Mediagazer: Spotify confirms raising US Premium to $10.99/month, up from $9.99, the first increase since its US launch in 2011; Duo rises by $2, Family and Student by $1 (Jon Porter/The Verge)

5:30 PM ET, July 24, 2023

Top News:

Lisa Richwine / Reuters:

The much-hyped “Barbenheimer” opening weekend netted $155M for Barbie and $80.5M for Oppenheimer, for $300M in total in the US and Canada for just the 4th time — The much-hyped “Barbenheimer” box office battle over the weekend proved to be a win for movie theaters that needed to add some sizzle to their summer.

Rebecca Rubin / Variety:
Q&A with Josh Goldstine, Warner Bros. president of global marketing, on Barbie's marketing campaign, which rival studio execs estimate to have cost ~$150M

Discussion: Insider and UPROXX

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:

Twitter rolls out its updated “interim” X logo, replacing the iconic bird, following Elon Musk's weekend announcement; X.com now redirects to twitter.com — Twitter has removed the iconic bird logo and adopted ‘X’ as its official logo. This move comes after Elon Musk announced the change over the weekend.

Discussion: @elonmusk, The Verge, @lindayacc, @lindayacc, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Insider, New York Times, NBC News, Fast Company, NPR, Nieman Lab, @chafkin, @martingrasser, @rmac18, CNBC, Slate, @mollyjongfast, MediaPost, CNBC, Us Weekly, Digital Journal, @lindayacc, Forrester, Ars Technica, @lindayacc, CNN, Fortune, New York Post, The Hollywood Reporter, Engadget, Variety, @rmac18, @levie, The Guardian, @tomcoates, @carnage4life@mas.to, @mrerikjackson, @parkerortolani@threads.net, @tedlieu, Vibe, @jdcmedlock, @elonmuskaoc, @emilcdc, @bendreyfuss, @yosephpaulos, @jamestobyne, @lindayacc, @mabintou, @karaswisher, @jack, @loupas, @jujuujba, @benedictevans, @killedbygoogle, @valueterminal, Gizmodo, @mikeisaac, @mossbergwalt@threads.net, @wagatwe, Insider, @ivanthek, @elonmusk, @rmac18, New York Post, @carnage4life@threads.net, Slate, Complete Music Update, Poynter, Sydney Morning Herald, The Register, Bloomberg, @news_by_nick, @tomgara, Agence France-Presse, KGET-TV, New York Daily News, Fox News, NewscastStudio, Ad Age, Global News, New Republic, Hollywood Life, Al Jazeera, The A.V. Club, UPROXX, The Week, Consequence, Forbes, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Metro.co.uk, Billboard, Washington Post, The Hill, Reuters, Digital Music News and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »

Jon Porter / The Verge:

Spotify confirms raising US Premium to $10.99/month, up from $9.99, the first increase since its US launch in 2011; Duo rises by $2, Family and Student by $1 — After 12 years, the price of Spotify Premium is increasing in the US. The subscription will now cost $10.99 a month, the company announced today.

Jean Yamamura / The Santa Barbara Independent:

The Santa Barbara News-Press, which has published a paper since 1868 and received a Pulitzer, ceases publication and files for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy — Publisher Ampersand Claims Few Assets and Many Creditors — More than 150 years of history ended on Friday when the Santa Barbara News …

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

TikTok rolls out support for text posts, available via the app's Camera page and letting users add sounds, locations, stickers, and more — As Twitter shoots itself in the foot with a rebrand this morning, TikTok has announced that it's rolling out support for text posts.

Discussion: Fast Company, MediaPost, TikTok, The Verge, The A.V. Club, Gizmodo, The Hill, Variety, Engadget, @chris@threads.net, @parkerortolani@threads.net, @blackamazon, @digiphile@mastodon.social, Tubefilter and KNSD-TV, more at Techmeme »

David Folkenflik / NPR:

NPR names Edith Chapin as its SVP for news and editor-in-chief; she's been serving in the position on an acting basis since fall 2022, after joining NPR in 2012 — NPR has moved to shore up its leadership at a time of significant transition, naming veteran news leader Edith Chapin …

Discussion: The Wrap, Current, @elbordeaux, @isalara, @vivian, @greenfield64 and @davidfolkenflik

Brian Merchant / Los Angeles Times:

Studio executives embraced Silicon Valley's magical thinking of hypergrowth and disruption for the past 10 years, only to slash worker pay as the boom times end — In one respect, the actors and writers of Hollywood uniting on the picket lines in a historic, industry-shaking strike is a tale as old as time …

Discussion: @andrewbucholtz, @adamconover, @olaasm, @bcmerchant, @ben@werd.social, @rodhilton@mastodon.social, @incitatus@mastodonapp.uk, @carnage4life@mas.to, @peter@thepit.social and @sonyasteele@mastodon.social

New York Times:

Sources: Altice USA is exploring a sale and other strategic options for Cheddar News; Altice USA acquired the streaming news network for $200M in 2019 — Rebranding the social network as X marks the billionaire's latest gamble to reinvent the company, after buying it last year for $44 billion.

