Top News:
Amy Thomson / Bloomberg:
Endeavor acquires the WWE in a deal that values Vince McMahon's company at $9.3B including debt; Endeavor CEO Ariel Emanuel will lead the combined $21B+ company — Endeavor Group Holdings Inc. has agreed to buy World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. in a deal that values the company at $9.3 billion including debt.
Discussion:
Axios, The Hollywood Reporter, New York Times, Variety, CNBC, New York Times, Sportico, @sarafischer, The Week, Bloomberg, Investis Digital, Endeavor, Observer, Variety, Fox Business, Sportico, Fox Business, Financial Times, The A.V. Club, @jonalba, The Comeback, @sherman4949, Awful Announcing, @claytravis, Pro Wrestling Torch, @sherman4949, Reuters, @sherman4949, Reuters, @fightoracle, Media Play News, @benmullin, Yahoo Finance, @sherman4949, @alexweprin, Front Office Sports, @abrahamjoseph, Forbes, @lucas_shaw, The Information, @dennyburkholder, @lanceulanoff, Associated Press, Deadline, @jimpethokoukis, CNBC, Barrett Media, New York Post, New York Post, @brentsobleski, Front Office Sports, Variety, MediaPost, ClutchPoints, The Wrap, @chrisvannini, Gadgets 360, Wall Street Journal, Popverse Latest, New York Daily News, The FADER and IGN
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter: Endeavor's UFC, WWE to Merge; Ari Emanuel to Serve as CEO, Vince McMahon as Executive Chair
Patrick Frater / Variety: Endeavor Confirms WWE-UFC Deal to Create a $21 Billion Sports Entertainment Company
Alex Sherman / CNBC: Sources: UFC parent Endeavor nears a deal to acquire WWE from Vince McMahon and form a new publicly traded company; a deal could be announced as soon as April 3
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times: Endeavor and W.W.E. Join Forces to Create Live-Combat Tag Team
Brendan Coffey / Sportico: Market Says Vince McMahon Is Worth $500M Less Than Endeavor Does
Sara Fischer / @sarafischer: Endeavor acquires WWE in $9.3B deal It will combine WWE with UFC, creating a global fighting juggernaut worth north of $21B. https://www.axios.com/...
Brendan Morrow / The Week: UFC and WWE are set to merge
Endeavor: ENDEAVOR ANNOUNCES UFC® AND WWE® TO FORM A $21+ BILLION GLOBAL LIVE SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY
Joe Otterson / Variety: Endeavor-WWE Acquisition Deal Reached on Night 1 of WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles
Mary Kate Carr / The A.V. Club: UFC and WWE are getting married
Jon Alba / @jonalba: My bold prediction was the sale would come this weekend. @EBischoff predicted Endeavor from the start. Oh my. https://twitter.com/...
Sean Keeley / The Comeback: Pro wrestling world reacts to stunning WWE news
Clay Travis / @claytravis: Endeavor is buying WWE and pairing them with the UFC in a new standalone company. Brilliant move. Owning your entire business top to bottom is the absolute key going forward. Love this: https://www.cnbc.com/...
Alex Sherman / @sherman4949: Endeavor/WWE doing a recorded webcast now on the deal. So far, a lot of info about Endeavor's greatness. Few words about WWE. That's what happens when you're the 51 of a 51/49 deal.
Tiyashi Datta / Reuters: Endeavor Group to acquire WWE in $9.3 billion deal
@fightoracle: Alex, $EDR has a very complicated Corp structure as a result of going from a limited partnership to an UP-C IPO. There's a holding co, an opCo, manager co, executive holdco 1+2, executive PIU holdco. Any chance the UFC/WWE newCo is a tracking stock like Liberty Media does w/F1... https://twitter.com/...
Erik Gruenwedel / Media Play News: UFC, WWE to Merge Creating $21 Billion Global Live Sports and Entertainment Company
Ben Mullin / @benmullin: Sorry, wrestling fans: No “Ari Gold” character in the W.W.E. extended universe: https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Brian Sozzi / Yahoo Finance: WWE and UFC owner Endeavor agree to massive merger
Alex Sherman / @sherman4949: Scoop details: UFC and WWE are expected to form a new publicly traded company as part of the agreement. This allows WWE to follow the Endeavor/UFC playbook, which has been very lucrative/effective. https://twitter.com/...
Alex Weprin / @alexweprin: The combined UFC and WWE company will trade under a new ticker symbol: “TKO,” according to a copy of the deal terms. https://twitter.com/...
Josie Riesman / @abrahamjoseph: Upon further thought, my educated guess is that this new venture will be a disaster because Vince McMahon is a micromanaging totalitarian who will never settle for sharing power over the long term https://twitter.com/...
Lucas Shaw / @lucas_shaw: Vince McMahon resigned last year after using corporate funds to pay women he allegedly assaulted and harassed. Now he's about to sell his company for $9 billion and stay on as chairman.
Denny Burkholder / @dennyburkholder: After their current streaming deal is up, a significant price increase per event might be an easy off-ramp for any fan not invested enough in WWE to pay a lot more for it. https://twitter.com/...
Lance Ulanoff / @lanceulanoff: Mergermania https://twitter.com/...
Dade Hayes / Deadline: Endeavor Closing In On Deal For Majority Stake In WWE, Will Combine It With UFC To Form Combat Sports Giant - The Dish
James Pethokoukis / @jimpethokoukis: $9 billion? Obviously kayfabe. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Jordan Bondurant / Barrett Media: WWE Nearing Sale to Endeavor, To Form One Company With UFC
Bryan Fonseca / New York Post: Conor McGregor teases WWE title chase with UFC parent Endeavor set to buy company
Brent Sobleski / @brentsobleski: Vince McMahon won't actually step down after the sale. Who could have guessed? 🙄 https://twitter.com/...
J. Kim Murphy / Variety: Endeavor Nears Deal to Acquire WWE (Report)
Wayne Friedman / MediaPost: Endeavor Merging Its UFC Unit With WWE In $21B Deal
Jeremy Fuster / The Wrap: WWE Nears Deal for Sale to Endeavor, Would Form New Company With UFC (Report)
Chris Vannini / @chrisvannini: Everything in this image is so incredibly weird to see. https://twitter.com/...
Dean Seal / Wall Street Journal: WWE to Combine with UFC's Endeavor
Peter Sblendorio / New York Daily News: WWE, UFC will merge to create $21 billion company
Jordan Darville / The FADER: WWE and UFC to merge into $21.4 billion company
Ryan Dinsdale / IGN: WWE and UFC Set to Merge Under One Company
RELATED:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
An interview with WWE President Nick Khan on the WWE and UFC pursuing separate linear TV rights negotiations, continuing the WWE's Saudi relationship, and more — WWE and UFC will pursue separate media rights negotiations for linear TV, but there could be an opportunity to pursue a combined streaming deal …
Discussion:
Anthony Crupi / Sportico: WWE, UFC Work TV Rights Deals With Unified Streaming on Horizon
David Satin / The Streamable: WWE Acquired by UFC's Parent Company Endeavor; Fighting Promotions Could Pursue Unified Streaming Deal
Brandon Thurston / @brandonthurston: Nick Khan tells Axios WWE and UFC will pursue separate linear TV deals. They could pursue a combined streaming deal. He says WWE and Saudi Arabia will continue their relationship despite Endeavor's reluctance to do business with the government. https://www.axios.com/...
Sara Fischer / @sarafischer: NEW: @WWE and @UFC will pursue separate media rights negotiations for linear TV, but there could be an opportunity to pursue a combined streaming deal, WWE President Nick Khan told me in an interview Story on @axios: https://www.axios.com/...
Aaron Bronsteter / @aaronbronsteter: Nick Khan to @sarafischer of @axios on possible synergies between the UFC and WWE: “If there are fun things to do, we're going to figure it out.” However, he stated that the UFC and WWE will continue to run as separate entities under one combined holding company. https://twitter.com/...
