lindsey Ellefson / The Wrap: Bloomberg News to Lay Off 90 Journalists, Researchers
Steven Perlberg / @perlberg: Layoffs are hitting Bloomberg News today, believed to be about 100 positions https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
@nytmedia: Bloomberg News has more than 3,100 editorial and research employees, making it one of the largest news organizations in the world. The company will lay off dozens of employees as it restructures its newsroom. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@nytimesbusiness: Bloomberg's editor in chief, John Micklethwait, announced the changes in a memo sent to staff on Thursday, saying that the newsroom had “'lost' stories because we moved too slowly” and needed to have more accountability. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@ericbolling: So Mike Bloomberg's (2020 run) vanity project is being paid for by his employees... WITH THEIR JOBS! Not very woke of you Mr B. Where's the outrage from the left? https://twitter.com/...
Emily Bell / @emilybell: Finally getting to the Bloomberg fires its editors memo. Bottom line: not quick enough. Lackadaisical commissioning. Too many backstops slowing the process . Ouch https://twitter.com/...
Sopan Deb / @sopandeb: ....micklethwait essentially blames the staff for the layoffs. https://twitter.com/...
Jeffrey Young / @jeffyoung: I don't think I've ever seen a layoffs announcement before that blames the people getting laid off. https://twitter.com/...
Vince Tuss / @vtuss: Hmmm. Color me suspicious on this “elevate editing” talk when the memo talks about “no more unnecessary back-reading or re-editing.” https://twitter.com/...
Edmund Lee / @edmundlee: What's noteworthy is these layoffs appear to be more punitive than pecuniary Bloomberg LP is still a profit monster making more than $4 billion in pretax earnings a year https://twitter.com/...
Mark Berman / @markberman: thanks for your time working here. we all know layoffs are tough. while we're here, i'd also like to list up front some of the ways in which some of you have fallen short https://twitter.com/...?
Raju Narisetti / @raju: “The attitude has to change from “not my patch” to “all hands on deck” with more editors picking up stories and getting them done.” A level of plainspokenness that is uncommon, including and especially in news organizations, when making tough calls. https://twitter.com/...
Jessica Lessin / @jessicalessin: Sad day @Bloomberg. Reasoning is worth reading by everyone is media as we look to the future. “Managers spent too much time in conference calls when they should just have been writing.” https://twitter.com/...
Grace Panetta / @grace_panetta: This is blunter than most layoff memos: “We all know that we ‘lost’ stories because we moved too slowly....managers spent too much time setting up conference calls when they should have just been writing. Or teams suddenly delivered enterprise pieces that nobody wanted.” https://twitter.com/...
Jenni Gritters / @jenni_gritters: Oh, hello, toxic newsroom mindsets + poor management decisions (from people who don't actually take any ownership over the issues mentioned.) Nice to see you again 👋 This is why I freelance instead. https://twitter.com/...
Eric Newcomer / @ericnewcomer: I always felt like these emails read like massive subtweets and you never knew for sure if they were calling out your team or not. pretty demoralizing even for those that the people at the top think are doing well https://twitter.com/...
Chris Messina / @chrismessina: Does this mean @SubstackInc is about to get an influx of 90 new writers? Because all the autonomy described herein sounds like an argument to head in that direction... /cc @CaseyNewton https://twitter.com/...
Evette Dionne / @freeblackgirl: Bloomberg chronicles capitalism? There is such a thing as too much editing? Oh. Anyway, we are nearing the end of the first quarter. Expect more layoffs because media can seemingly never get its shit together. https://twitter.com/...
Cale G Weissman / @caleweissman: there are a lot of really bizarre, bad things in this message, but i'm still trying to wrap my head around “teams suddenly delivered enterprise pieces that nobody wanted” https://twitter.com/...
@jhilburg: @caleweissman my personal favorite is the part where having an editor to overlook mistakes means “no one owns the story” so they're just canning them all
Joshua Benton / @jbenton: “Teams suddenly delivered enterprise pieces that nobody wanted” is lowkey the meanest thing I've ever seen in an editor's staff memo https://twitter.com/...
