Top News:
Steven Waldman / Columbia Journalism Review:
Jeff Bezos should donate The Washington Post to a public charity that maintains its quality and independence, as he is too financially compromised to own it — His conflicts of interests are insurmountable. He can take a heroic path to strengthen journalism.
Discussion:
Washington Post, @tvgrimreaper, Newser, Lauren Gustus on LinkedIn, @nypoet, @glastris, Hard-G History, @ckrewson, @froomkin, @mediaevan, @dicktofel, @mikeelk, @margotroosevelt, @ddimick, @lenfestinst, @rich1, @stevenwaldman, @kegill@mastodon.social, Chris Rauber on LinkedIn, Foreign Policy, @heidilifeldman@mastodon …, Semafor, @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social and r/Journalism
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Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
A broad group of news outlets attracted new subscribers after WaPo's lack of an endorsement for president; The Philadelphia Inquirer gained 4,200+ subscribers — The Philadelphia Inquirer had its best week for new subscriptions ever and The Guardian U.S. broke its single-day fundraising record — twice.
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
In its Q3 earnings call, Comcast CEO Mike Cavanagh says the company is weighing spinning off its cable networks and open to “partnerships in streaming” — Comcast President Mike Cavanagh delivered an eye-opening update to investors on this morning's third-quarter earnings call …
Discussion:
MediaPost, The Desk, New York Times, Advanced Television, Adweek, Variety, TVNewsCheck, The Hollywood Reporter, WORLD SCREEN and CNBC
RELATED:
Georg Szalai / The Hollywood Reporter:
Comcast reports Peacock's Q3 losses fell to $436M, down from $565M in Q3 2023, revenue rose 82% YoY to $1.5B, and subscribers rose 3M from June to 36M — Third-quarter revenue in the conglomerate's studios segment was driven by the strong box office performances of ‘Despicable Me 4’ and ‘Twisters.’
Discussion:
Sportico, TVNewsCheck, Deadline, The Wrap, The Streamable, IndieWire, Benzinga and Media Play News
Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:
Comcast reports Q3 net income down 10% YoY to $3.63B and revenue up 6.5% YoY to $32.07B; revenue for media, mainly composed of NBCU, rose 37% YoY to $8.23B — Comcast reports its third-quarter earnings before the bell Thursday. Wall Street will once again be focused on subscriber numbers …
Discussion:
The Streamable, Variety, The Information, Reuters, Tv Technology, Cord Cutters News, Front Office Sports, Bloomberg and Barron's Online
John O'Nolan:
Ghost's CEO details the organization's governance structure and says the open-source CMS generates ~$7.5M in annual revenue and has been profitable for 12 years — Ghost is a distributed non-profit foundation which gives away all of its intellectual property under a permissive MIT license.
Kali Hays / Fortune:
Internal memo: Block CEO Jack Dorsey says Tidal is in for another mass layoff; insiders say as many as 100 people could be laid off, or ~25% of Tidal's staff — Block CEO and founder Jack Dorsey wants streaming music app Tidal to operate like a startup again - and that means layoffs
ProPublica:
An investigation finds eight deceptive operations on Meta's platforms that collectively controlled 340+ Pages and placed 160K ads to collect users' information — Co-published with Tow Center for Digital Journalism — Deceptive Political Ads: Eight deceptive advertising networks …
Discussion:
Marketing Dive, Forbes, AdExchanger and Tech Transparency Project, more at Techmeme »
Andrew Webster / The Verge:
Disney+ rolls out a top 10 list on the app's home screen, in line with Netflix, Max, Apple TV+, and Prime Video — As Disney Plus has grown, finding things to watch has become increasingly challenging. So the streaming service is rolling out a top 10 list featured on the home screen in hopes of improving discoverability.
Discussion:
Decider, BGR and The Walt Disney Company
Meta Investor Relations:
Meta reports Q3 revenue up 19% YoY to $40.59B, net income up 35% to $15.69B, and family daily active people up 5% to 3.29B on average for September 2024 — Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META) today reported financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2024.
Ben Strauss / Washington Post:
A look at the feud over NFL reporters talking to players in locker rooms, after the players union cut off long-accepted access, calling the practice “outdated” — Journalists say locker-room access is critical to covering the league. Some players want to take the conversation outside.
Discussion:
Awful Announcing, @benjstrauss and Associated Press
Mia Sato / The Verge:
Fox, ABC, and others are broadcasting graphic and hateful ads paid for by political candidates during the World Series; the FCC requires stations accept the ads — The World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees is in full swing, and millions of people in the US …
Discussion:
FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV
Andrew Webster / The Verge:
Nintendo launches Nintendo Music, an iOS and Android app that lets Switch Online subscribers stream or download gaming tunes from Nintendo titles — This time, it's a mobile app called Nintendo Music, which lets users listen to classic gaming tunes from Nintendo games spanning the last few decades …
Discussion:
Screen Rant, Music Ally, SamMobile, Gizmodo, Engadget, Digital Music News, 9to5Google, Variety, BGR and Comic Book, more at Techmeme »
Alexandra Canal / Yahoo Finance:
Roku reports Q3 revenue up 16% YoY to $1.06B, vs. $1.02B est., 85.5M streaming households, up 2M QoQ, and Q4 guidance below est.; ROKU drops 11%+ — Roku (ROKU) stock fell more than 10% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the company's Q4 guidance disappointed, despite the media player reporting …
Discussion:
Streaming Better and Media Play News
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Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Starting in Q1 2025, Roku plans to stop giving quarterly updates on the number of streaming households and average revenue per user, following Netflix
Starting in Q1 2025, Roku plans to stop giving quarterly updates on the number of streaming households and average revenue per user, following Netflix
Discussion:
StreamTV Insider, Cord Cutters News, Roku Inc., YourStory.com, Advanced Television, Motley Fool, Benzinga, Barron's Online, Reuters, Variety, Deadline, The Wrap and Bloomberg