Top News:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Source: ~350 of CNN+'s 700 staff will be laid off with pay and benefits for the next 90 days; much of the CNN+ programming will be reallocated to other services — The shuttering of CNN+ three weeks after the subscription service launched will be remembered as one of the most chaotic moments of CNN's 40-year history.
Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: after churning out 500+ original programs in 2021, Netflix is looking to rein in costs and add fewer new titles with a greater emphasis on quality — Streaming service spent lavishly on productions to win subscribers, but now growth has slowed — Your browser does not support the audio tag.
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Protocol:
Netflix lost 700K subscribers by suspending its service in Russia, where it was available for six years; ad-supported plans could help Netflix catch up abroad — Hello, and welcome to Protocol Entertainment, your guide to the business of the gaming and media industries.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
As of Friday's close, Netflix had a $99.2B market cap, down from $300B+ in November 2021; Meta had a $532.6B market cap after passing $1T in June 2021 — - The tech market has plunged since its peak in November, and Netflix and Facebook have been hit particularly hard.
Discussion:
@gonzalosykora, more at Techmeme »
Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
Journalism organizations, nonprofits, and unions ask the Pulitzer Prizes to require newsrooms to participate in a diversity survey for award eligibility by 2024 — An open letter calls on the industry's highest honors to include a new participation clause.
Discussion:
@sisiwei, OpenNews, The NewsGuild, @meredithdclark, @stefaniemurray, @sisiwei, @tmmcmillan, @nhannahjones, @dataeditor, @cristymsilva, @defineamerican, @erinoverbey, @newsguild, @mitrakalita, @lakeidrachavis, @femmefeministe, @gaufre, @laurahazardowen, @felicarrique, @emmacarew, @sarahscire, @dlind, @kat__stafford, @melissabell, @shirinj and Asian American Journalists …
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
The EU reaches a deal on the Digital Services Act to force social networks to toughen content moderation, reduce Google and Meta's ad targeting of minors, more — Companies such as Google and Facebook must moderate content more actively in regulatory clampdown
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Katie Glueck / New York Times:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signs a bill revoking Disney's special tax status, effective as of June 2023, after a clash over the state's “Don't Say Gay” law — Gov. Ron DeSantis's move to revoke the company's special tax status in Florida showed how combative his party …
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Naomi Nix / Washington Post:
Twitter bans ads that promote climate change denial and contradict “scientific consensus” — Twitter says ads can't contradict “scientific consensus” on the environmental crisis — Twitter is banning advertisements that promote climate change denial in an effort to curb …
Discussion:
@wutrain, The Verge, Protocol, Engadget, Twitter, @barackobama, @fboversight and @ericschultz, more at Techmeme »
Wall Street Journal:
As the Kremlin pushes Russians to use homegrown social media like Rutube and VKontakte, some users and content creators stick with Western services — Kremlin cracks down on Western social media, but Russia's homemade alternatives are a tough sell — The Kremlin is waging a new influence campaign …
Discussion:
@saraheneedleman, @etbrooking and @evangershkovich
Rebecca Ratcliffe / The Guardian:
Singapore jails Terry Xu, the editor of now-closed news outlet The Online Citizen, for three weeks for defamation over a letter alleging government corruption — Terry Xu was convicted last year after publishing a letter alleging ‘corruption at the highest echelons’
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Agence France-Presse
Jef Feeley / Bloomberg:
BuzzFeed sues to block arbitration claims from employees who say the company improperly denied them the opportunity to sell their shares following its IPO — BuzzFeed Inc. wants to block arbitration of claims that the company botched its initial-public offering and improperly denied employees …
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell's compensation hit $21.6M in 2021, up 31% YoY, while Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts' compensation reached $34M, up 4% YoY — In the last year, the conglomerate's stock declined 2 percent while its revenue rose 12.4 percent to $116.4 billion.