Nicholas Jackson / @nbj914: “Teams suddenly delivered enterprise pieces that nobody wanted.” is a classic Micklethwait line — and I hate it. It ain't easy, but at least some of what we do has to be about convincing people to read stories that matter instead of just giving them what they already want. https://twitter.com/...
Matt Rosoff / @mattrosoff: “Or teams suddenly delivered enterprise pieces that nobody wanted.” That's gotta sting. https://twitter.com/...
Heather Timmons / @heathat: “For the most part, we will stick to the principle of ‘One story, one editor.’ No more unnecessary backreading or re-editing.” https://twitter.com/...
Eric Lach / @ericlach: saying “we have enormous resources” as you kick 90 people to the curb is gross https://twitter.com/...
Farhad Manjoo / @fmanjoo: odd memo: we moved too slowly on some stories, so we're laying people off to move more quickly https://twitter.com/...
Aleksander Chan / @aleksnotalex: this comes across as needlessly punitive https://twitter.com/...
@derekahunter: Mike Bloomberg spent $1 billion running for president for 4 months - $10 million per person he's firing today wasted on a vanity project. https://twitter.com/...
Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy: “The layoffs were said to have included editors and were believed to be concentrated in Europe,” @perlberg reports. https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
@kerrymflynn: I feel like this Bloomberg memo is so aggressive and anxiety inducing — especially being sent in a time when a pandemic has upended our lives and made working in the news industry even more stressful than it already was. https://twitter.com/...
Dan Froomkin / @froomkin: This memo is brutal in a lot of ways. “managers spent too much time setting up conference calls”... “teams suddenly delivered enterprise pieces that nobody wanted” It also seems all about speed and not so much about journalism. https://twitter.com/...
Steven Perlberg / @perlberg: About 90 people, mostly editors, have been laid off at Bloomberg News. “We all know that we also ‘lost’ stories because we moved too slowly,” EIC John Micklethwait wrote in a memo to staff about the reorganization https://www.businessinsider.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Tom Bevan / @tombevanrcp: Too bad he blew $500+ million on an embarrassing quixotic primary run. https://twitter.com/...
Ray Schultz / MediaPost: Bloomberg Is Laying Off 90 Editorial Staffers
Elizabeth A. Harris / New York Times:
Most major publishing houses now insist on morality clauses in book contracts as social media has made it possible to unravel a reputation overnight — Morals clauses are despised by many authors and agents, but big publishers insist that they need a way out if a writer's reputation takes a nosedive.
Discussion:
Evan DeSimone / @mediaevan: Everyone in this article who had their book deal “derailed” still has a book deal. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@nytmedia: Morals clauses are widely used in book deals, but some authors and literary agents say they set up the publisher as judge, jury, executioner and beneficiary https://www.nytimes.com/...
Sean Burch / The Wrap:
Twitter bans Project Veritas' account for “repeated violations of Twitter's private information policy” and temporarily locks James O'Keefe's personal account — The Twitter account for James O'Keefe's Project Veritas was permanently suspended on Thursday after the far-right activist group posted …
Discussion:
@b_fung, @tpcarney, @b_fung, @sjdemas, @jason_kint, @digiphile, Mashable, The Hill, The Daily Beast, The Post Millennial, The Daily Dot, New York Post, UPI and Boing Boing
Discussion:
Brian Fung / @b_fung: Twitter confirms to me it's permanently banned Project Veritas (and temporarily locked James O'Keefe's account) for what the platform says is repeated violations of the company's anti-doxxing policies.
Tim Carney / @tpcarney: They do not apply this rule consistently, obviously. And how they apply it, shockingly seems related to the ideology of the tweeter. https://twitter.com/...
Brian Fung / @b_fung: In a post on its Telegram channel this afternoon, Project Veritas said it didn't violate anybody's privacy and that the suspension occurred after it published a video in which PV showed up to Facebook VP of Integrity Guy Rosen's home with a camera.
Susan J. Demas / @sjdemas: Note to reporters who mistake Project Veritas for a legit outfit and build entire stories around it without noting their long history of shadiness. https://twitter.com/...
Jason Kint / @jason_kint: Thank heavens Twitter actually can make the tough decisions on its own, importantly without input from govt affairs and comms like Facebook does). Imagine if they needed to outsource this to a “Twitter Oversight Board???” https://twitter.com/...