Sara Fischer / @sarafischer: Other nuggets: —Layoffs/staff changes possible: “We'll have a lot more in the next week or 2” —WWE will continue its relationship w Saudi Arabia (Endeavor has severed those ties) —Companies will be run separately, name of combined entity being finalized in next couple of days https://twitter.com/...
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Twitter removed the verified badge from The New York Times' main account after Elon Musk responded to a meme taunting the outlet's decision not to pay for Blue — The Times and other news organizations say they won't pay for the icon, which is designed to protect against impersonation
Discussion:
@elonmusk, @elonmusk, @shayan86, @robtornoe, @nicoleperlroth, Mediaite, GitHub, Insider, NBC News, Fox News, @elonmusk, Forbes, Mashable, Barrett Media, @ruthbenghiat, @mollyjongfast, The Daily Dot, @dandrezner, Ars Technica, @benjysarlin, @espiers, TechCrunch, @washingtonpost, @mollyjongfast, @geoff9cow, @donmoyn, @conservcitygirl, @wilson__valdez, @taylorbuley, @espiers, @espiers, @kenroth, @genepark, @micsolana, Newser, @drewharwell, @ericmgarcia, The Verge, @jamessurowiecki, @robertmackey, @jayrosen_nyu, @evan_greer, @gidmk, Bloomberg, @espiers, @pbump, @zaleskiluke, @bigbluewaveusa, @w7voa, BBC, @penamerica, @loudmouthjulia, @eviebauer727, Puck, @timcast, @oliverdarcy, Deadline, @hsajwanization, @wongmjane, @drewharwell@mastodon.social and Rolling Stone, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Elon Musk / @elonmusk: @cb_doge Oh ok, we'll take it off then
Shayan Sardarizadeh / @shayan86: Seems totally fine. https://twitter.com/...
Rob Tornoe / @robtornoe: The New York Times is no longer verified on Twitter because they refuse to pay. It's the first big step in stripping away the true value of this social media platform - trusting and knowing something is real without having to spend time investigating. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Nicole Perlroth / @nicoleperlroth: When you remove one verified account (@nytimes) out of pure vindictiveness, but have no uniform policy or plan. https://twitter.com/...
Joe DePaolo / Mediaite: Elon Musk Makes His First Big Strike in the Great Blue Check Purge, Pulls the NY Times' Badge: 'Their Propaganda Isn't Even Interesting'
Grace Dean / Insider: News organizations say they won't pay for Elon Musk's Twitter Blue because ‘verified checkmarks no longer represent authority and expertise’
Julianne McShane / NBC News: Twitter hasn't removed verified check marks — except from The New York Times
Fox News: Elon Musk pulls New York Times' Twitter verified check mark, calling publication ‘propaganda’
Elon Musk / @elonmusk: @dogeofficialceo @nytimes NY Times is being incredible hypocritical here, as they are super aggressive about forcing everyone to pay *their* subscription
Matt Novak / Forbes: Elon Musk Calls New York Times ‘Hypocritical’ For Selling Subscriptions But Refusing To Pay For Twitter
Demetri Ravanos / Barrett Media: If You're Paying For Twitter Verification, I Can't Take You Seriously
Ruth Ben-Ghiat / @ruthbenghiat: @elonmusk so I guess Nazis like Andrew Anglin who you are replatforming are more “interesting” to you and more useful than the NYT to your goal of making Twitter into a site of far-right radicalization. https://twitter.com/...
Molly Jong-Fast / @mollyjongfast: @micsolana Technology companies made money on content they refused to pay for, now they're mad content creators won't pay them.
Gavia Baker-Whitelaw / The Daily Dot: Twitter seemingly backtracks on removing ‘legacy’ blue checkmarks
Daniel W. Drezner / @dandrezner: “The move appears to have been personally directed or encouraged by Musk, who had responded late Saturday night to a meme outlining the Times' decision to not pay for Twitter verification by saying, 'Oh ok, we'll take it off then.'” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Ashley Belanger / Ars Technica: Musk revokes NYT's Twitter badge after news org refused to pay $1K a month
Benjy Sarlin / @benjysarlin: Unverified account sharing images of the pope in a nice jacket — what do you think I was born yesterday? I'm not falling for that AI shit again. https://twitter.com/...
Elizabeth Spiers / @espiers: News is vital to Twitter's business, not the other way around.
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: Twitter's new label makes it hard to differentiate between legacy and paid verified accounts
@washingtonpost: Twitter removed the “verified” badge from the New York Times' main account on Sunday, a move that billionaire owner Elon Musk pushed for overnight after learning that the news organization would not pay for its Twitter Blue service. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Molly Jong-Fast / @mollyjongfast: Not everything can be the Santa Monica observer https://twitter.com/...
Geoff Ninecow / @geoff9cow: So destroying the value of @twitter does what for Musk again? Elon Musk Makes His First Big Strike in the Great Blue Check Purge, Pulls the NY Times' Badge: 'Their Propaganda Isn't Even Interesting' https://mediaite.com/a/cvuuf via @mediaite
Don Moynihan / @donmoyn: The point, again and again, is that one of the most important social media sites is run according to the whims of an incredibly petty person https://twitter.com/...
@conservcitygirl: Interesting. The @nytimes stripped my badge of online access after I stopped paying them! Funny how things work. https://twitter.com/...
@wilson__valdez: Again, the old Twitter system had some established (imperfect) guidelines that were supposed to be upheld. The new Twitter is literally one man raging at his enemies and making decisions on a whim. There is not any universe where this is a less ‘biased’ system. https://twitter.com/...
Tay Buley / @taylorbuley: @espiers As a publisher I thought of it as a good tool for sourcing, and, otherwise, a pretty distracting for journalists. Never looked at Twitter as a traffic source, driving at best 1% of referrals for our local rag.
Elizabeth Spiers / @espiers: Why would I pay for a platform *i* create content for and Elon monetizes via ads? Especially when I get paid to create content for media outlets? Elon is the buyer here, not the seller. https://twitter.com/...
Elizabeth Spiers / @espiers: I can live without 80k followers on Twitter because I have a few million readers from the NYT. This platform can't live without content from legit news outlets.
Kenneth Roth / @kenroth: Elon Musk retaliates against the @NYTimes for tis refusal to pay to play by removing its blue check verification. Now will he start downgrading its content, filling the “For you” feed with whatever crackpots are willing to fork over his monthly fee? https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Gene Park / @genepark: it's funny because the NYT has exponentially more paying subscribers than twitter https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Mike Solana / @micsolana: the press' refusal to pay for social media is especially interesting given they pay for many other tools far less vital to their business. the decision is not even apparently ideological, it really does just seem completely out of spite. funny though, good luck with that.
Evann Gastaldo / Newser: Twitter Strips a Prominent First of Its Blue Checkmark
Drew Harwell / @drewharwell: New: Twitter removed @nytimes' verified badge after @elonmusk saw a meme that said they won't pay for Twitter Blue. Latest chapter in his long grudge against the people who report on him. The Times tells me this morning they're still not planning to pay https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Eric Michael Garcia / @ericmgarcia: In a deleted tweet from early Sunday morning, Musk had said Twitter would give verified accounts “a few weeks grace, unless they tell they won't pay now, in which we will remove it.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Jon Porter / The Verge: Twitter had a very messy weekend
James Surowiecki / @jamessurowiecki: The New York Times pays the people who produce its content. It doesn't own a business built entirely on unpaid labor, and then try to charge those people for the right to give you their content for free. https://twitter.com/...
Robert Mackey / @robertmackey: Seems like a reasonable guy to entrust stewardship of a public information utility to https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Jay Rosen / @jayrosen_nyu: You have to admit: For nurturing trust in the platform, April Fool's year-round is a strikingly original approach. https://twitter.com/...
