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:
@presssec, Variety, The Daily Beast, @oliverdarcy, @grynbaum, @oliverdarcy, The Hollywood Reporter, @megynkelly, @tommyxtopher, The Week, The Comeback, @zigmanfreud, @oliverdarcy, @anniekarni, Reuters, Newser, TVNewser, TVNewsCheck, The Hill, New York Times, The Sussex County Informer, @variety, @reploudermilk, Washington Post, @oliverdarcy, Deadline, Next TV, @jeremymbarr, @vincecoglianese, @nycsouthpaw, @isaiah_bb, @tommyxtopher, @claytravis, @tommyxtopher, @oliverdarcy, @geoffpilkington, @oliverdarcy, @blanchardjrb, @ltthompso, @pettylupone, @rossalincoln, Politico, @variety, ABC News, Los Angeles Times, Mediaite, SheKnows, TVLine, The Hill, New York Daily News, IndieWire, Mediaite, Fox News, Bloomberg, New York Post, Insider, The Wrap, Awful Announcing and CNN
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:
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, @jfgariepy, @grady_booch, @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, @kjgillenwater and Insider, 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:
Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, BBC, HuffPost UK, Variety, The Independent, Sky News, Byline Times and The Independent
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:
New Statesman, @jason_koebler, @dlberes, @lmatsakis, @lmatsakis, @lmatsakis, @semafor, @semafor, @reedalbergotti, Tubefilter, Bloomberg and Fox News, 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, @edoballerini, @libraryamerica, @susannahfox 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:
@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, News Corp, The Guardian 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
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, Australian Financial Review, @mvpeers, Reuters, News Corp, Advanced Television, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Variety and Sydney Morning Herald