Alex Howard / @digiphile: If @Twitter has permanently banned Project Veritas & locked O'Keefe out, it would be helpful if @TwitterSafety explained the pattern & instances that violated @policy: https://help.twitter.com/... A red line that a home address cannot be tweeted would be a bright line worth drawing. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Matt Binder / Mashable: Twitter bans Project Veritas after posting video of Facebook employee's home
John Bowden / The Hill: Twitter permanently suspends ‘Project Veritas’ group
Arya Hodjat / The Daily Beast: Twitter Suspends Right-Wing Activist Group Project Veritas, James O'Keefe
Noah David Alter / The Post Millennial: BREAKING: Twitter suspends accounts of Project Veritas, James O'Keefe
Zachary Petrizzo / The Daily Dot: Project Veritas gets kicked off Twitter after Facebook exposé
Daniel Uria / UPI: Twitter bans Project Veritas account
Rob Beschizza / Boing Boing: Project Veritas kicked off Twitter
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney beats as Disney+ reaches 94.9M subscribers globally, 30% of those from Disney+ Hotstar, while revenue dropped to $16.25B, down 22% YoY — Disney Plus had the wind at its back to close out 2020: The streaming service notched 94.9 million customers worldwide as of the end of the year-end quarter, the company announced.
Discussion:
Karlene Lukovitz / MediaPost: Disney+ Hits 95M Subs In 14 Months, Though ARPU Down 28%
Jon Swartz / MarketWatch: Disney earnings: Surge by Disney+ to nearly 95 million subscriptions leads to surprise profit
Jason Gurwin / The Streamable: How Disney Thinks About Streaming Churn, Bringing ESPN DTC, and When to Create Local Content
Stephanie Sengwe / The Streamable: Disney Plus Nearly Reaches 95 Million Subscribers By End of 2020
Tim Baysinger / The Wrap: Disney+ Tops 94 Million Subscribers as Pandemic Continues to Drag Down Bottom Line
Kate Duffy / Insider: Disney has signed up nearly 95 million Disney Plus subscribers globally - and aims to have 260 million subscribers by 2024
Sarah Whitten / CNBC: Disney says it now has 94.9 million Disney+ subscribers
Kevin Granville / New York Times: British Economy's Collapse in 2020 Was Worst Since 1709: Live Updates
Andrew Wallenstein / @awallenstein: New Disney+ subscriber count just in, here's how the leading streaming services stack up https://variety.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Elaine Low / @elainelow: This doesn't even factor in the #WandaVision bump in Disney Plus subscribers, since those are sub numbers as of Jan. 2. (WV premiered Jan. 15.) And the show has gotten a LOT of buzz since then. $DIS story via @xpangler https://variety.com/...
Amanda Gianni / @amandagianni: i cannot put into words how wild this is. almost at 100 million subs in just over a year is absurd. so proud to have a part. https://twitter.com/...
Spoiler-Man / @heavyspoilers: They're nearly at half of what Netflix have off the back of two seasons of #TheMandalorian and half of #Wandavision which is crazy. https://twitter.com/...
James D. Scurlock / The Intelligent Newsletter: February 12, 2021 — FYI: GrahAmerica is now The Intelligent Newsletter. (It's aspirational!)
Todd Spangler / @xpangler: All told, Disney's streaming services — Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus — stood at 146.4 million at the end of the quarter, a 131% increase from the year prior https://variety.com/...
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge: Disney Plus hits 94.9 million subscribers, beating its four-year goal in 14 months
Josef Adalian / Vulture:
Seeking to avoid churn, new streamers like HBO Max and Paramount+ are offering attractive deals in exchange for long-term commitment — This story first ran in Buffering, Vulture's newsletter about the streaming industry. Head to vulture.com/buffering and subscribe today!
Lyz Lenz / Columbia Journalism Review:
Profile of Seth Abramson, who built almost 1M followers during the Trump era writing long Twitter threads, stringing together theories that often unravel — Seth Abramson's viral meta-journalism unreality — For four years, America has been ruled by the tyranny of tweets, and the news media has been tangled in threads.