@gidmk: It's just bizarre to me how no one at twitter sees how this is destroying the product. Who wants to come to Twitter to follow Fake New York Times (verified) https://twitter.com/...
Elizabeth Spiers / @espiers: The mistake both Elon and Mike are making is thinking Twitter is vital to our business. No news property I've worked on received a significant amount of traffic from Twitter and that is especially true of the NYT.
Philip Bump / @pbump: Not to mention how stupid it is about newspapers! It's like saying “the Times would get more engagement if it mirrored the New York Post” or saying “the Times should only write stories about things people already care about.” Totally bizarre.
Luke Zaleski / @zaleskiluke: The world's richest man has taken possession of a global social media platform used by the world's journalists, scientists, governments, private citizens, businesses, religions, militaries and health/emergency services to share all vital information—It's going as you might expect https://twitter.com/...
@bigbluewaveusa: “The real tragedy of @nytimes is that their propaganda isn't even interesting.” -Elon Musk, trying to discredit one of the most respected newspapers in the world, The New York Times. I'm pretty sure The NY Times will survive Musk removing their check mark https://www.mediaite.com/...
Steve Herman / @w7voa: #Twitter removes the “verified” blue tick from the main profile of The New York Times, after the news organization said it wouldn't sign up for Elon Musk's new scheme of paid-for verification. https://www.independent.co.uk/ ...
Alys Davies / BBC: Twitter's blue ticks disappear as Musk attacks NY Times
@penamerica: “Twitter has removed the ‘verified’ blue tick from the main profile of The New York Times, after the news organization said it would not sign up for Elon Musk's new scheme of paid-for verification.” https://www.independent.co.uk/ ...
Julia Alexander / @loudmouthjulia: Clearly this is a mistake, which just further proves how messy and uncoordinated this checkmark removal process is, but wild to see the 24th most followed Twitter account lose its organization verification - not even standard verification - before other verification statuses. https://twitter.com/...
Evie / @eviebauer727: Elon Musk Pulls NY Times' Twitter Blue Check Verifications https://www.mediaite.com/...
Baratunde Thurston / Puck: Elon's Blue Period
Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy: Musk has stripped The NYT if it's badge after the outlet said it would not pay him for it. https://twitter.com/...
@hsajwanization: WooW ! Just 5 hours ago @elonmusk said we will take their check make off ! https://twitter.com/...
Jane Manchun Wong / @wongmjane: The New York Times (@nytimes) has become unverified The verification checkmark is gone https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Drew Harwell / @drewharwell@mastodon.social: New report from the bad place: Twitter removed @nytimes' verified badge after Elon Musk saw a meme that said they won't pay for Twitter Blue. Latest chapter in his long grudge against the people who report on him. …
Daniel Kreps / Rolling Stone: Twitter Spite-Removes New York Times' Verified Badge
RELATED:
Aaron McDade / Yahoo Finance:
In a now-deleted tweet, Elon Musk said Twitter would give verified accounts “a few weeks grace” but take away their checkmarks if “they tell they won't pay now” — - The first day of Twitter's previously announced axing of “legacy” verified checks nearly passed without incident.
Discussion:
Axios, New York Times, Insider, Forbes, @drewharwell, The Drum, Washington Post, Mashable, New York Post, Associated Press, Engadget, New York Daily News, @lessig, @kalhanr, @dancow, Gizmodo, @kenjennings, Gadgets 360, Rolling Stone, @dandrezner, The A.V. Club, Bloomberg, @brianstelter, Variety, IndieWire, The Hill and Vox, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Ina Fried / Axios: At Elon Musk's Twitter, speech is anything but free
Jennifer Sor / Insider: Dogecoin soars 20% after the token's Shiba Inu mascot replaces Twitter's bird logo
Dani Di Placido / Forbes: LeBron James, Chrissy Teigen And More Celebrities Refuse To Pay Elon Musk For A Twitter Blue Checkmark
Drew Harwell / @drewharwell: @nytimes @elonmusk .@elonmusk had said old checkmarks would disappear as of yesterday but @nytimes is one of the very few affected so far, possibly because the badges have to be removed one by one. Since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, its ad revenue has plunged 90% https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Kendra Clark / The Drum: Twitter's blue bird logo replaced with doge meme amid Musk's $258bn Dogecoin lawsuit
Alex Perry / Mashable: How to tell if a Twitter profile is real or fake
Thomas Barrabi / New York Post: Dogecoin dog replaces Twitter logo on homepage, meme token's price soars 30%
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget: Twitter is covered in Doge for no discernible reason
Brian Niemietz / New York Daily News: Elon Musk scrubbed New York Times blue-check verification
@lessig: Wait, I don't get it. I thought it was all about the free speech. So much free speech! At Elon Musk's Twitter, speech is anything but free https://www.axios.com/...
Kalhan / @kalhanr: Interesting the NYT is the only one to lose verification when some celebs said they wouldn't pay either https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Dan Nguyen / @dancow: This report is confusing because if twitter's verified data is stored in an “internal database” — what user data *isn't*? — then bulk operations should be inherently doable. For example, in 2020 Twitter was able to emergency mass disable all blue check tweeters https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Jody Serrano / Gizmodo: Elon Musk Makes It Harder to Distinguish Between Blue Verified and Paid Checkmarks to Save Face
Ken Jennings / @kenjennings: He's totally going to try to bill us for the week of unwanted checkmarks, isn't he https://twitter.com/...
Daniel W. Drezner / @dandrezner: “A series of changes at Twitter has laid bare what the service has become under Elon Musk: a place where speech is anything but free.” https://www.axios.com/...
Savannah Olson / The A.V. Club: Elon Musk takes away The New York Times' blue checkmark, apparently out of spite
Brian Stelter / @brianstelter: For newsrooms, Twitter's blue check mattered a lot, especially in emergency and breaking news situations. Now that's going away. I spoke with @rachelerman about what is being lost... https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Marc Malkin / Variety: Jack Black Wants to Call Elon Musk's ‘Bluff’ on Removing Twitter Verification Checkmarks: 'It's Definitely Not Cool to Pay for It'
Christian Zilko / IndieWire: Jack Black Wants to Call Elon Musk's ‘Bluff’ on Twitter Verification: 'I'm a Little Embarrassed by the Blue Check'
Olafimihan Oshin / The Hill: Elon Musk slams New York Times after publication loses Twitter verification badge: 'It's unreadable'
Shirin Ghaffary / Vox: Elon Musk wants to fill your Twitter feed with paid accounts
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Email: The White House will not pay for Twitter Blue for its staff; the White House and top officials' accounts like POTUS will likely maintain gray checkmarks
Email: The White House will not pay for Twitter Blue for its staff; the White House and top officials' accounts like POTUS will likely maintain gray checkmarks
Discussion:
@kingjames, @nathanchubbard, @sarafischer, The Future, Now and Then, Vox, @om, @karaswisher, Variety, Engadget, Fox Business, CNN, Reuters, The Wrap, @nathanchubbard, @govmikehuckabee, @kyleynfl, @jemelehill, @bendreyfuss, @jayzawaski, @glen_mcgregor, @mikeisaac, @robl_l, @mollyjongfast, @bmkibler, @toluogunlesi, @elienyc, @itsborys, @derushaj, @niubi, @saskiapopescu, @clarajeffery, @noclador, @keithedwards, @nathanchubbard, @nathanchubbard, @nathanchubbard, @nathanchubbard, @doctoryasmin, @realrclark25, @estellecostanza, @mariedenee, @sahilkapur, @taylorrooks, @digiphile, @dan_bernstein, @lawrencehurley, @keithedwards, @edzitron, @mattdizwhitlock, @bobcesca_go, @ashleygjovik, @wutangkids, @iamsophianelson, @reichlinmelnick, @fordm, @broderick, @evanmcmurry, @danpfeiffer, @pkafka, @delpercios, @rory_johnston, @rob_sheridan and BuzzFeed News, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
LeBron James / @kingjames: Welp guess my blue ✔️ will be gone soon cause if you know me I ain't paying the 5. 🤷🏾♂️
Nathan Hubbard / @nathanchubbard: 1) As someone who was (briefly) in charge of the Twitter Media team - the group tasked with getting high profile people onto Twitter, and verification - AND as one of the few ever to voluntarily give up the blue check, I want to try to articulate how risky this policy change is. https://twitter.com/...