Discussion: @tomgara, Semafor, The Wrap, Insider, @bmorrissey, @dannygroner, @ryanvailbrown, @benmullin, @seangriffey, @scottnover and @sherman4949

Washington Post:

Mandiant: a Chinese PR firm used newswire services to place pro-Beijing content on the subdomains of 32+ US news outlets, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — Welcome to The Cybersecurity 202! Tim here. If you're remotely interested in boxing, or maybe even if you aren't, you'll definitely want to be watching Saturday night.

Discussion: CNN, Mandiant, @nakashimae, @nakashimae, @nakashimae, @nakashimae, @ericgarland and @heminator

Mark Stenberg / Adweek:

Court docs reveal Vice's financial struggles and fundraising history; Vice held $834M in debt in May 2023, raising $1.3B+ in debt and equity funding since 2017 — New documents reveal a yearslong slide into increasing financial desperation — The digital media company Vice filed …

Discussion: United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and @markstenberg3

Natalie Pressman / CBC News:

Canada's smaller news outlets, like Cabin Radio, the Northwest Territories' only entirely-online news organization, worry about the Online News Act's impact — ‘Obviously we will take as many steps as we can to protect our interests,’ said Cabin editor Ollie Williams

Discussion: @gregorytaylor1

Patrick Sykes / Bloomberg:

Turkish shows, initially made for domestic audiences, are at the forefront of state broadcaster TRT's global expansion, as Turkey tries to extend its soft power — - New state streaming site brings drone wars to global viewers — Government backs TV export drive worth up to $1.5 billion

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Sources: MLS Season Pass is nearing 1M subs including season-ticket holders; team execs say they are frustrated due to lack of transparency in viewership stats

Discussion: The Streamable, Front Office Sports, @usmnt_thoughts, @GreenFire@mstdn.social, @turnersavesthat, @worldsoccertalk, @tvanswerman, @alexmsilverman, 9to5Mac, @griffin_author, @tvgrimreaper, @zone_nhl, @jheaps4 and Awful Announcing

Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg:
Sources: Disney is reviewing its film release schedule for the rest of 2023 and may delay some titles because striking actors won't help promote the pictures

Discussion: @bart_smith and @tvgrimreaper

Jesse Whittock / Deadline:
Internal memo: WBD President of International TV Distribution Robert Blair plans to leave the company after 25 years due to a “necessary structural change”

Discussion: Broadcast, @jelmes_tv, The Hollywood Reporter, @variety, Variety and Cord Cutters News

BBC:
BBC newsreader George Alagiah, who joined the broadcaster as a foreign correspondent in 1989 and presented BBC News at Six for the past 20 years, dies at 67

Discussion: BBC, @markaustintv, The Guardian, @bbcpress, @chrisckmedia, @nickbryantny, @scottygb, @sarfrazmanzoor, Press Gazette, Variety, @mariannaspring, @sangitamyska, @clairehopkin.bsky.social, @johnsimpsonnews, Sky News, @pressgazette, @rhonddabryant and @mrneilmorrow

Ben Smith / Semafor:
Sources: IAC, News Corp, the NYT, and other publishers are forming a coalition to push for AI laws and lead a lawsuit against AI firms who trained on their data

Discussion: Vanity Fair, @ernie@writing.exchange, @moorehn, @adamkovac, @natfriedman, @michaelgreshko, @_zeets, @hingumtringum, @sirdigalot, @mediaevan, @natfriedman and @jl_zamith, more at Techmeme »

Washington Post:
South Korean and Indian filmmakers are hoping the Hollywood strikes will give them more bargaining power with US streaming services and a precedent to follow

Discussion: @jintakhan, @washingtonpost and @drogon_dracarys

Earlier Picks:

Brian Veseling / WAN-IFRA:
A look at Argentina's Clarín, which has 30M monthly readers and 700K subscribers, as the outlet looks to diversify their offerings and expand into other markets

Variety:
A look at the actors' and writers' strikes that are plunging Hollywood into chaos, causing pricey movie delays, pay battles, AI anxiety, and more

Uyiosa Elegon / The Objective:
Three years after the George Floyd protests drew a wave of financial support, Black journalism entrepreneurs say they are struggling to sustain their newsrooms

Discussion: Poynter, @gabemschneider and @objectivejrn

Check My Ads Institute:
A look at the Publir ad network, whose founders have ties to The Federalist Society and RealClearPolitics, and how Publir funnels ad revenue to The Donald forum

Discussion: @checkmyadshq, @checkmyadshq and @nandoodles

New York Times:
Sources: Jeff Bezos is taking a more active role in The Washington Post's operations as staff morale craters and the newspaper is on pace to lose ~$100M in 2023

From Techmeme:

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Anthropic raised another $4B from Amazon, will make AWS its primary training partner, and is working with Annapurna Labs to develop new Trainium accelerators

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft releases the first beta preview of its Recall AI feature for Copilot Plus PCs, including Click to Do, a feature similar to Google's Circle to Search

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Researchers detail a “nearest neighbor attack” by Russia's APT28, which remotely breached a target's Wi-Fi by hijacking a laptop in a building across the street

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