Discussion:
@joshmeyerdc, @annamerlan, @jasoncolavito, @monaeltahawy, @mattgallagher0, @drfarls, @uticaeric, @20committee, @alexburnsnyt, @kamalasdebatep1, @senhorraposa, @kayaoakes, @ronhogan, @briancaskeync, @linecook, @walletcheck, @jfagone, @megmccarron, @mmasnick, @sethabramson, @wesleysmorgan, @garylegum, @grimisham, @drzackaryberger, @cbowenii, @laurenthehough, @robertcaruso, @jeanneobbard, @labuzamovies, @sethabramson, @palmerreport, @sethabramson, @quinnae_moon, @matthewkassel, @joparkerbear, @joparkerbear, @mmasnick, @palmerreport, @pludger, @kendallybrown, @yashar, @joparkerbear, @awinston, @steveolson, @sethabramson, @monaeltahawy, @antifashgordon, @flitteronfraud, @palmerreport, @colindickey, @davethomas5150, @jannwolfe, @ronhogan, @markmazzettinyt, @onthemedia, @jayrosen_nyu, @armandondk, @dandrezner, @greg_doucette, @elongreen, @jephjacques, @ddale8 and @maggienyt
Discussion:
Josh Meyer / @joshmeyerdc: Wow, @SethAbramson. No surprise you hate this @CJR/@lyzl profile of you but it's bizarre that you're dragging me (and my former employer Politico) into your Twitter beef over it when we have literally nothing to do with anything in it. But I'll correct your many falsehoods here.1 https://twitter.com/...
Anna Merlan / @annamerlan: There are guys on here who have built themselves these rickety little fiefdoms, and the level of psychic meltdown they experience when anyone submits them to a basic level of fact checking might suggest to their followers how flimsy the whole operation is
Jason Colavito / @jasoncolavito: The detail that gets me is that Abramson wrote his first book in the “Proof” series in just 19 days. I am one of the fastest writers I know, and there is no way you can write a (nonfiction) book in 19 days with anything more than bargain-basement quality.
Mona Eltahawy / @monaeltahawy: The bar for men is so low that when we - especially Black and women of colour - reject their fuckery, we are told we are being silly/arrogant for saying “I did this first.” Fuck that shit. I am proud of my writing. Retweet & subscribe https://www.feministgiant.com/
@mattgallagher0: MFA Land has committed plenty of sins over the years but yeah, Seth Abramson may indeed be our worst offering https://www.cjr.org/...
Robert Farley / @drfarls: This is interesting but it leaves out a pretty important part of the story; Abramson's bizarre 2016 turn as a Twitter Bernie Bro https://twitter.com/...
Eric L. Robinson / @uticaeric: Seth Abramson at least has the dignity of publishing under his own name, rather than a persona like “Q.” Beyond that, the added value is roughly equivalent. https://twitter.com/...
John Schindler / @20committee: This is an important piece that sheds a lot of well-reasoned light and requires a thoughtful reply. Who's ready? 1/972 https://twitter.com/...
Kamalasdebatepen / @kamalasdebatep1: @BrianCaskeyNC @SethAbramson @ChloePolitiCat @lyzl @brianstelter @CJR You've probably not heard of it because it's a magazine whose audience is professional journalists. It has been in circulation since 1961. You don't have to disparage the publication you don't know about because they published something you don't like.
Drew Savicki / @senhorraposa: He blocked me because I called him a conspiracy theorist. https://twitter.com/...
Kaya Oakes / @kayaoakes: My favorite Seth Abramson anecdote (which he blocked me for repeating from someone, can't remember who) is that he lists being verified on Twitter as an achievement on his CV. https://twitter.com/...
Ron Hogan / @ronhogan: Seth Abramson's “meta-journalism,” @lyzl writes, is “news aggregation, selling three books based on other people's work and claiming to offer proof of things that these very same journalists have said they cannot, did not, find.” And, she notes, it's “mostly unreadable.”
Brian Caskey / @briancaskeync: @SethAbramson @ChloePolitiCat @lyzl @brianstelter @CJR I've never heard of @CJR — on the other hand, I know and trust @SethAbramson and his work. So there's that.
Tyler / @walletcheck: this is extremely funny. Seth Abramson is even more of an insufferable charlatan that i thought he was https://www.cjr.org/...
