Top News:
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Memo: on top of cutting ~20% of its staff, Snap cancels its original shows, in-app games, and Zenly and Voisey apps; the layoffs could save $500M annually — Snapchat's original shows, in-app games, and camera drone are no more — Snap is laying off around 20 percent of its more than 6,400 employees …
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Alex Heath / The Verge:
Netflix hires two Snap executives to lead its ad-supported tier: Chief Business Officer Jeremi Gorman and VP of Sales for the Americas Peter Naylor
Netflix hires two Snap executives to lead its ad-supported tier: Chief Business Officer Jeremi Gorman and VP of Sales for the Americas Peter Naylor
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Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Disney explores a membership program akin to Amazon Prime, bundling streaming, theme parks, and merchandise, and adding a commerce feature to Disney+ — Entertainment giant looks to package streaming, parks and merchandise offerings together; aims to add commerce feature to Disney+
David Bauder / Associated Press:
Media Insight Project's May-June 2022 survey: ~71% of younger Americans get news daily from social media and 32% enjoy following the news, down from 53% in 2015 — Young people are following the news but aren't too happy with what they're seeing. Broadly speaking, that's the conclusion …
Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Netflix seeks to charge brands a ~$65 CPM on its ad-supported tier, more than most other streaming services, and cap every brand's annual spend at $20M — Streaming giant aims for Nov. 1 launch of ad-supported tier, ad buyers say — Netflix Inc. NFLX 1.32%▲ …
Angela Fu / Poynter:
Sources: in a staff Q&A, CEO Mike Reed said Gannett laid off 3% of its US workforce in August 2022, or ~400 people; he and the CFO defended Reed's compensation — The round of layoffs, which started Aug. 12, followed a dismal second quarter. — Gannett CEO Mike Reed told staff …
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Paramount+ plans to combine with Showtime into a single app for $11.99/month with ads and $14.99/month without; stand-alone Showtime will cost $10.99/month — Paramount+ and Showtime have combined into a single streaming app. — The full bundling follows an initial move last year to unify …
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Casey Newton / Nieman Lab:
An interview with Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine: writers with subscribers should be paid more and thinking “Medium was going to shine” in journalism was a mistake — Sometimes as a reporter you write a piece that is critical of a company and the company decides not to talk to you again for a long while, or ever again.
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Jem Aswad / Variety:
US music publishers settle on 15.35% for mechanical streaming rates in 2023-2027, avoiding costly legal fights with Amazon, Apple, Google, Pandora, and Spotify — The announcement comes as a surprise, as the NMPA has been saying for months that it would push for a 20% rate for the forthcoming period.
Manyun Zou / The Pudding:
A comparison of The Big Bang Theory episodes to censored ones in China suggests the government aims to silence sex and LGBTQ+ topics plus disrespect of China — With , Russell Goldenberg and Rob Smith — This story contains scroll-driven visuals. View them in static format on off
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@shortformernie, @gertig, @sonnybunch, @manyun_zou and Numlock News
Kerry Flynn / Axios:
BuzzFeed is licensing its name to retail airport stores; two opened in LaGuardia Airport in June 2022, selling beverages, snacks, magazines, and souvenirs — Exit Content Preview — BuzzFeed, Inc. is entertaining airport travelers not just via its own smartphones but also IRL with new retail stores.
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@davezatz, @abeaujon, @delia_cai, @adrianhon and @kerrymflynn
ProPublica:
An investigation details an Instagram verification scheme using fake profiles on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, and more; Meta removes badges from 300+ accounts — ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.
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Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
Just 18 months after launching The National Wales, Newsquest shutters it, citing “competition from free news outlets” and falling subscriptions due to inflation — Newsquest is closing its news website for Wales, The National, 18 months after it launched.