Top News:
Katherine Sayre / Wall Street Journal:
Spotify reports Q2 revenue up 10% YoY to €4.2B, MAUs up 11% to 696M, subscribers up 12% to 276M, and an €86M net loss; SPOT closes down 11.6% after missed est. — The audio streaming service added more listeners than it had forecast, but reported a net loss for the second quarter
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Yahoo Finance, The Hollywood Reporter, BMI, CNBC, Spotify, @eldsjal, @thetranscript_, @fromvalue, @wallstengine, @sarafischer, Tech in Asia, @spotifynews, Mumbrella, @earnings_time, @laurenbalik, @sandraalzetta, @firstsquawk, @lucas_shaw, Billboard, MarketWatch, Digital Music News, Neowin, Reuters, Axios, Thurrott, Livemint, Moneycontrol, Billboard, Proactive, The Economic Times, Hypebot, 9to5Mac, Variety, The Wrap, Reuters and Bloomberg
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Catherine Perloff / The Information:
Daniel Ek says Spotify's ad business has “been moving too slowly”; Spotify ad chief Lee Brown left on July 28 to join DoorDash as its chief revenue officer
Discussion:
Podnews, AdExchanger, @catherineperlo1, Inside Radio, Billboard, Deadline, Financial Times, campaignlive.co.uk, Bloomberg and Axios, more at Techmeme »
Taylor Lorenz / User Mag:
Substack apologizes after sending a push alert encouraging some users to subscribe to NatSocToday, a Nazi newsletter advocating for a “White homeland” — The alert contained a swastika and prompted users to subscribe to newsletter featuring opinions and news important to the “white nationalist community.”
Discussion:
@mediaevan, @dankennedy.net, @jaennaet.fi, @jwildeboer@social …, @taylorlorenz, @tdh, @julienhoez, @taylorlorenz, @taylorlorenz, @sauthoff.bsky.social, @scroeser@kolektiva.social, @markwyner@mas.to, @John@socks.masto.host, @encthenet@flyovercountry …, @MissConstrue@mefi.social and Pixel Envy, more at Techmeme »
Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon is paying $20M to $25M a year to use NYT's editorial content in a multi-year deal for its AI platforms, which is ~1% of NYT's total 2024 revenue — The multiyear deal lets Amazon use content from the Times's news and cooking sections and the Athletic
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
The Daily Mail consolidates its digital platforms under the name Daily Mail and renames its digital subscription package, which has 325K subscribers, DailyMail+ — The Daily Mail has set a target of reaching one million digital subscribers by October 2028 as it undergoes a consolidation of its global branding.
Discussion:
InPublishing, PodcastingToday, Telegraph and PR Week UK
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Ofcom: YouTube is the second most-watched TV service in the UK, behind the BBC and ahead of ITV; one in five Gen Alpha viewers turn to YouTube first on their TV — Ofcom study finds scheduled TV is ‘increasingly alien’ to younger viewers — Younger people now turn on YouTube above …
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
TikTok adds new safety features, including enhanced parental controls, and publicly launches Footnotes, its Community Notes-like feature, in the US — TikTok announced on Wednesday that it's releasing a slew of new features, including enhanced parental controls, additional tools for creators, and a new interactive wellbeing feature.
Rocket Drew / The Information:
Runway and Luma AI say they are talking to robotics and self-driving car companies about their video models and expect these revenue sources to eclipse studios — Imax on Monday announced that it would screen the winning films from Runway's AI-generated film festival at some of its theaters.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Breitbart, PetaPixel, The Wrap, Forbes, The Decoder, The Hollywood Reporter, WinBuzzer and Deadline
Jay Peters / The Verge:
YouTube will now allow videos with strong profanity in the first seven seconds to be fully monetized, reversing previous restrictions that limited ad revenue — Videos that use the F-word in the first seven seconds are now eligible for full ad revenue.
Sarah Scire / Nieman Lab:
The Kyiv Independent crosses 20,000 paying members, up from 17,500 in May, with ~70% of its revenue coming from readers, and has no plans to add a paywall — Horizontal connections and membership community have kept subscriber churn for the English-language publication under 2%.
Discussion:
David Grant on LinkedIn
Renju Jose / Reuters:
Australia says it will include YouTube in its ban on social media for children under 16 years of age, reversing an earlier decision to exempt the platform — Australia said on Wednesday it will include Alphabet-owned (GOOGL.O) YouTube in its world-first ban on social media for teenagers …
Discussion:
Mediaweek, UPI, The Hans India, Businessday NG, LBC, The Guardian, Associated Press, Morningstar, Inc., The Indian Express, The Register, Crikey, Mumbrella, Bloomberg, Anthony Albanese, Information Age, Benzinga, B&T, Tubefilter, BBC, Australian Financial Review, Cyber Daily, Capital Brief, Biometric Update, TechSpot, Mobile World Live, The Economic Times and Nikkei Asia, more at Techmeme »
Amy Hollyfield / Dallas Morning News:
DallasNews Corporation board rejects Alden-owned MediaNews's bid and accepts an improved merger deal from Hearst, which raised its offer from $14 to $15/share — The board also voted to implement a shareholder rights plan to hold off Alden. — DallasNews Corporation announced Monday …
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, @royalpratt, Bloomberg, WFAA-TV, KERA News, Poynter, @stufalk.bsky.social and Dallas Business Journal
Reuters:
Canal+ reports H1 2025 revenue down 3.3% YoY to €3.09B, free cash flow of €370M, up from €128M in H1 2024, and expects FY 2025 EBITA of ~€515M; CAN jumps 6% — French pay-TV company Canal+ (CAN.L) reported a jump in free cash flow in the first half even as revenue fell …
Discussion:
Broadcast, Broadband TV News, Advanced Television, Deadline and Canal+
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