Meghan McCarron / @megmccarron: I can't get over that the MFA rankings dude became the it all connects thread dude, and reinforces my theory there are certain people the internet is stuck with forever https://twitter.com/...
Mike Masnick / @mmasnick: Today's discovery: totally random idiots have come out of the woodwork to defend Seth and claim I'm “jealous” of him (HAHAHAHHAHAHA) and I'm the problem with “big media” (huh? what? since when? how?!?)
Seth Abramson / @sethabramson: (PS) @MaggieNYT, a Pulitzer Prize winner, has tweeted out the @CJR article three times. Now that I've shown it's riddled with inaccuracies, will she un-retweet those retweets, or further prove that many outside major media are more conscientious about facts than those inside it?
Wesley Morgan / @wesleysmorgan: @UticaEric Don't say his name, it summons him
Adam Grimord-Isham / @grimisham: I remember when he first appeared during the 2016 writing articles about how Sanders was beating Clinton that turned out to be utter fantasies, so when I saw his reappearance during the Trump era I was always suspicious. https://www.cjr.org/...
Zackary Berger / @drzackaryberger: if you're in the poetry world even a bit, to see what Seth Abramson has built for himself is nauseating but wondrous, somehow, like a Tower of Babel made entirely of meconium Seth Abramson's viral meta-journalism unreality https://www.cjr.org/... via @cjr
Blurblefroomp / @cbowenii: This Seth Abramson thread where he tries to debunk the CJR piece is just sad. He exchanged e-mails with a Politico reporter, had some two-degrees-removed connection to Shia Labeouf, and his third book was #135 on the USA Today bestseller list for 1 week... ok? https://twitter.com/...
Lauren Hough / @laurenthehough: I love that the replies are a bunch of Seth stans demanding we check his thread but we're all blocked. https://twitter.com/...
Robert Caruso / @robertcaruso: Exquisite and unflattering profile of a one Seth Abramson by @lyzl. Seth was central to the effort to discredit myself, @MollyMcKew, and others who remain correct about the extent of election interference. Impeccably sourced. https://www.cjr.org/...
@jeanneobbard: You just know this fuckery has a po biz/MFA component, right? Of course it does. https://www.cjr.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Peter Labuza / @labuzamovies: this whole thing is great but this I lmfao: https://www.cjr.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Seth Abramson / @sethabramson: (PS10) What's worse is folks like @ddale8, a fact-checker for a network I used to appear regularly on—CNN—are spreading this misinformation even after my thread today proves (with screenshots) the @CJR article is false. What a horribly sad day on top of everything else happening.
@palmerreport: Ask yourself why the mainstream media is choosing now to dishonestly attack Abramson. The media's ratings are way down now that Trump is gone. Abramson presumably still has his entire niche audience intact. So the media gets jealous and takes it out on him.
Seth Abramson / @sethabramson: (PS9) I'm heartbroken. I feared this would be a hitpiece, because Lyz had previously liked a tweet on Twitter saying “no one should ever take Seth Abramson seriously.” I expressed my concern to her. She assured me it wasn't a hitpiece. Then she published provable lies about me.
Katherine Cross / @quinnae_moon: Essential reading by @lyzl about the dangers inherent to Seth Abramson-style Twitter pseudo-journalism. While not as bad as Trumpian conspiracism, this sort of Resistance tweeting still created its own alternate reality that was (and remains) corrosive. https://www.cjr.org/...
Matthew Kassel / @matthewkassel: “[H]e claims to be one of the first people to have been ‘canceled.’” https://www.cjr.org/...
@joparkerbear: I am so grateful someone finally wrote and published this. Seth Abramson is the Sean King of Russiagate, profiting off the work of real journalists, and occasionally veering off into conspiracyland. Seth Abramson's viral meta-journalism unreality https://www.cjr.org/...
@joparkerbear: “It seems the truth is that major media briefly was very comfortable letting their viewers and readers know they were paying attention to my feed,” Yeah, cuz it's a load of smokescreens and bullocks
Mike Masnick / @mmasnick: This is a good story about Seth Abramson's nonsense, but still the best is last month when I wrote a tweet about an unnamed “legal fabulist” who tweets a lot and Seth showed up in my replies *knowing* it must be him. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@palmerreport: If you value Seth's threads, that article should not dissuade you from continuing to value his threads. Even if you think Seth is total crap, that article about him is a thoroughly dishonest smear piece, and you should be offended at what the media is trying to do to him.
