Top News:
Ryan Broderick / Garbage Day:
NewsWhip: seven of the top 10 “news” articles with the most interactions on Facebook in September 2023 were published on the catholicfundamentalism.com domain — Read to the end for the garfarious anglerfish — This Is What Replaces News On Facebook
Discussion:
Axios, @chaykak, @patrickdehahn and Digiday
Sheila Dang / Reuters:
Guideline: X's monthly US ad revenue has declined 55%+ YoY in each of the 10 months since Elon Musk's Twitter takeover in October 2022 through August 2023 — Monthly U.S. ad revenue at social media platform X has declined at least 55% year-over-year each month since billionaire Elon Musk bought …
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Natalie Korach / The Wrap:
X starts removing preview headlines from posts with article links, showing only the lead image and domain name; Elon Musk mentioned the change in August 2023 — The platform formerly known as Twitter now only displays outside sites' featured images on its iPhone app
Discussion:
Bloomberg, The Verge, @cburke.bsky.social, @notalawyer.bsky.social, Boing Boing, @mostlywrite, @cwarzel, @adamjohnsonchi, @dylanljmartin, @tomwarren, Engadget, @jamesrbuk, @xdaily, @erinkwoo, @adamjohnsonchi, @popbase, @charlescmann, @cwarzel, @cwarzel, @tomwarren, @mollyjongfast, @alexacorse, @slcw@newsie.social, @dsilverman@mastodon.social, The Messenger and The Hill, more at Techmeme »
Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
News UK and DMGT plan to combine print operations, reducing UK national newspaper printing operators to two and likely prompting a CMA investigation — Move by Rupert Murdoch's News UK and Lord Rothermere's DMGT could result in closure of two printing sites
Discussion:
MediaPost
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Sources: AT&T is exploring options for its 70% DirecTV stake, such as adding a new investor or selling the stake and exiting the venture as early as August 2024 — - Telecoms giant majority owns DirecTV with private equity TPG — Declining pay-TV customer base has cut into AT&T's cash flow
Discussion:
Cord Cutters News and The Desk
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Comcast-Charter joint venture Xumo launches its first streaming set-top box for new Spectrum video customers, coming to Comcast's Xfinity Internet users “soon” — Can Xumo help cable companies grab a new foothold in the streaming space? — Xumo — the joint venture of Comcast …
Discussion:
The Verge, The Desk, The Hollywood Reporter, Media Play News, Deadline and Cord Cutters News
The Hindu:
The actions on NewsClick by India's government, which has shown itself to be intolerant of critical journalism, smack of extreme vendetta and brazen harassment — The arrests and actions in the Newsclick case are aimed at a chilling effect — Even for a government that has shown itself …
Discussion:
@samar11, @bhadrapunchline, @benarasiyaa, @arusbridger, Scroll.in and @jagritichandra
Deadline:
SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP met on October 4 for contract negotiations to end the strike, with studio CEOs attending, and plan to meet on October 6 and on October 9 — SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on just wrapped their second day of renewed talks …
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, The Wrap and Variety
Freedom of the Press Foundation:
Over 50 media and civil rights groups write to US AG Merrick Garland, demanding transparency over the FBI raiding Tim Burke's house and seizing his equipment — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: — An FBI raid on the home newsroom of Florida journalist Tim Burke in May prompted over 50 organizations …
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Memo: Amazon is shutting down Amp, its live audio streaming app launched in March 2022 that let users act like DJs by playing music and talking alongside songs — The service launched in March 2022 following a frenzy around live-audio services during the pandemic.
Discussion:
The Sun, Music Ally, TechCrunch, Engadget, @bradydale, @ashleyrcarman, The Verge, The Messenger, Billboard, KNSD-TV, Pitchfork and New York Daily News, more at Techmeme »
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Wall Street and music industry analysts see Spotify's move into audiobooks as an opportunity for the company to increase its profit margins and value for users — An Evercore ISI analyst expects the effort to be a higher margin business than its music offerings, while a Morgan Stanley expert highlighted …
Discussion:
@tvgrimreaper, Mumbrella, Music Industry Blog, Publishers Weekly, Fox News, RAIN News, CMU, Spotify, Music Ally, Financial Times, Publishing Perspectives, The Verge, Billboard, The Messenger, New York Times, Consequence, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, The Sun, TechCrunch and Cord Cutters News
Peter Kafka / Vox:
Netflix and Max both offering Dune illustrates a strategic shift at Big Media companies, which Wall Street has pushed to cut spending and generate more revenue — Remember when Netflix's competitors, like Warner Bros., kept their biggest stuff on their own streaming services? That's so 2021.
Discussion:
MIT Technology Review