Mediagazer: 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 (Daniel Finn/The Wire)

1:25 PM ET, October 28, 2022

Top News:

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: @elonmusk, New York Times, @mmasnick, @nedsegal, Axios, @whey_standard, New York Times, CNBC, Techdirt, @thierrybreton, CNET, Insider, The Guardian, The Atlantic, CNN, Media Matters for America, Reuters, New York Magazine, New York Times, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, @mattzeitlin, The Hill, MediaPost, Observer, Slate, The Daily Wire, Variety, Mediaite, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, The Register, Jezebel, @ariehkovler, Protocol, Bloomberg, Reason, The Information, Wired, CBS News, Broadband TV News, @donwinslow, MacRumors, Gizmodo, @ericrweinstein, @tinch, Common Dreams, @film_girl, @jason_kint, @_lokeshsharma, Al Jazeera, The Addition, Variety, @kaalateetham, @megan, @nickbilton, @geoffreyvs, The Week, @karaswisher, @mattzeitlin, @quinncy, ABC7, @megbasham, @carnage4life, @dellcam, @jeffjarvis, @goldman, @penamerica, @danprimack, @clarajeffery, Politico, AppleInsider, Agence France-Presse, BuzzFeed News, Vanity Fair, CNET, CNN, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap, TechCrunch, The Desk, New York Post, Engadget, WFLA-TV, The Wildfire Newsletter, The Verge, The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone and The New Normal, more at Techmeme »

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: @elonmusk, New York Times, Insider, MediaPost, @sep, Insider, Press Gazette, TechCrunch, Washington Post, The Information, NPR, CNBC, Bloomberg, Today's Take, Forbes, @cwarzel, @daveyalba, WISC-TV, Billboard, New York Post, The Verge, Fortune, Wired, Axios, @wajahatali, @schmittnyc, @bcappelbaum, @miblogestublog, @mzhemingway, KTLA, @adriennelaf, @emilybell, The Shortcut, Bloomberg, @maxkennerly, @hayskali, Pirate Wires, @greg_price11, @vprasadmdmph, @jayrosen_nyu, AdExchanger, Associated Press, Digiday, The Daily Wire, @marklittlenews, @schwarz, @schwarz, @briannawu, Los Angeles Times, @esqueer_, @adriennelaf, @justinhendrix, @pkafka, @goldman, @cwarzel, 9to5Mac, @donie, @ruthbenghiat, FOX News Radio, MAGA Underground, Vox, @theplumlinegs, @oneunderscore__, The Daily Beast, CBS News, @robinw, Vanity Fair, Media Matters for America, Reuters, Music Ally, The Drum, The Hill, Mumbrella, Tech Flash, Mediaite, Politico, Engadget, Slate, Rolling Stone, PC Gamer and Financial Times, more at Techmeme »

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.

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.

Discussion: Billboard and RAIN News

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.

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).

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

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:

More than 500 authors and others working in publishing sign an open letter to Penguin Random House protesting Amy Coney Barrett's $2M book deal — More than 250 literary figures rail against acquisition by Penguin Random House of book by conservative US supreme court justice

Discussion: The Wrap, Mediaite, @samthielman, @katzonearth, @nicoperrino, @nicoperrino, @samthielman, @josephoneillx, @heckelfonic, @nicoperrino, @penamerica and @xor

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:

Spotify's contracts show podcasters who use SPAN, its programmatic ad marketplace, split revenue 50/50 and Spotify doesn't guarantee competitive ads won't run — Hey y'all. The sun finally came out in New York today. It's glorious, and it's Thursday. As always, replying to this email reaches an unmonitored inbox.

Discussion: Simon Owens's Media Newsletter, 9to5Mac and Castos

Kaya Yurieff / The Information:

Twitter confirms the company shut down its Ticketed Spaces test indefinitely before Elon Musk's takeover — 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 …

more at Techmeme »

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.

Discussion: Variety, IndieWire and @elwasson

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More News:

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%

Discussion: Axios, The Register, 9to5Mac, Apple, El País, @carnage4life, @samifathi_, @jsnell, @claireatki, Bloomberg, Engadget, AppleInsider, Variety, MacRumors, TechCrunch, The Verge and Apple Inc., more at Techmeme »

Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon reports Q3 advertising services revenue grew 25% YoY to $9.55B vs. $9.48B est., and subscription services revenue grew 9% YoY to $8.9B

Discussion: TechCrunch, CNET, Publishers Weekly, Front Office Sports, Digiday, @tcarmody, @pt, Insider, CoinDesk, Adweek, Observer, The Verge and Reuters, 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

Discussion: @chrismessina, @marcoarment, @jake_k, @caseynewton, XDA Developers and 9to5Mac

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

Discussion: Adweek

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Source: Snapchat now pays creators using its TikTok clone Spotlight millions per year collectively, down from millions per week in 2021 and $1M per day in 2020

Discussion: @carnage4life and @blackamazon

Earlier Picks:

Todd Spangler / Variety:
The New York Post fires an employee who hijacked its website and Twitter account to share racist and violent posts, calling the content “vile and reprehensible”

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

Discussion: @jbenton, @jbenton, @jbenton, @dabeard, @daveyalba, @daveyalba, @daveyalba and @daveyalba

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”

Discussion: CNBC, Gizmodo, @film_girl, 9to5Mac, The Verge, TechCrunch and Insider

Patrick Coffee / Wall Street Journal:
NYC-based OpenWeb, which helps outlets target readers with ads and manage comments, raised a $170M Series F at a $1.5B valuation, up from $1B+ in November 2021

Discussion: @aripap, @ericfranchi, @nadavshoval and @mjbarash

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

Discussion: MediaPost, CNN, Broadband TV News, @versharma and Advanced Television

From Techmeme:

New York Times:
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner says China-linked Salt Typhoon group listened to phone calls and read texts by hacking US telecom networks

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: TikTok CEO Shou Chew, who has known Elon Musk for several years, has sought Musk's counsel in recent weeks on the incoming Trump administration

Financial Times:
Similarweb: Bluesky app usage in the US and UK grew ~300% to 3.5M DAUs after Nov. 5; Threads now has 1.5x Bluesky's DAUs in the US, down from 5x before Nov. 5

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