Sara Fischer / @sarafischer: Scoop: @WhiteHouse won't pay for @Twitter verification — It will not enroll in Twitter's “Verification for Organization” program either — It also won't reimburse staff who chose to pay for Twitter Blue either Story on @axios: https://www.axios.com/...
Dave Karpf / The Future, Now and Then: Elon needs professional help
Shirin Ghaffary / Vox: Why your Twitter page is changing and may have a dog on it
Kara Swisher / @karaswisher: Good thread https://twitter.com/...
Todd Spangler / Variety: Elon Musk's Twitter Updates Verified User Descriptions So You Can't Tell Who Paid for a Blue Check-Mark Anymore
Fox Business: Twitter verification checkmark removes distinction between ‘legacy’ verified accounts and paid subscribers
Clare Duffy / CNN: Musk's Twitter promised a purge of blue check marks. Instead he singled out the New York Times
Loree Seitz / The Wrap: Twitterverse Puzzled as New York Times Loses Blue Check: ‘Tidal Wave of Disinformation’
Nathan Hubbard / @nathanchubbard: 2)The reason the Twitter Media team existed was because *almost all* of the engagement on Twitter happens with tweets from high profile people/organizations across government, sports, music, business, news, whatever the Kardashians are, etc. They're the lifeblood of the platform.
Gov. Mike Huckabee / @govmikehuckabee: The Biden White House said they will refuse to pay to verify their staff @Twitter accounts. I think that's a bad idea: it's already hard enough to tell the difference between actual Biden staffers and psychotic pranksters pretending to be Biden staffers. https://www.axios.com/...
Kyle Yates / @kyleynfl: I've enjoyed my checkmark that I was given through the application process, but in no world will I be paying for it. Twitter's about to become an absolute mess, so - legitimately - what other platform are we needing to move to? https://twitter.com/...
Jemele Hill / @jemelehill: LeBron may have check-mated Elon Musk, because if celebs with his following say paying for a check isn't worth it, that will be disastrous. I'm with LeBron, the moment this blue check is gone, oh well. https://twitter.com/...
Ben Dreyfuss / @bendreyfuss: This is far and away the most compelling argument I have encountered for why the verification fuckery actually matters and could lead to an actual crisis for twitter https://twitter.com/...
Jay Zawaski / @jayzawaski: As Twitter verifications go away tomorrow, here's why it matters to people in the media industry and beyond. Do I care about a blue check? Not really. Does it make it harder to do my job and give YOU accurate info? Yes. https://twitter.com/...
Glen McGregor / @glen_mcgregor: Excellent 🧵on blue check issue. I don't care much about mine — I was a Twitter evangelist long before I had one — but stripping verification will make the platform a lot less useful, for journalism and public discourse. https://twitter.com/...
Rat King / @mikeisaac: good thread from fmr twtr exec on how checkpocalypse is quite a gamble (and for what i might add is a relatively small payoff if recent subscriber numbers are to be believed...) https://twitter.com/...
Rob / @robl_l: @MollyJongFast It's a good job no one is lining up to cause mischief https://twitter.com/...
Molly Jong-Fast / @mollyjongfast: Bye bye “may or may not be notable” https://twitter.com/...
Brian Kibler / @bmkibler: The funny thing is that the *reason* people care about blue check marks is *because* famous people like LeBron have them. Removing them from existing verified accounts just turns them into “this MF paid for Twitter” fodder and nothing else. https://twitter.com/...
Tolu Ogunlesi / @toluogunlesi: Wawu. If @elonmusk capitulates and exempts the White House, he will have to extend the exemption to @NGRPresident and @NigeriaGov, no? https://twitter.com/...
Elie Mystal / @elienyc: King James has the right idea https://twitter.com/...
Christian Borys / @itsborys: Elon didn't understand that verification was like a badge telling people that whatever you were doing in life was noteworthy, so it was kind of cool. Now that people can pay for that notoriety instead of earning it, it becomes EXTREMELY uncool. It smells of being a try hard. https://twitter.com/...
Jason DeRusha / @derushaj: Great thread that explains why the blue checkmark crowd (incl me) cares about the ☑️. We generate content that generates engagement - and why keep doing that for a company that holds you in contempt? https://twitter.com/...
Dr. Saskia Popescu / @saskiapopescu: This whole thread 👇🏻 https://twitter.com/...
Clara Jeffery / @clarajeffery: Here's a good thread on what verification used to be about and the economic insanity of Elon's extortion scheme https://twitter.com/...
Thomas C. Theiner / @noclador: White House knows it is not “verification”, but a brazen extortion attempt. Twitter's whole value was its verified users and content creators. The former will lose their verification tonight - the latter will be hidden from now on unless they pay. Elon has ZERO business sense. https://twitter.com/...
Keith Edwards / @keithedwards: Excellent thread. https://twitter.com/...
Nathan Hubbard / @nathanchubbard: 4) There were a bunch of important safety and security reasons for doing this as well. Hero tweeps like @KatieS and @Larakate have all the scars/stories to prove it. It was also possible to organically build a verifiable account by gaining followers and impact on the platform.
Nathan Hubbard / @nathanchubbard: 9) But what Twitter is going to start doing tonight flips the equation - it is going to ask its most important creators to *pay Twitter* instead of the other way around. Every other social media platform has found a way to pay its creators, not charge them. Will it work?
Nathan Hubbard / @nathanchubbard: 13) The likely sequencing will be like LeBron: first, give up the check and not pay. But as the experience degrades and impersonation abounds, creators will start to wonder why they'd contribute content to a platform and company that holds them in such contempt.
Nathan Hubbard / @nathanchubbard: 14) That will be the point at which we might expect a wave of silence to ensue. The first real staring contest of the creator economy is upon us. Will creators seize the moment? Can Twitter sustain it? 🍿
@doctoryasmin: He'll just make a different coloured check mark for celebs and/or do something similar to what he did with businesses and say ‘oops, forgot to mention, people with x amount of followers can keep their check mark’ https://twitter.com/...
Ryan Clark / @realrclark25: Yea man!! It's just a check I can't cash. I for sure ain't paying https://twitter.com/...
Sahil Kapur / @sahilkapur: Twitter's biggest asset has been to get some of the most interesting or powerful or popular people on the planet to post daily content on this site for free; all in return for merely verifying that they are who they say. Now they want those creators to pay? Good 🧵 here 👇 https://twitter.com/...
Taylor Rooks / @taylorrooks: Players always say Lebron doesn't even pay for data roaming and will wait forever to get to a place with wifi because he refuses to do that extra cost....so this definitely tracks 😂 https://twitter.com/...
Alex Howard / @digiphile: Charging people to be @verified was always a bad idea: https://twitter.com/... A Premium version with more features makes sense when there is a clear return of value (no ads?) for $. Charging global celebrities who create value every time they tweet & engage with people is...🤷♂️ https://twitter.com/...
Dan Bernstein / @dan_bernstein: I'm also team #ohwell. https://twitter.com/...
Lawrence Hurley / @lawrencehurley: Again, the old twitter verification system always mattered more to twitter than it did to any individual user, and we are about to find out why https://twitter.com/...
Keith Edwards / @keithedwards: We don't negotiate with terrorists https://twitter.com/...
Matt Whitlock / @mattdizwhitlock: I agree with this - I don't want my tax dollars paying for twitter subscriptions for government offices - whether its the White House or a Congressional office. @Twitter should find other ways to verify government organizations. https://twitter.com/...
