Mediagazer: The Onion, backed by some Sandy Hook families and Everytown for Gun Safety, buys Infowars in a bankruptcy auction, and plans a January 2025 relaunch as a parody (Benjamin Mullin/New York Times)

6:25 PM ET, November 14, 2024

Top News:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:

The Onion, backed by some Sandy Hook families and Everytown for Gun Safety, buys Infowars in a bankruptcy auction, and plans a January 2025 relaunch as a parody — The satirical news site planned to turn Infowars into a parody of itself, mocking “weird internet personalities” who peddle conspiracy theories and health supplements.

Discussion: The Onion, Washington Post, Associated Press, Inside Radio, NPR, Bloomberg, Nieman Lab, PCMag, Vanity Fair, TMZ.com, Capital Brief, New York Magazine, The Barbed Wire, @bencollins.bsky.social, Perez Hilton, Benzinga, Fox Business, Mediaite, AV Club, @maxwelltani, Hollywood Life, Paula Maki on LinkedIn, NBC News, @MicheleV_AK@sfba.social, @oneunderscore__, Inc.com, CNN, Alternet.org, Esquire, @bencollins.bsky.social, Al Jazeera, New Republic, Le Monde, @oneunderscore__, New York Post, Above the Law, Engadget, @zimbalist, @semaforben, @yonetteajoseph@threads.net, Twin Cities, Breitbart, To the Contrary, @hadas_gold, @jamesrbuk, David Wyatt on LinkedIn, 6abc, @bencollins.bsky.social, Raw Story, Financial Times, @colbyhall, Laurel Pinson on LinkedIn, @benmullin, UPI, Politico, @sherman4949, @jamesrbuk, Houston Public Media, The Information, Fortune, Mashable, The Verge, USA Today, Digby's Hullabaloo, Block Club Chicago, RedState, Laura Seaton on LinkedIn, The Present Age, Lawyers, Guns & Money, @oneunderscore__, Status, @daithaigilbert, @pkafka, Mother Jones, Axios, Newser, Plain Dealer, The Ankler, @brianstelter, @everytown@threads.net, The Wrap, @claireatki, @bencollins.bsky.social, The Guardian, @sherman4949, The Hill, @mick@cosocial.ca, Washington Examiner, The Desk, @vwampage@xoxo.zone, The Daily Caller, OMG.BLOG, Variety, @willguyatt, @pbump, Fast Company, @bencollins.bsky.social, @brianstelter, @web_martin@mastodon.social, One America News Network, @theonion, ZeroHedge News, @laurenthomanwrites …, The Hollywood Reporter, I guess this is a …, Business Insider, CBS News, The Gateway Pundit, Rolling Stone, TVNewsCheck, Barrett Media, Law & Crime, RTÉ, Just Jared, Boing Boing, Deadline, HuffPost, Not the Bee, Consequence, New York Daily News, Forbes, The National Pulse, WHEC.com, Daring Fireball, Press Herald, Crooks and Liars, Daily Kos, Austin American-Statesman and UnHerd

The Hollywood Reporter:

Disney expects to spend $24B on content in 2025, up from $23.4B in 2024, due to sports programming expenses rising after NFL rate increases and NBA contracts — Rate hikes at the NFL and NBA may mean that sports drive the slight spending increase, with the company reporting $23.4 billion for this past year.

Discussion: @philthepill.bsky.social

Robbie Whelan / Wall Street Journal:
Disney reports Q4 revenue up 6% YoY to $22.6B, TV network revenue down 6% YoY to $2.5B, and a $321M DTC streaming profit, up from a $387M loss in Q4 2023

Discussion: The Walt Disney Company, RetailWire, Orlando Sentinel, @jtoonkel, @thetranscript_, @pkafka, Dylan Jones on LinkedIn, Sam Gillmer on LinkedIn, Theme Park Insider, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter and Benzinga

Jennifer Maas / Variety:
In Q4, Disney added 4.4M Disney+ Core paid subscribers, reaching 120M in total, Disney+ Hotstar subscribers rose 1% YoY to 35.9M, and Hulu subscribers hit 52M

Discussion: IndieWire, Advanced Television and Awful Announcing

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Reliance and Disney complete their $8.5B Indian media merger, creating India's largest media group with $3.1B in annual revenue and 50M+ streaming subscribers

Discussion: Financial Times, Times of India, Deadline, The Wrap, Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter, Hindustan Times and YourStory.com

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
In its Q4 report, Disney, which rarely offers guidance, shares growth expectations to 2027, including a ~$700M operating profit in DTC streaming in 2025

Discussion: Yahoo Finance, Orange County Register, WHEC.com, Benzinga, @brianstelter, Financial Times, Reuters and WORLD SCREEN

Matthew Keys / The Desk:

Disney said Disney+ Q4 ARPU in the US and Canada, down 1% QoQ to $7.70, was affected partly by new wholesale arrangements with some distributors — The Walt Disney Company's recent distribution agreements with Charter Communications and DirecTV impacted a key metric that analysts …

Discussion: StreamTV Insider, The Verge, The Streamable and Cord Cutters News

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Disney plans to add an ESPN “tile” to Disney+ for US subscribers on December 4, giving users access to some free ESPN content — Disney has called its next streaming blitz: In a few weeks, Disney+ will add an ESPN “tile” to the streaming service — and the company will include …

Discussion: Awful Announcing, AdExchanger, @sherman4949, Deadline, Tv Technology and Barrett Media

Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Disney investor call: Bob Iger says 60% of all new Disney+ subscribers are for the ad tier, and in a hot-mic moment wonders if he should have said the detail

Discussion: Observer, The Wrap, IndieWire, Adweek, Tubefilter and Cord Cutters News

UnHerd:

Scientific American EIC Laura Helmuth is stepping down, following criticism for her social media posts suggesting Trump voters were racist, sexist, and fascist — The embattled Editor-in-Chief of Scientific American is leaving her role after her anti-Trump social media posts gained national attention.

