Top News:
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 …
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@elonmusk, The Atlantic, @sep, Media Matters for America, The Hill, Bloomberg, Vanity Fair, @cwarzel, Mediaite, The Drum, @marklittlenews, @schwarz, @schwarz, @briannawu, Gizmodo, Reuters, Jordan's Newsletter, @donie, @ruthbenghiat, TMZ.com, @robinw, @theplumlinegs, @oneunderscore__, The Wrap, Financial Times, @goldman, Fortune, PC Gamer, Associated Press, Quartz, @cwarzel, @adriennelaf, CNN, The Guardian, El País, Engadget, Slate, @esqueer_, @pkafka, @justinhendrix, Rolling Stone, Ad Age, Observer, Deadline, MediaPost, NPR, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Insider, Politico, New York Post, The Information, New York Times and CBS News, more at Techmeme »
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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
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.
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@jonathanchait, @jeffreyasachs, @marcbodnick, @jeffreyasachs, @lukeoneil47, @sethamandel, @levinejonathan, @sethamandel, @coreypein, @coreypein, @coreypein, @coreypein, @__seab, @__seab, @heerjeet, @easterbrookg, @sivavaid, @thomaschattwill, @tomscocca, @tomscocca, @tomscocca, @tomscocca, @nprinskeep, @jtlol, @davidfolkenflik, @nycsouthpaw, @semaforben, @sethamandel, @bariweiss and Overtime
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.
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Adweek, Nieman Lab, @mckinneykelsey, @mckinneykelsey, @markstenberg3, @madbastardsall, @defectormedia, @scott_tobias, @sarahscire, @drewmagary, @lyzl, @mattdpearce, @defectormedia, @adweek, @defectormedia, @ahazlett, @taylorkatebrown, @theisen95, @defectormedia, @jayrosen_nyu and @aznfusion
Todd Spangler / Variety:
The New York Post says it has fired an employee who hijacked its site and Twitter account and posted racist and violent headlines — The official Twitter account of the right-leaning New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, was hacked Thursday morning before the publication restored control.
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@nypost, New York Times, Mediaite, TechCrunch, The Guardian, CNBC, Gizmodo, @john_sipher, @oliverdarcy, New York Magazine, @tomwatson, @oliverdarcy, Engadget, Boing Boing, The Desk, Jezebel, Press Gazette, The Hill, The Wrap, @digiphile, Insider, Wall Street Journal, @jasonhirschhorn, The Daily Beast, Fox News, @campuscodi, Deadline, The Record and Bloomberg
Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:
CNN names Athan Stephanopoulos, previously the president of Vox Media's news site NowThis, as its chief digital officer, starting on November 14 — CNN has named Athan Stephanopoulos as its new chief digital officer, appointing a veteran of the online video business to grow its audience as the network braces for further cost-cutting.
Discussion:
CNN, Advanced Television, Deadline, Variety, @versharma, The Hollywood Reporter and Media Play News
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Comcast reports NBCU revenue down 4% to $9.6B and EBITDA up 24.6% YoY to $1.7B; Peacock has 15M+ subscribers, up 70% YTD, and accounted for a $614M EBITDA loss — Parent company Comcast also updates broadband subscriber trends at its cable systems business amid growth challenges across the industry.
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CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Deadline, The Wrap, Adweek, The Streamable, IndieWire, @tvgrimreaper, The Wrap, Business Wire, Variety, Deadline and Radio & Television …
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Following complaints from prominent developers, Apple says the company “paused ads related to gambling and a few other categories on App Store product pages” — Original story from October 25 follows. — Apple today rolled out new ad placements in the App Store on the iPhone …
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CNBC, 9to5Mac, The Verge, TechCrunch, XDA Developers, @film_girl, Insider, The Information, The Verge, Engadget, MediaNama, AppleInsider and Financial Times
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple's Services revenue grew 4.98% YoY to $19.19B vs. $20.1B expected in Q4; fiscal year Services growth was above 14%, slower than 2021's 16% and 2020's 27% — - Apple reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday that beat Wall Street expectations on revenue and earnings per share.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Variety, Apple, Wall Street Journal, Engadget, The Verge, Apple Inc., 9to5Mac, @carnage4life, @samifathi_, AppleInsider, @jsnell and @claireatki, more at Techmeme »
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:
XDA Developers, @caseynewton, @jake_k, 9to5Mac, @marcoarment, AppleInsider, @brandonking4787, @wolfejosh, @film_girl and Engadget, more at Techmeme »
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
The US DOJ formally bans the use of subpoenas, warrants, or court orders to seize reporters' communications records or demand notes or testimony in leak probes — The rule codifies and expands a policy he issued in 2021, after it came to light that the Trump administration had secretly gone …
Discussion:
Freedom of the Press …, @clarajeffery, @rcfp, @trevortimm, U.S. Department of Justice, @dankennedy_nu, @demandprogress, @adamgoldmannyt, @freedomofpress, @lindseyboylan, @lawfareblog, @lawfareblog, @knightcolumbia, @cathmccarthy77, @scottmstedman, @charlie_savage, @jason_kint, @digiphile, Slate, The Reporters Committee …, Lawfare, Washington Post, CNN, CBS News and Committee to Protect …
Davey Alba / Bloomberg:
NewsGuard: partisan organizations masquerading as local news outlets have spent about $3.94M on Facebook and Instagram ads so far in 2022, per Meta's Ad Library — Facebook and Instagram are running millions of dollars in ads from so-called pink-slime newsrooms — partisan organizations masquerading …
Discussion:
@jbenton, @jbenton, @jbenton, @dabeard, @daveyalba, @daveyalba, @daveyalba, @daveyalba and NewsGuard