Mediagazer: Tencent Music reports Q2 revenue down 1.7% YoY to ~$999M vs. ~$996M est., paying users up 17.7% to 117M, social entertainment revenue down 42.8%; TME drops 15%+ (Reuters)

Top News:

Politico, the NYT, the WaPo, and others refusing to give details about leaked Trump campaign materials stands in marked contrast to Clinton's emails in 2016 — At least three news outlets were leaked confidential material from inside the Donald Trump campaign, including its report vetting JD Vance as a vice presidential candidate.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Wrap, @dbauder, @warondumb, @nycsouthpaw, Associated Press, Columbia Journalism Review, @hatr, @semaforben, HuffPost, Talking Points Memo, CBS News, New York Times and Washington Post, more at Techmeme »

The Guardian:
The NYT, WaPo, Politico, and others say they received documents stolen from Trump's campaign; Microsoft says Iranian hackers targeted a presidential campaign

Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:

Memos: Paramount shuts down Paramount TV Studios and begins layoffs of 15% of its US staff, which will happen in three phases, as it seeks to save $500M — Projects at the Nicole Clemens-led unit will move under the CBS Studios umbrella. — Paramount Global is shutting down its namesake TV studio …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Variety, The Wrap, Deadline and @sherman4949

Reuters:

Tencent Music reports Q2 revenue down 1.7% YoY to ~$999M vs. ~$996M est., paying users up 17.7% to 117M, social entertainment revenue down 42.8%; TME drops 15%+ — Tencent Music Entertainment (1698.HK) reported a smaller than expected fall in quarterly revenue on Tuesday …

Discussion: Billboard, Tencent Music and MarketWatch

Sara Fischer / Axios:

The Democratic National Convention will be streamed in TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube in a bid to attract young viewers, and on Twitch, X, and Prime Video — - Roughly one-third of Americans ages 18 to 29 say they get news regularly on TikTok, which only streams vertical video, per Pew Research Center.

Discussion: The Hill, Deadline and Cord Cutters News

New York Times:

NYT Opinion Editor Kathleen Kingsbury says the editorial board will no longer make endorsements in New York elections, including in governor and NYC mayor races — The paper's editorial board will continue to endorse presidential candidates, as it has for more than 160 years.

Discussion: The Guardian, Media Nation, James Rubin on LinkedIn, Poynter, @semaforben, Jane Eisner on LinkedIn, CNN, @semaforben, @jackmirkinson, @brianmcc, @lincolnrestler, @dcg1114, @katie_robertson, Nic Dawes on LinkedIn, @blogdiva@mastodon.social, @waldoj@mastodon.social, Fox News and TVNewsCheck

Jennifer Maas / Variety:

DoorDash partners with WBD to offer a free Max With Ads subscription to subscribers of the DashPass plan, which costs $96 per year, in the US — Food and grocery delivery platform DoorDash has launched a partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery to offer a free Max subscription to all of its DashPass customers.

Discussion: The Streamable, Advanced Television, The Information, Reuters, ComingSoon.net, Streaming Better and DoorDash

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Substack says news and politics journalists making $1M+ hit “double digits”; the success of The Ankler and others also shows Substack is a newsroom incubator — - News industry cuts totaled 2,569 between January and July, up 10% from the same time last year, per Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Discussion: New York Times

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:

SoundCloud launches SoundCloud Store, which helps artists sell merch by creating mockups, producing goods, and listing them, in the US, Canada, and Europe — Music streaming service SoundCloud has launched a merch marketplace called SoundCloud Store. The store will sell SoundCloud-themed items …

The Guardian:

Bangladeshi journalists say they are cautiously optimistic that Sheikh Hasina's resignation as prime minister will bring an era of censorship and fear to an end — Reporters cautiously optimistic as interim government takes over after years of intimidation and censorship

Discussion: Foreign Policy, NPR and Semafor

John Reed / Financial Times:

India pulls a draft broadcasting services bill after a backlash from content creators over its potential chilling effect on free speech and compliance burden — Narendra Modi government's climbdown points to weakened parliamentary mandate, analysts say — Narendra Modi's government …

Discussion: @mib_india, Times of India, Times of India, CNBC-TV18, Business Standard, India TV News, News9live, @internetfreedom, India Today on YouTube, The Indian Express, @apar1984, Rest of World and MEDIANAMA, more at Techmeme »

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Twitch rolls out video stories, which can be up to 60 seconds long and set to expire after one, 12, 24, or 48 hours, to challenge Instagram and TikTok — After launching photo and text stories last year, Twitch is now introducing video stories. Streamers can now film 60-second videos …

Discussion: Twitch

Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:

NBCUniversal says the 2024 Paris Olympics averaged 30.6M viewers across all platforms for its US daytime and nightly prime telecasts combined, up 82% from Tokyo — The company says 30.6 million people watched its daily coverage from Paris. — NBCUniversal will always have Paris …

Discussion: NBCSports.com, The Streamable, The Media Leader, Ad Age, Barrett Media, Adweek, Front Office Sports, The Wrap, Next TV, Poynter, UPI and Deadline