Top News:
CNN:
The White House says Biden's pre-Super Bowl interview with Fox is still off, after Fox said its streaming service Fox Soul would interview him, in an about-face — Hours after the White House said Fox had called off its pre-Super Bowl interview with President Joe Biden, the network said the president was still welcome.
Discussion:
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Charlotte Van Campenhout / Reuters:
An advertising joint venture by Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, and Vodafone to rival Meta and Google wins unconditional EU antitrust approval — Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE), Orange (ORAN.PA), Telefonica (TEF.MC) and Vodafone (VOD.L) on Friday secured unconditional EU antitrust approval …
Discussion:
@astaniscia86, European Commission, @robertjbateman, @wolfiechristl, Newsroom Orange Groupe and Adweek, more at Techmeme »
Faisal Kalim / What's New in Publishing:
FIPP Q4 2022 report covering 140 titles with a combined 42.1M subscribers: despite inflation and recession fears, global digital news subscribers kept growing — “Publishers will continue to see growth in 2023 despite economic headwinds.” … Although “the combination of a looming recession …
Discussion:
@kenherts and Media Voices
Clare Duffy / CNN:
Pathmatics estimates the monthly revenue from Twitter's top 1,000 advertisers fell 60%+ from around $127M in October 2022 to just over $48M by January 25, 2023 — New York CNN — — More than half of Twitter's top 1,000 advertisers in September were no longer spending on the platform …
Discussion:
@pnewman51, @scottjshapiro, @charles_gaba, @pnewman51, @grady_booch, @jfgariepy, @helenkennedy, @bungdan, @astaniscia86, Insider and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »
John Herrman / New York Magazine:
How Rumble, which claims to have 71M MAUs, became the only success story in right-wing social media by letting creators who are banned elsewhere monetize video — For a moment, the right's longtime dream of an alternative social media seemed within reach. Various companies had been trying …
Discussion:
@ggreenwald and @ben_kew, more at Techmeme »
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Meta's limited ad targeting options and Amazon's ad product investments are leading brands to shift their budgets to Amazon; Amazon's ad business grew 19% in Q4 — - Facebook's more limited targeted capabilities coupled with Amazon's investment in ads products is leading a growing number of brands to shift their ad budgets.
Discussion:
@lorakolodny, @glenngabe, @carnage4life and @kjgillenwater, more at Techmeme »
The Guardian:
UK DCMS Committee report: BBC chairman Richard Sharp made “significant errors of judgment” by not divulging his link to a Boris Johnson loan before appointment — The chair's future at the corporation is in doubt after a damning Commons report on his role in the Boris Johnson loan affair
Discussion:
@patrickarobey, Variety, Sky News, @richardjmurphy, @dawnwestgate, The Hollywood Reporter, BBC, HuffPost UK, The Independent, Byline Times, The Independent and Deadline
Louise Matsakis / Semafor:
Sources: TikTok's Internal Audit team that spied on journalists had wide investigative powers with little oversight; ByteDance says it's restructuring the team — TikTok's hyper-aggressive internal security team drew a wave of complaints from employees before its conduct exploded …
Discussion:
Fox News, Bloomberg, The Hill, New Statesman, @jason_koebler, @dlberes, @lmatsakis, @lmatsakis, @lmatsakis, @semafor, @semafor, @reedalbergotti and Tubefilter, more at Techmeme »
Alex Williams / New York Times:
Marianne Mantell, who co-founded Caedmon, a groundbreaking label that issued recordings of writers reading their words, the precursors to audiobooks, dies at 93 — In her early 20s she co-founded the groundbreaking spoken-word record label Caedmon, which had a hit with Dylan Thomas's “A Child's Christmas in Wales.”
Discussion:
@robertslawrence, @notjessewalker, @susannahfox, @edoballerini, @libraryamerica and @penamerica
Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:
Report: ads next to tweets from 10 extremist Twitter accounts restored by Musk generate enough engagement to likely bring in $19M in ad revenue annually — Ads from major brands are running alongside hateful content and dangerous conspiracy theories from far right Twitter users, group claims
Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg:
Sources: Fox turned down $2B+ unsolicited offers for Tubi, which the company acquired for $440M in 2020; Tubi lost ~$50M in Q4 and grew sales 25% YoY to $200M+ — Fox Corp. has turned down unsolicited offers of more than $2 billion for its Tubi streaming service, over four times …
Discussion:
@cavandy, @tvgrimreaper, @carlquintanilla, @tsoh_investing, The Streamable, Insider, The Wrap and Media Play News
Pluralistic:
Creators tend to see copyright as a strong defense, including against generative AI, but it won't protect them from odious contracts imposed by monopolists — The media spectacle of generative AI (in which AI companies' breathless claims of their software's sorcerous powers are endlessly repeated) …
Discussion:
@doctorow, @anniezaidi and @jbaert
Reuters:
News Corp Q2: revenue down 7% YoY to $2.52B, vs. $2.55B est., net income down 64% YoY to $94M, book publishing revenue down 14%, and news media revenue down 9% — Media conglomerate News Corp (NWSA.O) said on Thursday that it would cut 1,250 jobs after it missed estimates for second-quarter earnings due …
Discussion:
@pressgazette, The Guardian, News Corp and The Wrap
RELATED:
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
News Corp plans to cut its headcount by ~5%, or ~1,250 positions, by the end of 2023 and says the company is still in talks to sell its digital real estate unit
Discussion:
The Wrap, @mvpeers, Reuters, Australian Financial Review, News Corp, Advanced Television, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Variety and Sydney Morning Herald
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