Bob Cesca / @bobcesca_go: No one should. Elon screwed up and overpaid — no one should help him pay for his crashed car. https://twitter.com/...
@ashleygjovik: It didn't really hit me until I saw this update But many institutions (including actual govs), are undertaking tactics with Twitter/Elmo often used in public international law conflicts Naming/shaming, sanctions, ending/pausing diplomatic relations, banning or burdening trade https://twitter.com/...
Sophia A. Nelson / @iamsophianelson: None of us will https://twitter.com/...
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick / @reichlinmelnick: As a person who thinks a lot about the budget, I've been expecting this. $12,000/year for a gold checkmark on Twitter is just not a justifiable expense for most governments, big or little, so I expect few will pay. Imagine asking a small town with a tight budget to pay that. https://twitter.com/...
Matt Ford / @fordm: I don't really care whether I'm verified, but if *no one* is verified—truly verified, not just paying for a cosmetic blue check—then this website's utility and everyday value drops a lot. https://twitter.com/...
Ryan Broderick / @broderick: There have been all kinds of moments since Musk bought Twitter that you could point to as the exact moment it was officially “over,” but I actually think this is it. The US gov having a meaningful presence here was what elevated Twitter over, say, Reddit. Site's cooked. https://twitter.com/...
Evan McMurry / @evanmcmurry: “It is our understanding that Twitter Blue does not provide person-level verification as a service. Thus, a blue check mark will now simply serve as a verification that the account is a paid user.” https://www.axios.com/...
Dan Pfeiffer / @danpfeiffer: Not having a blue checkmark is the new status symbol https://twitter.com/...
Peter Kafka / @pkafka: I won't believe it until @JoeBiden writes a self-pitying post here complaining about the loss of his blue check. https://twitter.com/...
Susan Del Percio / @delpercios: Who's paying for twitter verification? I am not. https://twitter.com/...
Rory Johnston / @rory_johnston: Going great. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll have a Blue-verified White House account hosted in a hostile power in no time. https://twitter.com/...
Rob Sheridan / @rob_sheridan: Say what you will about Elon, but it is truly impressive to be so uncool to your very core that despite every potential resource on the planet at your disposal you still make a service so spectacularly lame that guys who make 50 mil a year will make a point not to give you $8 https://twitter.com/...
Wall Street Journal:
A profile of Evan Gershkovich, the 31-year-old WSJ reporter detained by Russia whose parents fled the USSR for the US and who later made Moscow his second home — The Wall Street Journal correspondent, whose parents fled the Soviet Union, made Moscow a second home.
Discussion:
New York Times, @facethenation, Insider, @nickkristof, The Atlantic, @wsjpr, The Moscow Times, @felix_light, @nickkristof, @yarotrof, Talking Biz News, New York Post, @chrislhayes, Fox News, @nytimes, @williamyang120, @tggrove, @mtthwrose, @w7voa, @repmiketurner, @katie_robertson, @picardonhealth, @dreamgirls, @_karenhao, CBS News, @benmullin, @vmsalama, Al Jazeera, The Comeback, @biettetimmons, @maxseddon, @lindsayaellis, @paulsonne, CNN, @isabelcoles, @tggrove, @mjluxmoore, @fatmafaizi, @cliffordlevy, @mjluxmoore, @cgrantwsj, @piperk, @antontroian, @stephenkalin, @emilyzfeng, @mollyjongfast, @jrezaian, @mtthwrose, @jrezaian, The Guardian, @cathyarnst, @rohded, @biannagolodryga, @peterbakernyt, @nicktimiraos, @alecmacgillis, @mims, @srussolillo, @davidenrich, @drewhinshaw, @geraldfseib, Reporters Without Borders, @reevellp, @jmalsin, @austinramzy, @joewsj, @dinasrinivasan, @mjluxmoore, @georgikantchev, @pjotrsauer, The Guardian, @gtcost, @joshkraushaar, @_silversmith, @wsj, @bychunhan, @alanmillernlp, @mikevorkunov, @elizacollins1, @daiwaka, @aosipovich, @johnwest, @benpershing, @shalini, @nickkristof, @sgurman, @maxseddon, New Yorker, @laobserved, @joelsimonsays, @dabeard, NBC News, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Reuters
Discussion:
Katie Robertson / New York Times: Journalist Detained by Russia Was Reporting Stories That ‘Needed to Be Told’
@facethenation: Wall Street Journal's @emmatuckerWSJ says Secretary of State Antony Blinken's rare call with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, over the detained reporter was “hugely reassuring.” “We know that the U.S. government is taking the case very seriously, right up to the top.” https://twitter.com/...
Chris Panella / Insider: Russia complains its journalists are under attack and facing ‘witch hunts’ just days after arresting an American reporter
Nicholas Kristof / @nickkristof: @jrezaian ... Jason, you've been in Evan's situation. What would you suggest that the journalistic community do to support him?
Anna Nemtsova / The Atlantic: Russia Escalates Its War on Reporters
@wsjpr: “For us, I think it's important to keep this case front of mind,” @WSJ Editor in Chief @emmatuckerwsj told @andersoncooper in response to the detainment of journalist Evan Gershkovich. The Journal continues to call for Evan's immediate release. #IStandWithEvan Video Credit: @CNN https://twitter.com/...
Pyotr Kozlov / The Moscow Times: Hostage, Signal or Revenge? Spotlight on Russia's Reasons for Arresting WSJ Reporter
Felix Light / @felix_light: Evan was absolutely central to MT's rebirth in the last few years, and a huge role model to me personally after he moved on. Read some of his old stories here. https://twitter.com/...
Nicholas Kristof / @nickkristof: Something we can to to show support for Evan Gershkovich, the @WSJ reporter taken hostage in Russia and imprisoned for committing journalism. I just sent in my letter. https://twitter.com/...
Yaroslav Trofimov / @yarotrof: French editors to Moscow: “Keeping Evan Gershkovich in custody is tantamount to taking a hostage. It's a warning, a threat, an act of terror directed at the last representatives of international media still present in Russia.” #FreeEvan #IStandWithEvan https://www.wsj.com/...
David Propper / New York Post: WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich posted chilling tweet months before Russia arrest — as Blinken demands release
Chris Hayes / @chrislhayes: Evan Gershovich's detention is outrageous and despicable. Journalism is not a crime. I join fellow members of the press and all people of conscience in calling for his immediate release. https://www.wsj.com/...
Fox News: Blinken demands Russia release detained Wall Street Journal reporter in rare call with Kremlin counterpart
@nytimes: Evan Gershkovich, a Moscow-based Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested in Russia last week. In interviews, his friends said reporting in Russia was his dream job — he was cleareyed about the risks, but had a love for the country and its people. https://www.nytimes.com/...
William Yang / @williamyang120: “Mr. Gershkovich is the American son of Soviet-born Jewish exiles who had settled in New Jersey. He fell in love with Russia—its language, the people he chatted with for hours in regional capitals, the punk bands he hung out with at Moscow dive bars."https://www.wsj.com/...
Thomas Grove / @tggrove: The most sensitive and beautiful profile of one of the best reporters I've ever worked with by @yaffaesque To make clear that journalism, not spying, is Evan's métier feels a clarification so obvious as to be offensive to have to put in writing. https://www.newyorker.com/...
Matthew Rose / @mtthwrose: Evan Gershkovich is a talented reporter and a great human being. I'm proud to call him a colleague. He must be freed. His reporting: https://www.wsj.com/.... His life: https://www.wsj.com/... The support: https://cpj.org/... #IStandWithEvan
Steve Herman / @w7voa: Update: #Russia says WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich was “caught red handed,” his fate will be determined by a court and it's unacceptable for the US to politicize the case and whip up a stir.
