Top News:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Warner Bros. Discovery has been quietly culling HBO Max content, including at least six Warner Bros. films and the House Party reboot, in apparent cost cutting — Warner Bros. Discovery has been quietly culling content from HBO Max — including several Warner Bros. movies that were exclusively streaming …
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The Wrap:
Sources: WBD CEO David Zaslav plans to announce a combined HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming service on August 4; 70% of HBO Max's development unit could be cut — Hollywood is buzzing around Warner Bros. Discovery's upcoming earnings results and plans for a combined streaming service, which can upend its most popular streamer
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Adam B. Vary / Variety:
Warner Bros. Discovery kills Batgirl and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt movies both for HBO Max and for theaters; Batgirl had a $90M budget; sources: Scoob! cost $40M — “Batgirl,” the feature film adaptation of the DC Comics character, has been killed at Warner Bros., Variety has confirmed.
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Natalie Musumeci / Insider:
Alex Jones' trial reveals that Infowars made as much as $800K per day in 2018, and that the fake news site made $70M in revenue in its most recent fiscal year — - An attorney for Sandy parents said Alex Jones' defense attorney “messed up” and sent him a digital copy of Jones' cell phone.
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Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
A look at the practice of guests paying podcasters to appear on their shows; Guestio, a marketplace for brokering paid guest appearances, has raised $1M+ — People will confess all sorts of things to podcasters, from their unpopular political beliefs or embarrassing romantic mishaps to their worst fears.
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Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:
Interviews with over two dozen Triller creators and others: the TikTok rival missed payments after promising Black creators $4K per month, half paid in equity — Triller made its name recruiting talent with lavish perks. Now, dozens of influencers are struggling to get paid.
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Elias Leight / Billboard:
SoundCloud cuts its global workforce by ~20% “due to a significant company transformation and the challenging economic and financial environment” — CEO Michael Weissman announced the cuts in an email, blaming them on “the challenging economic climate and financial market headwinds.”
Discussion:
Variety and @itsdaveedwards
Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg:
Unionized Thomson Reuters journalists in the US plan a 24-hour strike starting at 6am ET on August 4, the first walkout in decades, over pay raises — Thomson Reuters Corp. journalists in the US are preparing to launch a daylong strike Thursday, the first walkout in decades among the media company's long-unionized staff.
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@felixsalmon, @rover829 and @josheidelson
Ronan Shields / Digiday:
An Apple job posting indicates the company is looking to build a “privacy-forward”, mobile-centric demand-side ad platform — Apple may have blown up the digital ads business but it left enough fertile ground to build its own, more focused play for media dollars.
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Peter Kafka / Vox:
Sources: 1M+ people signed up for free newsletters on Meta's Bulletin service and earlier in 2022, the company was planning on expanding its roster of writers — The Substack frenzy seems like a thing of the past, but lots of publishers are still leaning into newsletters. “They're a great minimally viable product.”
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@rafat, @rmc031, @seangriffey, @emilystewartm, @pkafka, @bigmeaninternet, @elanazak, @chaykak, @chaykak and patrick's Newsletter
Rick Edmonds / Poynter:
Zette plans to offer access to paywalled stories across publications via a browser extension for $10/month; founder Yehong Zhu has signed up McClatchy and more — With Zette, Yehong Zhu says she has what young readers want and can succeed where others have failed
Discussion:
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Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter:
Lionsgate launches a podcast division that will handle production for its film and TV businesses as well as third-party clients, starting with a show by 50 Cent — Lionsgate Sound will handle podcasts for the Hollywood studio's film and TV divisions. — Lionsgate has launched …
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