Mediagazer: The staff of Mississippi Today, which won a 2023 Pulitzer for Local Reporting, and its New Orleans-focused sister site Verite unionize (Will Sommer/Washington Post)

6:45 PM ET, July 27, 2023

Top News:

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

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Brian Steinberg / Variety:

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Bloomberg:

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Will Sommer / Washington Post:

The staff of Mississippi Today, which won a 2023 Pulitzer for Local Reporting, and its New Orleans-focused sister site Verite unionize — It's the latest evolution for scrappy nonprofit Mississippi Today, founded seven years ago by former NBC News executive Andy Lack

Discussion: @dstodayunion, @dstodayunion, @dstodayunion, @devnabose, @misaacstein and @dstodayunion

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Roku reports Q2 revenue up 11% YoY to $847.2M, vs. $773.5M est., platform revenue up 11% YoY to $744M, and active accounts up 16% YoY to 73.5M; ROKU jumps 8%+ — The company reported Q2 revenue of $847.2 million, up 11%, and a net loss of $107.6 million (-$0.76 per share).

Discussion: The Wrap, The Desk, Media Play News, Deadline, @xpangler, The Hollywood Reporter and Roku Inc., more at Techmeme »

Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:

Universal Music Group Q2: revenue rises 8.8% YoY to €2.697B, or $2.93B, subscription streaming revenue up 13%, and merchandising up 12.1%; stock climbs 10%+ — Yesterday, the world's biggest subscription music streaming service, Spotify, announced its Q2 results.

Discussion: MediaPost, The Hollywood Reporter, MarketScreener, @YellowPup@mstdn.party, Universal Music Group, Music Ally, Billboard, Reuters, Billboard, Digital Music News and Bloomberg

John Ourand / Sports Business Journal:

Yahoo Sports hires former Axios Sports newsletter editor Kendall Baker as its senior writer to oversee its newsletter strategy and launch a new daily newsletter — Yahoo Sports hired Kendall Baker as senior writer, a position where he will head up the company's newsletter and cross-platform strategy.

Discussion: @owillis.bsky.social, @kerrymflynn, @jeffreytracy, @kendallbaker, Business Wire, @howielongshort, @jimvandehei, @danprimack, Awful Announcing, @pat_trousdale, @jlanzone and @turnernovak

Adweek:

Adweek names Will Lee, currently the COO of NPR, as CEO, and former Time Inc. CEO Rich Battista as executive chairman of the Adweek Board — Joining from NPR, Lee will expand Adweek's offerings and chart a new path forward for one of the industry's most iconic brands

Discussion: Talking Biz News, @jasonlynch, Inside Radio and Current

Ryan Barwick / Marketing Brew:

Microsoft's Xandr emails customers about updates to its ad policies, including a ban on political ads, with changes effective in September and October — Xandr, the ad-tech platform acquired by Microsoft in 2021, is getting out of political advertising later this year.

Discussion: Adweek, Microsoft Advertising, Axios and @ryanbarwick

Max Goldbart / Deadline:

The UK's Film & TV Charity names Marcus Ryder, former BBC news executive and a diversity veteran, as its CEO, replacing Alex Pumfrey, who moved to ITV this year — Marcus Ryder, the British diversity vet and former BBC news exec, has been named CEO of the UK's Film & TV Charity.

Discussion: Variety, @bectu, @alex_pumfrey, @dianekemp1, @marcusryder, @screencraftw, @filmtvcharity, Screen and The Hollywood Reporter

Reuters:

Comcast reports Q2 revenue up 1.7% YoY to $30.5B, content and experiences revenue up 4% YoY to $10.9B, and Peacock hit 24M subscribers, up from 22M in Q1 2023 — Comcast Corp's (CMCSA.O) quarterly revenue beat estimates on Thursday, helped by higher theme park attendance …

Discussion: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, @bristei, CNBC, @tvgrimreaper, The Desk, IndieWire, @brandonthurston, @bristei, @ashleylcarter1, Screen Rant, Wall Street Journal, @xpangler, @bristei, Deadline, The Wrap, The Information and WORLD SCREEN

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

The White House condemned Fox News over comments made by host Greg Gutfeld, who said some Jews “had to be useful” as a means for survival during the Holocaust — The White House denounced Fox News this week over comments by one of its hosts, Greg Gutfeld, that some Jews …

Discussion: @decodingfoxnews, @justinbaragona, @decodingfoxnews, @andrewjbates46, Vanity Fair, RADAR, Insider, Media Matters for America, Poynter and Mediaite

Aisyah Llewellyn / Al Jazeera:

Indonesia restricts X.com, which now redirects to twitter.com after Twitter rebranding to X, as the domain had been previously used by porn and gambling sites — Medan, Indonesia - Elon Musk's aspirations for X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, have hit a stumbling block …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, @Rasta@mstdn.ca, @ryanschultz@mastodon.social, UPROXX, Insider, Engadget, Newslit Daily, Insider, Gizmodo and NBC News, more at Techmeme »

Financial Times:
Sources: Linda Yaccarino pitched her vision for Twitter/X to talent agencies in LA and met with Disney, in a bid to bring stars and influencers to the platform

Discussion: The Guardian, The Information, @mshannahmurphy, @filmthepolicela, @xnewsdaily, @yoda and @apocalypticanow.bsky.social, more at Techmeme »

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Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
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New York Times:
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Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
The US NHTSA suggests easing rules allowing for fully driverless cars and urges companies operating driverless cars to share more data for greater transparency

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