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

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Mediagazer at 1:25 PM ET, October 28, 2022.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Who's Hiring in Media?

Output Producer, CA — AP

China Markets Correspondent, Shanghai — Reuters

Senior Assignment Editor, DC — WaPo

Breaking News Editor, Tokyo — Bloomberg

Senior Correspondent - Wealth, NY — WSJ

Reporter - Ottawa Bureau — Globe & Mail

Research Director, CA — OCBJ

Immigration Enforcement Reporter — Documented

Presque Island Reporter, ME — Bangor Daily News

Contributing Parks Ed. - SW, CA — SFGATE

AI Content Editor, WA — Outlier

Legislative Reporter, TN — Daily Memphian

Elon Musk Reporter, NY or CA — The Information

Government & Politics Editor, WA — Seattle Times

Business & GA Reporter. VT — VTDigger

Sports Reporter, WA — Everett Herald

Energy Reporter, TX — Houston Chronicle

Senior Reporter, SC — Island Packet

Trade & Climate Correspondent, DC — FT

Reporter, WI — Racine County Eye

Political Newsletter Writer, CO — The Lever

Jackson Reporter, MS — Verite

Music Editor, AZ — Phoenix New Times

Breaking News Reporter, NV — Las Vegas Sun

Fearless Reporter/Producer, IA — BPC

Reporter II - Technology, Remote — NPR

Editor, Remote US — Daily Kos

City Reporter, WA — Tacoma News Tribune

Executive Editor, OR — Lookout Local

Education & Budget Reporter, CA — Politico

Senior Writer/Editor, FL — Gulfshore Business

Media Editor, Remote — Axios

Add your company here

See Also:

Mediagazer: site main

Mediagazer River: reverse chronological Mediagazer

Mediagazer Mobile: for phones

Mediagazer Leaderboard: Mediagazer's top sources

Subscribe:

Mediagazer RSS feed

Mediagazer on X

Mediagazer on Mastodon

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:

The Information:
Source: Microsoft and OpenAI wrangle over Microsoft's stake in the for-profit, use of OpenAI's IP, continued collection of 20% of OpenAI's revenue, and more

New York Times:
Japan Airlines halts ticket sales after a cyberattack hit its network equipment, causing delays to more than 40 flights, and says flight safety was not impacted

Noah Smith / Noahpinion:
How H-1B workers from India and other countries help the US remain dominant in tech, as some on the new “Tech Right” discover MAGA's racial-nationalist bigotry

Sister Sites:

Techmeme
Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web

memeorandum
What US political commentators are discussing online right now

WeSmirch
The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page