Top News:
Washington Post:
Elon Musk takes over Twitter and fires several top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and policy head Vijaya Gadde — Musk's $44 billion deal to acquire the social media company closed on Thursday night. — SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk became Twitter's owner late Thursday …
Discussion:
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Elon Musk pens an open letter to calm Twitter advertisers, arguing his goal is not “to make more money” and the service “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape” — Mega-billionaire Elon Musk, nearing the finish line in his rocky takeover of Twitter …
Discussion:
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Wall Street Journal:
Sources: ahead of Elon Musk's takeover, advertisers on Twitter are concerned about looser content moderation and potential conflicts of interest for car ads — Marketers worry about the Tesla CEO's stance on content moderation, potential conflicts in auto advertising if the Twitter deal completes
Discussion:
The Verge, TechCrunch, The Wrap, Insider, New York Post, Los Angeles Times, ZDNet, @dropkiwifarms, @risj_oxford, @parkermolloy, @profcarroll, The Desk, @esqueer_, @asharma, @martinsfp, Mediaite, Vanity Fair, Gizmodo, Engadget, Bloomberg, Fortune, Associated Press and The Information, more at Techmeme »
Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
A reassessment of The New York Times' apology and James Bennet's firing after Sen. Tom Cotton's op-ed: Bennet was right and Publisher A.G. Sulzberger was wrong — Controversy over an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) consumed the New York Times in June 2020 and claimed the job of then-editorial page editor James Bennet.
Discussion:
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Defector:
Defector reports $3.8M in annual revenue, up from $3.2M in 2021, $3.7M in expenses, up from $3M in 2021, and 38K subscribers, who generated 95% of its revenue — Purpose of this report — Defector continues to have no outside investors and no intention of raising outside capital.
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, Adweek, @defectormedia, Media Voices, @film_girl, @jayrosen_nyu, @mattdpearce, @madbastardsall, @aznfusion, @sarahscire, @mckinneykelsey, @ahazlett, @taylorkatebrown, @theisen95, @lyzl, @defectormedia, @defectormedia, @defectormedia, @defectormedia, @drewmagary, @scott_tobias, @markstenberg3, @mckinneykelsey and @adweek
Ashley King / Digital Music News:
Music streaming service LiveOne and its subsidiary Slacker say a ruling ordering them to pay SoundExchange ~$10M in royalties could cause financial ruin — Is Slacker headed for bankruptcy? The company says SoundExchange's $10 million judgment could destroy them.
David Gutman / The Seattle Times:
A Washington judge fines Meta $24.66M, the maximum possible amount, after finding the company intentionally violated campaign finance disclosure laws 822 times — Meta, Facebook's parent company, was fined nearly $25 million Wednesday for intentionally and repeatedly violating Washington's campaign finance laws.
Discussion:
Washington State, Associated Press, The Hill, @katieharbath, @jvagle, @evelyndouek, Horrific/Terrific, @agowa, CNET, MediaPost and Gizmodo
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
In an email, Chris Licht told staff that CNN will stop buying documentary films and original TV series and instead use long-form content produced internally — Acquired and commissioned documentary movies and TV shows like ‘Navalny’ and ‘Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy’ are going away.
Daniel Finn / The Wire:
Q&A with Tom Mills, the author of The BBC: Myth of a Public Service, on the BBC's start in 1922, government relationships, rethinking the license fee, and more — No broadcaster in the world today can rival the cultural prestige of the UK's British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Kaya Yurieff / The Information:
Twitter confirms it shut down its Ticketed Spaces test indefinitely before Elon Musk's takeover of the company — Before Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, the company paused paid tickets to its live audio feature Spaces, the social network confirmed. “We've paused the Ticketed Spaces test indefinitely …
Agence France-Presse:
AFP and Twitter partner to elevate credible information in Spanish in Latin America, Spain, and the US, a month after announcing a deal for Portuguese in Brazil — AFP, one of the world's leading news agencies, and Twitter announced on Thursday a collaboration to identify …
Discussion:
Adweek
The Verge:
Spotify updates its iOS app to remove audiobook purchasing instructions, replaced with a message saying “it's not ideal”, to comply with Apple's App Store rules — An update for Spotify's iOS app released Thursday had a big change for its audiobooks vertical — and not for the better.
Discussion:
@chrismessina, @marcoarment, @jake_k, @caseynewton, XDA Developers and 9to5Mac