Leah Hampton / @pludger: Ask any writer who was in the MFA pipeline in the early 2010s, and we prob have a creepy story about Seth Abramson. Con artists don't change, and bullshit “data,” even if it agrees with your politics, is still bullshit. Read this 👇, not him. https://twitter.com/...
Kendall Brown / @kendallybrown: I cannot think of anything more annoying than Seth Abramson and Russell Brand sitting around, telling one another how great they are. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Yashar Ali / @yashar: Great story by @lyzl Seth Abramson fans are so cultish https://twitter.com/...
@joparkerbear: “I'm the reason that Shia LaBeouf became a performance artist,” Abramson told me. Come again? The actor whose lawyer sent you a cease and desist letter?
Ali Winston / @awinston: Excellent piece on someone who represents a class of pundit who've risen to prominence by creating the Twitter equivalent of fast food. https://twitter.com/...
Steve Olson / @steveolson: “To understand Abramson, he says, you have to understand what he calls his ‘poetics.’ The fuck I do. https://twitter.com/...
Seth Abramson / @sethabramson: (THREAD) Wow, @CJR and @LyzL. Why didn't you just ask me for proof of everything I told you? You thought I'd say things I didn't have proof of? What type of operation plans to question if someone is telling the truth, then doesn't ask them to provide the proof? Well, here we go: https://twitter.com/...
Mona Eltahawy / @monaeltahawy: This is what happened between me and @SethAbramson on Saturday. I don't follow him but when he claimed he'd written the first look at women of the insurrection several people tagged me and alerted him that I'd written an article on women of insurrection on January 10 https://twitter.com/...
AntiFash Gordon / @antifashgordon: my favorite person today is @lyzl for writing this absolute slamdunk on a Resistance grifter https://www.cjr.org/...
Emily Flitter / @flitteronfraud: This is a good read on a “meh” subject, but I wish @lyzl had devoted a couple of lines specifically to the bro energy of most 150-tweet threads. Who else looks at a site which exists to serve brevity & thinks its readers want essay-length content? https://www.cjr.org/...
@palmerreport: That new attack piece about Seth Abramson is full of easily debunked false claims. Whenever the mainstream media gets annoyed at an indie pundit like Seth, it just publishes a bunch of bullshit about him, and most people mistakenly believe it. They've done the same thing to me.
A Feast / @colindickey: You've already read it by now but @lyzl is excellent on Seth Abramson, his grift, and what it means for journalism. https://www.cjr.org/...
Dave Thomas / @davethomas5150: Abramson's books “are dense, mostly unreadable summaries of other people's reporting, with little synthesis. Abramson is meticulous about sourcing, yet it feels a little disingenuous...if he's wrong, it's not his fault...” https://www.cjr.org/...
Jan Wolfe / @jannwolfe: I tuned out Seth Abramson because he was misleading his followers about the presidential pardon power, and it was so frustrating to watch. I'm glad CJR delved into his credibility problem. https://www.cjr.org/...
Ron Hogan / @ronhogan: The portrait of Seth Abramson @lyzl lays out reminds me of a gazillion different men who swarmed over USENET like locusts 25 years ago and suggests to me we should all be grateful Twitter has a 280-character cap. https://www.cjr.org/...
Mark Mazzetti / @markmazzettinyt: “It's important to remember how easily we let conspiracy leak into our lives, into our TV shows and our punditry...how dangerous it is to live in a world built entirely of your own words..until everything is a mirror shining you back at you."https://www.cjr.org/...
Jay Rosen / @jayrosen_nyu: “Thread Man: Seth Abramson's viral meta-journalism unreality” by @lyzl is worth reading if you've come across Abramson's threads or books. https://www.cjr.org/... In @CJR.
Armando / @armandondk: Liz Linz, the author of this piece, is pretty unreliable. But Seth Abramson is an absolute wacko. Linz of course omits the genesis of Abramson's lunacy - the Bernie was robbed in 2016 insanity- https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Daniel W. Drezner / @dandrezner: Is there a German word for the state of being simultaneously annoyed and relieved that one's name/work does not appear in a longform essay? https://twitter.com/...