US Rep. Mike Turner / @repmiketurner: Russia is not winning. With assistance from the United States and our @NATO allies, we are seeing a huge difference on Ukraine's battlefield. Today, I spoke with @DanaBashCNN on @CNNSOTU about U.S. support for #Ukraine and Russia's arrest of @WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich. https://twitter.com/...
Katie Robertson / @katie_robertson: “What he was doing was incredibly important. It was a story that really needed to be told because we need to understand it.” I spoke to friends of Evan Gershkovich, the WSJ reporter detained in Russia https://www.nytimes.com/...
@picardonhealth: Journalist Detained by Russia 🇷🇺Was Reporting Stories That 'Needed to Be Told. @evangershkovich of the @WSJ knew the risks but felt a profound connection to the country, by @katie_robertson https://www.nytimes.com/... via @nytimes #journalism
@dreamgirls: Brittney Griner weighed in on Russia's detainment of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, saying she's greatly concerned for his safety and urging President Biden to do everything he can to bring him home. https://www.tmz.com/...
Karen Hao / @_karenhao: It's been so painful to process my colleague Evan Gershkovich's unfounded detention, especially knowing that we share the same reason for becoming correspondents: to better understand the country our parents once called home. #IStandWithEvan https://www.wsj.com/...
Caroline Linton / CBS News: Blinken says he spoke to Russia's top diplomat about arrested American journalist
Ben Mullin / @benmullin: “I just got hired by The Wall Street Journal. I'm the Moscow correspondent. I'm in the bureau. I did the thing.” -@evangershkovich @katie_robertson's profile of Evan, the first American reporter jailed on spying charges since the end of the Cold War: https://www.nytimes.com/...
Vivian Salama / @vmsalama: The WSJ has lifted the paywall on all articles pertaining to our colleague & friend Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested by Russian authorities on Wednesday and charged with espionage. Journalism is not a crime. Please share & help us fight for his release. https://www.wsj.com/...
Phillip Bupp / The Comeback: Brittney Griner reacts to reporter detained in Russia
Nora Biette-Timmons / @biettetimmons: me, @jfberke, @polinaivanovva & @jazzedloon on @evangershkovich's love of journalism: https://www.nytimes.com/... #FreeEvanGershkovich #IStandWithEvan @freegershkovich
Max Seddon / @maxseddon: “He always understands Russia with an extreme amount of insight and nuance and depth - he's lived and breathed this story for the past five years. And that's what makes this all so painful - he really cares so much about what is happening in the country.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Lindsay Ellis / @lindsayaellis: Please read and share our article — no paywall — about Evan Gershkovich of The Wall Street Journal, the distinguished U.S. journalist unjustly detained by Russia. And read his work, too. https://www.wsj.com/.... #IStandWithEvan https://twitter.com/...
Paul Sonne / @paulsonne: “It's utter rubbish.” Wall Street Journal editor in chief @emmatuckerWSJ responds to the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov's espionage claims. https://twitter.com/...
Ramishah Maruf / CNN: WSJ editor says paper is still not in contact with reporter arrested in Russia
Isabel Coles / @isabelcoles: One of the things that always struck me about @evangershkovich is how easy he makes reporting look. As friend & fellow journalist @polinaivanovva says, for him it is “incredibly natural because he is an amazing talker + charms everybody + is very funny” https://www.nytimes.com/...
Thomas Grove / @tggrove: “We haven't been able to reach him. We haven't been able to get any messages to him” Free. Evan. https://twitter.com/...
Matthew Luxmoore / @mjluxmoore: “We haven't been able to reach him. We haven't been able to get any messages to him.” @WSJ editor-in-chief on our reporter @evangershkovich, who is imprisoned in Russia for doing his job #FreeEvan #IStandWithEvan https://twitter.com/...
Fatima Faizi / @fatmafaizi: I sincerely hope Evan is released shortly. However, I would like to draw attention to a similar case that has gone largely unnoticed. For three months now, a brown journalist has been held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan on similar charges. https://twitter.com/...
Cliff Levy / @cliffordlevy: “Hard-working, thoughtful beyond his years and idealistic about journalistic ethics.” Evan Gershkovich, the WSJ reporter unlawfully detained by Russia on bogus spying charges, was Margaret Sullivan's assistant when she was NYT public editor. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Matthew Luxmoore / @mjluxmoore: All of Evan's stellar reporting from Russia is now free to read on the WSJ website, as is this story on him by @drewhinshaw and @JoeWSJ https://www.wsj.com/... https://www.wsj.com/...
Charley Grant / @cgrantwsj: Free Evan now. https://twitter.com/...
Karen Piper / @piperk: Evan is from New Jersey. He was hauled out of a steakhouse in Russia by Putin's thugs and hasn't been heard from since. https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ
Anton Troianovski / @antontroian: “It was a story that really needed to be told because we need to understand it.” @polinaivanovva added, “It helps no one if Russia remains a black box.” #FreeEvan https://www.nytimes.com/...
Stephen Kalin / @stephenkalin: My @WSJ colleague & US citizen Evan Gershkovich is wrongly arrested in Russia. Instead of silencing his reporting, let's amplify it! Read his work for free https://wsj.com/... And read about his life https://wsj.com/... #IStandWithEvan #FreeEvan #JournalismIsNotACrime https://twitter.com/...
Emily Feng / @emilyzfeng: “Russia is a place that can surprise and disappoint you, even as it holds your attention—yet never could I imagine all of those feelings would collide in such a story, one that I wish I never had to write.” https://twitter.com/...
Molly Jong-Fast / @mollyjongfast: I don't know exactly what Evan was working on in recent days. According to Russian press accounts, it may have had something to do with the military and the Wagner Group, which has supplied mercenaries to the war effort. https://www.newyorker.com/...
Jason Rezaian / @jrezaian: When reporting on Evan's ordeal, avoid repeating the Russian narrative. The fact that he is a hostage is the story, not the supposed charges against him. Constantly humanize Evan. Drop all our notions of competition and steel ourselves for a potentially long ordeal. #FreeEvan https://twitter.com/...
Jason Rezaian / @jrezaian: If you take anything away from the massive volume of Evan Gershkovich coverage coming your way in the coming days, let it be this: He is a hostage until proven otherwise. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Pjotr Sauer / The Guardian: My friend Evan Gershkovich is no spy. Just a brave reporter jailed in Moscow
Catherine Arnst / @cathyarnst: “this was the fresh-faced young man in his early 20s, a recent graduate of Bowdoin College, often wearing a pine-green pullover sweater and with his hair in slight disarray, with whom I had worked so closely”-@Sulliview. #EvanGershkovich #IStandWithEvan https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
David Rohde / @rohded: “It's painful and surreal to write these words: Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, is being held by Russian authorities on espionage charges.” @yaffaesque on his friend @evangershkovich https://www.newyorker.com/...
Bianna Golodryga / @biannagolodryga: In a sick twist, Russia has assumed the UN Security Council presidency today. A country that, under Putin, starts illegal wars, commits war crimes, and kidnaps American journalists for just doing their jobs. https://twitter.com/...
Peter Baker / @peterbakernyt: The American son of Soviet-born Jewish exiles, @evangershkovich fell in love with Russia—its language, its people, even the punk bands he hung out with at Moscow dive bars. Now the country he loved has turned on him. @joewsj @drewhinshaw https://www.wsj.com/...
Nick Timiraos / @nicktimiraos: “Reporting on Russia is now also a regular practice of watching people you know get locked away for years,” he said in July. Evan Gershkovich, a U.S. journalist now detained in Russia, labored so that people might better understand the world around them. https://www.wsj.com/...
Alec MacGillis / @alecmacgillis: What a great profile of Evan Gershkovich, the WSJ reporter being held in a Russian prison, who really does come across as the correspondent ideal: curious, hard-working, deeply humane. https://www.wsj.com/...
