Mediagazer: In an email to staff, Chris Licht said CNN will stop buying documentary films and original TV series, and instead explore creating a long-form content studio (Benjamin Mullin/New York Times)

7:30 PM ET, October 28, 2022

Top News:

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Among tech companies, Twitter has been the biggest defender of online free speech, globally; fired head of legal and policy Vijaya Gadde drove much of that work — Last night, Elon Musk closed his on-again, off-again, on-again deal to buy Twitter, and his very first order of business was to fire a bunch of top executives.

Washington Post:

Elon Musk takes over Twitter and fires several top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and legal policy, trust, and safety head Vijaya Gadde — Musk's $44 billion deal to acquire the social media company closed on Thursday night. — SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk became …

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

CNBC:

General Motors suspends its paid advertising on Twitter as the car company evaluates the “direction of the platform under their new ownership” — - General Motors is suspending its advertising on Twitter following Elon Musk's takeover of the social media platform.

Discussion: Ad Age, @tweetermeyer, @chiproytx, @mmasnick, @theepurity, @tomaxwell, The Information and Washington Post, 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, Washington Post, Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At, CNN, PRWeek, Observer, @sep, The Wrap, Insider, The Information, Gizmodo, WISC-TV, CoinDesk, @cwarzel, CNBC, @daveyalba, The Hill, CNET, NPR, New Republic, Associated Press, CBS News, Techdirt, Billboard, KTLA, MediaPost, Today's Take, Axios, @maxwinebach, Fortune, Los Angeles Times, The Shortcut, Bloomberg, Press Gazette, Wired, ZDNet, New York Times, New York Post, The Verge, TechCrunch, Forbes, Insider, The Daily Wire, @schmittnyc, @mzhemingway, @wajahatali, @greg_price11, @jayrosen_nyu, @bcappelbaum, @hayskali, @vprasadmdmph, The Week, @miblogestublog, @maxkennerly, @emilybell, Politico, The Post Millennial, @adriennelaf, @marklittlenews, @schwarz, @schwarz, @briannawu, Pirate Wires, AdExchanger, @esqueer_, @adriennelaf, @justinhendrix, @pkafka, @goldman, @cwarzel, Digiday, @donie, @ruthbenghiat, Vanity Fair, Music Ally, 9to5Mac, @theplumlinegs, @oneunderscore__, The Daily Beast, @robinw and MAGA Underground, more at Techmeme »

Alex Heath / The Verge:

CNBC and Bloomberg ran headlines saying Elon Musk cut Twitter staff, based on two people with boxes outside the company's office; one used a meme as his name — In videos circulating on Twitter Friday morning, two men carrying boxes are seen standing near the entrance to Twitter's San Francisco building …

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 nearly $10M in royalties could bankrupt the company — Is Slacker headed for bankruptcy? The company says SoundExchange's $10 million judgment could destroy them.

Discussion: Billboard

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

In an email to staff, Chris Licht said CNN will stop buying documentary films and original TV series, and instead explore creating a long-form content studio — Acquired and commissioned documentary movies and TV shows like ‘Navalny’ and ‘Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy’ are going away.

Discussion: Variety, Puck, The A.V. Club, @jamesjonesfilm, The Wrap, @maxkennerly, @isobelyeung, @will_doran, IndieWire, @thor_benson, @scottfeinberg, @fawfulfan, @elwasson, @jbflint and The Hollywood Reporter

Bloomberg:

A book excerpt details Netflix's shift from DVDs and tensions with HBO, which took a hard line on streaming rights, leading Netflix to make its own content — Jeffrey Bewkes scanned his mind, searching for the perfect war metaphor. — It was December 2010.

Discussion: @lucas_shaw

Pjotr Sauer / The Guardian:

Russian journalist Ksenia Sobchak, daughter of Putin's one-time boss, has fled to Lithuania, intelligence services say, after a police raid on one of her homes — Ksenia Sobchak, media personality and daughter of Vladimir Putin's one-time boss, was subject of arrest order

Discussion: Grid News, Washington Post and Insider

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).

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: Fox News, @josephoneillx, @heckelfonic, @nicoperrino, @samthielman, The Wrap, @joshbbornstein, @katzonearth, @nicoperrino, @nicoperrino, @samthielman, @senwhitehouse, @penamerica, @thefireorg, @xor, @nmamatas, Mediaite and The Post Millennial

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Financial Times:
eMarketer: US advertisers are on track to spend $65.3B on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks in 2022, up 3.6% YoY, which is ~10x slower than in 2021

Discussion: Crain's New York Business and @financialtimes, more at Techmeme »

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

Discussion: 9to5Mac and Simon Owens's Media Newsletter

Kaya Yurieff / The Information:
Twitter confirms the company shut down its Ticketed Spaces test indefinitely before Elon Musk's takeover

more at Techmeme »

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

Discussion: @evelyndouek, @katieharbath, @jvagle, Associated Press, Horrific/Terrific, The Hill, @agowa and CNET

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%

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Earlier Picks:

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: Front Office Sports, CNET, TechCrunch, Publishers Weekly, @tcarmody, @pt, Digiday and Insider

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: Insider, @chrismessina, @marcoarment, @jake_k and @caseynewton

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

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

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: XDA Developers, The Verge, @carnage4life and @blackamazon

From Techmeme:

Kent Walker / The Keyword:
Google says the DOJ's “wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court's decision”, would hurt US consumers, and jeopardize the US' global tech leadership

Paige Smith / Bloomberg:
The CFPB will supervise tech companies with digital wallets, like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Venmo, with 50M+ annual transactions, treating them more like banks

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Cybersecurity startup Wiz acquires Dazz, a specialist in security remediation and risk management; sources say the cash-and-stock deal is valued at $450M

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