T. Greg Doucette / @greg_doucette: How long y'all think it will take for the tweeted defamation threat? 😂 https://twitter.com/...
Elon Green / @elongreen: “...he claimed that he'd been offered a job by Politico as a researcher and that he'd advised Cuomo Prime Time ... (Matthew Kalminski, the editor in chief of Politico, said that “rings no bells” and that he didn't know Abramson. A CNN source replied, “Absolutely not.")" https://twitter.com/...
Prolapsed Catholic / @jephjacques: Seth Abramson is basically QAnon for neoliberals https://twitter.com/...
Daniel Dale / @ddale8: Lots of lols in here https://twitter.com/...
Gabby Miller / Columbia Journalism Review:
Interview with three journalists who created a nonprofit newsroom to fill a void in suburban Chicago left by the closure of 22nd Century Media's 15 newspapers — Since March, the Tow Center has tracked newsroom cutbacks carried out during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Discussion:
Joe Coughlin / @joec2319: Trustworthy local news should not be hard to find. But in many suburbs, it's damn near impossible. We deserve better. Thank you to @__gabbymiller and @CJR for talking with us about @TheRecordNS's mission. https://twitter.com/...
@__gabbymiller: Since the pandemic began, 66 newsrooms permanently closed; 15 were owned by 22nd Century Media. 3 journos in the Chicago suburbs affected by the closures took it upon themselves to fill that void, creating the nonprofit newsroom @TheRecordNS. My latest: https://www.cjr.org/...
Etan Vlessing / Hollywood Reporter:
Ted Sarandos says Netflix plans to open a corporate office in Canada and will hire a content executive to deal directly with local Canadian producers — “Canada is an amazingly diverse country and growing our presence locally will help us share more authentically Canadian stories with the world …
Discussion:
Ted Sarandos / About Netflix: Making a New Home in Canada
Ryerson Rta / @rtaryerson: If this is true, we are very eager to welcome a new neighbour (get used to the added “u"), @Netflix_CA !! https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ ...
Greg O'Brien / @gregobr: Some buzz around this Netflix blog post today. https://about.netflix.com/... But hasn't the streamer been said to be looking for people here since this announcement 2 years ago? https://cartt.ca/... Wonder if the timing of the blog post has anything to do with C-10...?
Diane Haithman / The Wrap: Netflix to Open New Office in Canada to ‘Work Directly’ With Canadian Creatives
Anna Kramer / Protocol:
In 2020, 23K schools and libraries joined Overdrive, a service for borrowing ebooks, and checkouts surpassed 430M amid tensions between libraries and publishers — On the surface, there couldn't be a more wholesome story than the meteoric rise of the Libby app.
Discussion:
@internetarchive: Good news for readers: since the pandemic, ebook library loans are up 50%. Bad news for libraries: finding the $$ to pay for all those ebook licenses. #empoweringlibraries https://www.protocol.com/...
Shira Ovide / @shiraovide: 1) The Libby app is great. 2) Thank goodness for online library services during the pandemic. https://twitter.com/...
@protocol: The meteoric rise of Libby is wholesome on the surface: a reading app that helps out libraries! But it's is also a parable for how the best-intentioned people can build tech that accidentally creates a financial crisis for those who need it most. https://www.protocol.com/...
Karyne Levy / @karynelevy: Here's an excellent inside look by @anna_c_kramer at the battle between publishers, libraries and the cute lil app stuck in the middle: Libby. https://www.protocol.com/...
Robin Sloan / @robinsloan: There has been a HUGE surge in library e-book lending, even pre-pandemic. I'm no expert, just a reader/patron, but I suspect the key has been Libby, the app that OverDrive released in 2017. A sleek, simple Kindle+Audible powered by your local library... what's not to like??
Robin Sloan / @robinsloan: Here's “first light” for a new instrument: re-ordering & scaling the NYT Best Seller list by the number of e-book holds at a set of U.S. public libraries. This looks rough, but/and I will spiff it up and turn it into a live webpage. I've wanted to make this for such a long time! https://twitter.com/...
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