Christopher Mims / @mims: Every unjust detention is tragic. But of all the people Russia's successor to the KGB could grab, it is absolutely heartbreaking to me personally they took Evan, a man so dedicated to writing about a country he loved. Please share this. #IStandWithEvan https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Steven Russolillo / @srussolillo: We are very grateful if you can take the time to read and share our article about the young American unjustly imprisoned by Russia #IStandWithEvan #FreeEvan #JournalismIsNotACrime https://www.wsj.com/...
Drew Hinshaw / @drewhinshaw: There are reporters and then there are reporters who spend 5 days camping by a raging forest fire in Siberia, because “I just wanna get the story right.” Our profile of a colleague whose drive to understand Russia represents the very best of my profession. https://www.wsj.com/...
Gerald F Seib / @geraldfseib: Everybody, please rally behind Evan Gershkovich, the WSJ reporter illegally detained in Russia; Before Evan Gershkovich headed on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, a colleague wrote him a text: “Hey buddy, good luck today.” https://www.wsj.com/...
Patrick Reevell / @reevellp: Beautiful article on the WSJ front page today that captures their reporter @evangershkovich who Russia seized this week. Gives a picture of the brilliant, funny and exceptionally dedicated reporter he is and how deeply he cared about covering Russia. https://www.wsj.com/...
Jared Malsin / @jmalsin: My wonderful colleague Evan Gershkovich, who is being detained on false charges by Russian authorities, is a talented reporter who deeply loved Russia and its people. He was passionate about understanding all things Russian. #IStandWithEvan https://www.wsj.com/...
Austin Ramzy / @austinramzy: My colleague Evan Gershkovich pursued journalism in Russia out of love for the country, its language and its people. I hope he is safe and is freed soon #istandwithevan https://www.wsj.com/...
Joe Parkinson / @joewsj: I stand with Evan. And this is the hardest story I've ever had to write. About our colleague and friend, who woke up today for the third morning in a Russian prison. Keep him in your thoughts and let's keep his case at the top of everyone's mind. https://www.wsj.com/...
Dina Srinivasan / @dinasrinivasan: “Many Western news agencies that posted reporters to Moscow under Stalin have determined that President Vladimir Putin's Russia is too dangerous for journalism.” https://www.wsj.com/...
Matthew Luxmoore / @mjluxmoore: When I first met Evan over a beer in Moscow in 2017 he talked about all the books he was reading to better understand Russia, a country he deeply cared about. That mission, which shaped his life, has cost him his freedom. Hopefully not for long #FreeEvan https://www.wsj.com/...
Georgi Kantchev / @georgikantchev: Evan fell in love with Russia—its language, the people he chatted with for hours in regional capitals, the punk bands he hung out with at Moscow dive bars. Now, espionage charges leave him facing a possible prison sentence of up to 20 years https://www.wsj.com/... #IStandwithEvan
Pjotr Sauer / @pjotrsauer: What a heartbreaking profile of our friend Evan by @JoeWSJ and @drewhinshaw. I remember the bike day like it was yesterday. Can't wait for the next one https://www.wsj.com/...
Margaret Sullivan / The Guardian: The arrest of an American journalist in Russia is awful. For me, it's also painfully personal
Constantin Gurdgiev / @gtcost: Disgusting. Using journalists as bargaining pawns. https://twitter.com/...
Josh Kraushaar / @joshkraushaar: “Gershkovich's biography traces Mr. Putin's efforts to rebuild an empire atop the former Soviet Union, a homeland his parents had fled only for their American son to return and wind up in the type of prison they had been taught to fear.” https://www.wsj.com/...
Shawn Peirce / @_silversmith: @Sulliview Did not remember Evan had worked for you until I read this. Damn. No journalist should be a political pawn, especially not one abused by Putin. But this is exponentially worse. May he come back to the U.S. sooner, rather than later. https://twitter.com/...
@wsj: Before Evan Gershkovich headed on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, a colleague wrote him a text: “Hey buddy, good luck today.” https://www.wsj.com/...
Chun Han Wong / @bychunhan: Evan Gershkovich, the son of Soviet-born exiles and a @WSJ reporter now detained in Russia, loved the country, its language, the people he chatted with for hours in regional capitals, and the punk bands he hung out with at Moscow dive bars. https://www.wsj.com/... #IStandwithEvan
Alan C. Miller / @alanmillernlp: “It's not like he was in Russia because no one bothered to tell him it was dangerous,” @yaffaesque tweeted. “He is a brave, committed, professional journalist who traveled to Russia to report on stories of import and interest.” https://twitter.com/...
Mike Vorkunov / @mikevorkunov: So hard to read this profile of @evangershkovich, who seems like such a good-natured person and reporter, and know the kind of situation he is stuck in https://www.wsj.com/...
Eliza Collins / @elizacollins1: This is so upsetting. Evan is an excellent reporter who covered a country he cared deeply about. #istandwithevan https://www.wsj.com/...
Daisuke Wakabayashi / @daiwaka: Absolutely terrifying. https://www.wsj.com/...
Alexander Osipovich / @aosipovich: Beautiful piece on my colleague @evangershkovich who has been unjustly arrested in Russia. I am still in disbelief that this is happening to him. #IStandWithEvan https://www.wsj.com/...
John West / @johnwest: Free Evan now. https://www.wsj.com/...
Ben Pershing / @benpershing: Before Evan Gershkovich headed on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, a colleague wrote him a text: “Hey buddy, good luck today.” #IStandWithEvan https://www.wsj.com/...
Shalini Ramachandran / @shalini: Read this moving account of Evan's impactful journalism and love for Russia, the country that turned on him. #istandwithevan https://www.wsj.com/...
Nicholas Kristof / @nickkristof: A profile of Evan Gershkovich, the @WSJ correspondent who has been imprisoned in Russia, apparently for committing journalism. Putin is taking hostages. https://www.wsj.com/...
Sadie Gurman / @sgurman: On Friday,@WSJ withdrew its Moscow bureau chief, who has covered the country since the final years of the Cold War. Many Western news agencies that posted reporters to Moscow under Stalin have determined Putin's Russia is too dangerous for journalism. https://www.wsj.com/...
Max Seddon / @maxseddon: “Reporting on Russia is now also a regular practice of watching people you know get locked away for years.” A heartbreaking piece about how @evangershkovich chronicled Russia's descent into madness until the FSB arrested him, by @JoeWSJ and @drewhinshaw https://www.wsj.com/...
Joshua Yaffa / New Yorker: The Unimaginable Horror of a Friend's Arrest in Moscow
Kevin Roderick / @laobserved: “They've chosen a well-known journalist from an authoritative media outlet...The idea is to have an ace up their sleeve for negotiations.” https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Joel Simon / @joelsimonsays: There has been an outpouring of outrage in response to Russia's arrest of @WSJ reporter @evangershkovich on espionage charges but here's an account from @Sulliview that humanizes this wonderful journalist and human being. Via @guardian https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
David Beard / @dabeard: Putin, the child-kidnapping invader of #Ukraine, has taken another hostage. This time, it's an American. The hostage, says @Sulliview, is an upstanding former colleague, “often wearing a pine-green pullover sweater and with his hair in slight disarray.” https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
NBC News: Reporter detained in Russia on spying allegations known as dedicated journalist who ‘cares a lot ... about the Russian people’
Wyatte Grantham-Philips / USA Today: Who is Evan Gershkovich? What we know about WSJ reporter arrested by Russia for espionage
Thomas E. Patterson / Nieman Lab:
A survey of 253 NPR member stations finds that 60% have 10 or fewer news staff and average just over one hour of locally produced news programming per day — “Local public radio has a staffing problem. Stations have considerable potential but aren't yet in a position to make it happen."
Discussion:
Journalism.co.uk, @kennedy_school, @dhiott, @stphnfwlr, @johnupton, @stevenwaldman, @anelsona, @jimallthetime, @lauren_bavis, @niemanfdn, @spj_tweets and @stphnfwlr
Discussion:
@kennedy_school: HKS's @tompharvard says local public radio stations could help fill the information gap created by the decline of local newspapers with more staff and funding https://theconversation.com/ ...