Discussion: KFOX-TV, The Post Millennial, Daily Mail, @laurahelmuth.bsky.social and @laurahelmuth.bsky.social

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:

Google plans to stop showing political ads to users in the EU in 2025 due to uncertainties around new transparency rules coming into effect in October 2025 — Google has announced it will stop showing political ads to users in the European Union next year due to uncertainties around the bloc's new transparency regulations.

Discussion: Engadget and The Keyword, more at Techmeme »

Jesse Whittock / Deadline:

Small to mid-sized US unscripted producers like Lucky 8 are looking overseas to find new business and co-producers as the US market contraction hits budgets — Last month at MIPCOM, many regulars at the Cannes TV market noticed more American accents on the Croisette than usual.

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

YouTube: 45M+ people in the US watched election content on November 5; top livestreams were from Fox News, NBC News, LiveNOW, ABC News, and the PBD Podcast — The Google-owned video platform released data Thursday indicating that tens of millions of Americans decided to watch their election returns there.

Discussion: TVNewsCheck, @alexweprin, @youtubeinsider, @youtubeinsider, Fox News, Business Insider and Forbes

Lachlan Cartwright / Columbia Journalism Review:

Just before the election, a Trump lawyer demanded $10B in damages from the NYT and Penguin Random House, part of a flurry of Trump's legal threats to media — Legal letter follows complaints aimed at CBS News, the Washington Post, and the Daily Beast. — The letter, addressed to lawyers …

Discussion: @lachcartwright

Emma Roth / The Verge:

TikTok adds Getty Images to its AI ad creation tool, Symphony Creative Studio, which lets advertisers use the images to make videos, create AI avatars, and more — TikTok will let advertisers pull in content from Getty Images when using the platform's AI ad creation tool.

Discussion: Reuters and TikTok For Business

Umar Shakir / The Verge:

Echoing TikTok's gifting, YouTube is rolling out “jewels” that users can buy to support creators during livestreams, for those in the YouTube Partner Program — YouTube is taking a page out of the TikTok playbook by adding “jewels” you buy to exchange for gifts for your favorite creators during livestreams.

Discussion: Tubefilter, TechCrunch and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Janko Roettgers / Lowpass:

Proposed Trump tariffs on consumer electronics imports may raise prices for TVs and streaming devices, causing a drop in sign-ups for Netflix and other services — Also: Binging goes global — In partnership with … With Donald Trump set to return to the White House in January …

Discussion: PolitiFact, NewsNation and Janko Roettgers on LinkedIn

Dell Cameron / Wired:

The PRESS Act, shielding journalists from US government spying, stalls as Senate Democrats juggle legislative priorities before ceding control January 3 — The PRESS Act, which would protect journalists from government spying, enjoys broad bipartisan support and has passed the House …

Discussion: The Dispatch, @freedomofpress, @freedomofpress@newsie.social, @wyden.senate.gov, @paul@oldfriends.live, @petermiles.bsky.social, @runwithskizzers.bsky.social, @bubbaprog.ilovecitr.us, @clarajeffery.bsky.social and @wyden.senate.gov

Washington Post:

WaPo names Liz Seymour managing editor; she has held various roles over 25 years at the outlet, including deputy managing editor and executive features editor — A veteran Washington Post newsroom leader, Seymour marks her 25th year at the publication — The Washington Post today named …

Discussion: The Wrap, MediaPost and Kathy Baird on LinkedIn

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Erik Hayden / The Hollywood Reporter:
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The once-unified BookTok community has become a battleground over politics and how it intersects with writers, influencers, readers, and the books themselves

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Dan Milmo / The Guardian:
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Discussion: New York Daily News, The Guardian, Fortune, UnHerd, The Irish Times, @maxwelltani, @lindayax, Guido Fawkes, @elonmusk, @nocontextbrits, @rafat, @eurabist, @rmcgreevy1301, @scottaawilson, @nitashakaul, @sarafischer, @iandunt, @willguyatt, Milica Pesic on LinkedIn, Townhall, Alex Smith on LinkedIn, Forbes, PCMag, @eloquence@social.coop, Bruce McCoy on LinkedIn, Donald Kau on LinkedIn, @RHW@mastodon.au, The Guardian, Wainer Lusoli on LinkedIn, Dan Papworth-Smyth on LinkedIn, CBS News, @cdarwin@c.im, James Harvey on LinkedIn, @jsamwrites@mastodon.social, George Niles Mekeel RN on LinkedIn, Nieman Lab, @fergusryan@aus.social, @michael@newsmast.social, @harrymccracken@mastodon …, Carlos Diaz Ruiz on LinkedIn, HotAir, Shannon Dunn on LinkedIn, Alix Bryan-Campos on LinkedIn, @dvsk@mastodon.nz, Breitbart, @ronaldtootall@tech.lgbt, The Hill, Thomas Johnson on LinkedIn, The National Pulse, London Evening Standard, David Ward on LinkedIn, Al Jazeera, Mediaite, Reuters, Rob O'Hanrahan on LinkedIn, Press Gazette, @ianRobinson@mastodon.social, Lucas Amaral Lauriano on LinkedIn, GB News, BBC, Variety, @worldguru.bsky.social, Just Jared, The Hollywood Reporter, Gordon MacMillan on LinkedIn, Politico, @earleyedition@aus.social, Balloon Juice, @viridis@achrilock.social, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, Daily Sabah, @renatolond@masto.donte.com.br, @brett@bne.social, @jimwaterson.bsky.social and Semafor

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