Top News:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Spotify reports Q2 revenue rose 23% YoY to €2.9B as its net loss widened to €125M; MAUs were up 19% YoY to 433M and Premium users reached 188M, up 14% YoY — Spotify turned in strong numbers for the second quarter, beating expectations for total and paid subscriber adds and reporting 23% revenue growth.
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Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Spotify says it has “decided to stop further production of Car Thing units” and will take a €31M charge, citing demand and supply chain issues — Spotify's push to complement its music streaming with a big move into podcasting and related content appears to be paying off …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, 9to5Mac, The Verge, @ashleyrcarman, @ashleyrcarman and @ashleyrcarman, more at Techmeme »
The Hollywood Reporter:
Daniel Ek says Spotify plans to reduce the pace of hiring by 25% as “things could get worse”; Spotify's stock rises 10%+ — As the music streaming giant's stock jumps, CEO Daniel Ek addresses macro-economic challenges, saying “only the prepared survive, and we're preparing as if things could get worse.”
Discussion:
Spotify, The Verge and Business Wire
Charlotte Klein / Vanity Fair:
Some Republican candidates are barring traditional media from events and ignoring debate requests as midterm elections approach, favoring rightwing outlets — GOP politicians are increasingly shirking sit-down interviews, barring journalists from 2022 events, and skipping debates …
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Emma Roth / The Verge:
TikTok plans to give “selected researchers” access to its platform and moderation system, helping them “assess content and trends or conducts tests” — The move comes hours after a report reveals TikTok's efforts to distance itself from China
Discussion:
TikTok, more at Techmeme »
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Chris Stokel-Walker / Gizmodo:
Internal TikTok PR documents suggest responses to difficult questions, including downplaying AI, links to ByteDance, and “the China association”
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Newslit Daily, @annalecta, @alexhern, @stokel, @stokel and @iblametom, more at Techmeme »
Jon Harris / Buffalo News:
The Buffalo News names Sheila Rayam as executive editor, the first Black journalist and second woman to hold the position in the paper's 142-year history — Longtime journalist Sheila Rayam has been named executive editor of The Buffalo News, the first Black journalist and the second woman …
Discussion:
American Press Institute, @sulliview and @joespectorny
Taylor Lorenz / Taylor Lorenz's Newsletter:
Nostalgia for the “old”, chronological Instagram makes sense but belies changing norms around online sharing, communication, privacy, and engaging content — It isn't just the platform that has changed, we have too. — Over the past few days there's been a movement to “Make Instagram Instagram again.”
Discussion:
@theurbanjuror, @rossreports, @boopfashionista, @rrroooiiirrr, @_zeets, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz and @taylorlorenz, more at Techmeme »
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Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:
Source: Meta begins forming an advisory board with top entertainment executives, managers, and publicists; the board will not advise on product changes
Discussion:
@jessespector, @taylorlorenz, @arainert, Music Ally, @edwardbarsamian, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz, @drewharwell and PAPER
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Hulu will accept political issue ads, after Democrats complained over rejecting ads on guns and abortions, matching the policies of Disney's cable networks — Disney on Wednesday confirmed to Axios that it would allow political issue ads — in addition to candidate ads — on Hulu's streaming service …
Discussion:
Variety, MediaPost, The Wrap, Protocol, Forbes, Gizmodo, The Verge, The A.V. Club, Media Play News, The Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, @lesliemac, Decider, @sifill_, @sarafischer, @sarafischer, @kestral52, Deadline and Rolling Stone
Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTube's Q2 ad revenue grew 4.8% YoY to $7.34B, below expectations of a 7% YoY increase to $7.49B and marking YouTube's slowest ad growth in over two years — YouTube still banks a huge bucket of ad bucks — hitting $7.34 billion in the second quarter — but the video giant's growth …
Discussion:
Music Ally, Digital TV Europe, @digitalshields and MediaPost
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Miles Kruppa / Wall Street Journal:
Alphabet's $69.69B revenue marks its slowest sales growth since Q2 2020, missing estimates by almost $190M, as macroeconomic pressures mount on the ad market
Discussion:
Protocol, The Guardian, @jowens510, @lexnfx and The Great Reset Diary 2022, more at Techmeme »
The New York Times Company:
John Keefe, a senior data and visuals editor at CNN, joins The New York Times as its editor of weather data to focus on extreme weather coverage — John Keefe joins The Times as editor of weather data. Read more in this note from assistant managing editor Matthew Ericson.
Discussion:
Talking Biz News
Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
Source: the BBC is reviewing retaining talent who make public service radio programs and podcasts by transferring them to its for-profit commercial division — Bosses may transfer popular podcasters to BBC's commercial arm after loss of big names including Emily Maitlis and John Sopel
Discussion:
@jimwaterson
Peter Beaumont / The Guardian:
The UK sanctions Graham Phillips, a British citizen and YouTuber who broadcasts pro-Kremlin material from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine — Graham Phillips is accused of being a conduit for pro-Russian propaganda and is first UK citizen put on list — A British citizen …
Discussion:
@francis_scarr, @eliothiggins, Andrew Korybko's Newsletter, @eliothiggins and @gerashchenko_en
Dan Taylor / Tech.eu:
Madrid-based Seedtag, which offers a cookie-less contextual advertising engine to brands, raised €250M from Advent, following a ~€39M Series B in September 2021 — Having already championed Europe and Latin America with its cookie-less proprietary machine-learning contextual …
Discussion:
Seedtag; Advent International, more at Techmeme »
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