Debbie Hiott / @dhiott: Here's a headline I can agree with wholeheartedly. Our newsroom @KUT is 40 strong and growing. https://www.niemanlab.org/... via @NiemanLab
Stephen Fowler / @stphnfwlr: “Trust in public broadcasting ranks above that of other major U.S. news outlets... And local public radio stations operate in every state and reach 98% of American homes, including those in news deserts - places that today no longer have a daily paper.” https://twitter.com/...
John Upton / @johnupton: NPR stations across the U.S. are filling in for shuttered newspapers by publishing text and multimedia stories on their websites, in addition to their traditional broadcasts. This can be a broader and more deliberate solution for news deserts. https://www.niemanlab.org/...
Steven Waldman / @stevenwaldman: Important/interesting piece. I'd add: public radio has to 1) reach & be credible with conservative audiences and communities of color 2) do more digital only content (not for radio); maybe newsletters, especially for rural areas. https://www.niemanlab.org/...
Anne Nelson / @anelsona: Agreed: hyper-local radio staffing & content would go a long ways in addressing our national journalism crisis. From @NiemanReports https://www.niemanlab.org/...
Jim Hawkins / @jimallthetime: ‘I believe that local public radio should be part of the conversation about saving local news’ - Public #radio #pubmedia can help solve the local #news #journalism #democracy crisis — if it will expand staff and coverage https://www.niemanlab.org/... via @NiemanLab
Lauren Bavis / @lauren_bavis: Tucked away at the very very end: “How much new money would local stations require to expand their coverage? Based on our respondents' estimates and a targeting of the funding for the communities most in need, roughly $150 million annually would be required.” https://twitter.com/...
@niemanfdn: Public radio can be the key to saving local journalism. But sixty percent of the local stations have 10 or fewer people on their news staff (and that's a generous estimation.) To take on a larger role, most stations will need to solve staff shortages. https://www.niemanlab.org/...
@spj_tweets: “Largely overlooked in the effort to save local news are the nation's local public radio stations... Unlike a local daily newspaper, which largely has the print market to itself, local public radio stations face competition from other stations.” https://www.niemanlab.org/...
Stephen Fowler / @stphnfwlr: “Programming created by NPR, PRX and other content providers... can be a handicap in areas where many potential listeners have values and interests that aren't met by national programming and where the station offers little in the way of local coverage.” https://theconversation.com/ ...
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
A Meta-commissioned report argues Facebook is not a “must-have” for publishers, saying news links account for less than 3% of posts users see in their feed — News links account for less than 3% of posts people see in their Facebook feeds. — A report commissioned by Meta …
Discussion:
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab: News now makes up less than 3% of what people see on Facebook
Damon Kiesow / @dkiesow@social.kiesow.net: This report/headline are backwards. How does it matter to publishers what percentage of FB posts are news links? — There are 4.75 billion FB posts daily. 142 million daily clicks seems relevant to news publishers. …
Max Tani / Semafor:
A look at the fissures within The Guardian after years of infighting over its trans coverage, as the anti-trans wing is widely viewed internally as ascendant — The wars at The Guardian reached one of their periodic peaks in September of 2021, when the philosopher Judith Butler said in an interview …
Discussion:
@maxwelltani, @paulduanefilm, @transscribe, @brokenbottleboy, @semaforben, @rswirling, @ginarush, @bigmeaninternet and @jbenton
Discussion:
Max Tani / @maxwelltani: For @semafor's media newsletter, I wrote about the years-long internal friction at the Guardian over the paper's trans coverage https://www.semafor.com/...
Paul Duane / @paulduanefilm: This is a fascinating read. When Kath Viner cut Judith Butler's interview quote about GC ideology being fascist, Naomi Klein had to intervene & convince her to put the cuts on public record. https://twitter.com/...
Katelyn Burns / @transscribe: Lol not surprised. Some of them only ever tweet or write about trans people. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Mic Wright / @brokenbottleboy: Read it here if you also want to come away with a feeling that some dickhead has scrawled notes in crayon about a novel you've read https://www.semafor.com/...
Robyn Swirling / @rswirling: Look, if this surprised you, then I'm not sure what you were doing writing a piece about these people in the first place https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Gina Rushton / @ginarush: Really interesting insight into the war inside the Guardian over trans coverage and whether the New York Times is on the same path (from @maxwelltani at @semafor) https://www.semafor.com/...
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Post, a Twitter alternative that pays publishers via microtransactions, launches in public beta and says outlets get an average $25 CPM for a paywalled article — Post, a Twitter alternative of sorts that's rethinking how publishers should engage with social media — and how they should monetize …
Discussion:
Kaya Yurieff / The Information: The Twitter Verification Purge That Wasn't
Devon Heinen / @devonheinen: Honestly, I'm on Post. I actively post on it, though no where near as much as I tweet on Twitter. Post is not a good platform, at least not yet. Post needs a lot of work to actually be usable and a viable Twitter competitor — and I'm not saying Twitter's great, because it's not. https://twitter.com/...
Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
Spotify shuts down its Clubhouse-style audio app Spotify Live, previously called Locker Room, acquired as part of its €57M Betty Labs acquisition in March 2021 — Spotify is shutting down its live-audio app Spotify Live, but says it will continue experimenting with live features in its main service.
Discussion:
The Verge, TechCrunch, Engadget, Gizmodo, @glenngabe, 9to5Mac, @andysternberg and @pjbrown_iii, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Emma Roth / The Verge: Spotify shuts down its Clubhouse competitor
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget: Spotify is shutting down its standalone live audio app
Kevin Hurler / Gizmodo: Spotify Live Dies
Glenn Gabe / @glenngabe: Shocking (sarcasm) -> Spotify shuts down its Clubhouse-style audio app Spotify Live, previously called Locker Room “Podcasts have been a hit for Spotify - albeit an expensive one in terms of investment - but live audio clearly has not been as popular.” https://musically.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac: Spotify shuts down Clubhouse-like live audio app amid declining user interest
Andy Sternberg / @andysternberg: Will finally delete this app that I never opened. https://twitter.com/...
Reuters:
The Financial Times acquires a majority stake in Kansas-based medical news publication Endpoints News, which launched in 2014 and has over 163,000 subscribers — UK's Financial Times said on Monday it had acquired a majority stake in medical news publication Endpoints News.
Discussion:
Financial Times, Talking Biz News, @markstenberg3, ENDPOINTS NEWS, @armstrongdrew and @armstrongdrew
Discussion:
Mark Stenberg / @markstenberg3: Inbox: The Financial Times has acquired a majority stake in Endpoint News, a pharmaceutical publisher with 164,000 free subscribers. Pharma has been one of the few ad categories to grow consistently since 2020 — I imagine this is an emerging trend https://aboutus.ft.com/...
Ryan McRae / ENDPOINTS NEWS: A note to our advertising partners: Endpoints News joins the Financial Times family
Peter White / Deadline:
Vice Media signs a deal with Fox-owned Tubi to make eight documentaries for the ad-supported streamer, starting with The Cult of Elon, set to debut on April 24 — EXCLUSIVE: Vice Media has a new partner in the documentary space. — The youth-media company, which recently saw …
Discussion:
The Streamable, The Hollywood Reporter, Broadband TV News, Fox Corporation, Media Play News and Cord Cutters News
Discussion:
Ree Winter / The Streamable: Free Streaming Service Tubi Partners with Vice for Exclusive Documentaries; ‘The Cult of Elon’ Coming in April
Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter: Vice Pacts With Tubi for 8 Original Documentaries
Chris Dziadul / Broadband TV News: Tubi partners with Vice Media Group
Fox Corporation: TUBI PARTNERS WITH VICE ON EXCLUSIVE CONTENT DEAL TO DEBUT A SLATE OF ALL NEW TUBI ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARIES