Mediagazer: Memo: on top of cutting ~20% of its staff, Snap cancels its original shows, in-app games, and Zenly and Voisey apps; the layoffs could save $500M annually (Alex Heath/The Verge)

4:35 PM ET, August 31, 2022

Top News:

Alex Heath / The Verge:

Memo: on top of cutting ~20% of its staff, Snap cancels its original shows, in-app games, and Zenly and Voisey apps; the layoffs could save $500M annually — Snapchat's original shows, in-app games, and camera drone are no more — Snap is laying off around 20 percent of its more than 6,400 employees …

Discussion: Snap Newsroom, Variety, Observer, CNBC, CNN, Billboard, Ad Age, Axios, Tubefilter, CNET, The Hill, @alexeheath, New York Times, @gergelyorosz, CBS News, Gizmodo, @xpangler, Deadline, @kyurieff, Forbes, Axios, @lucas_shaw, TechCrunch, @sarafischer, @sarafischer, Wall Street Journal and Footwear News, more at Techmeme »

Alex Heath / The Verge:

Netflix hires two Snap executives to lead its ad-supported tier: Chief Business Officer Jeremi Gorman and VP of Sales for the Americas Peter Naylor — Snap's VP of ad sales is also leaving for Netflix — Netflix has found an executive to lead its plan for an ad-supported tier …

David Bauder / Associated Press:

Media Insight Project's May-June 2022 survey: ~71% of younger Americans get news daily from social media and 32% enjoy following the news, down from 53% in 2015 — Young people are following the news but aren't too happy with what they're seeing. Broadly speaking, that's the conclusion …

Discussion: AP-NORC, American Press Institute, Media Insight Project, @froomkin and Reason

Dade Hayes / Deadline:

Paramount+ plans to combine with Showtime into a single app for $11.99/month with ads and $14.99/month without; stand-alone Showtime will cost $10.99/month — Paramount+ and Showtime have combined into a single streaming app. — The full bundling follows an initial move last year to unify …

Discussion: Variety, TechCrunch, Forbes, The Streamable, The Wrap, Collider, The Verge, The Hollywood Reporter, Decider, @redletterdave, @xpangler, CBR, TVLine and AppleInsider

Casey Newton / Nieman Lab:

An interview with Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine: writers with subscribers should be paid more and thinking “Medium was going to shine” in journalism was a mistake — Sometimes as a reporter you write a piece that is critical of a company and the company decides not to talk to you again for a long while, or ever again.

Discussion: @caseynewton, @oneunderscore__, @bcmerchant, @waxy, The Official Medium Blog, @martinsfp, @mariaramirezny and Platformer

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:

A book excerpt details YouTube's efforts to remove Islamic extremist content and how the platform mostly failed to address other forms of political extremism — Unlike many of her colleagues at YouTube, Tala Bardan doesn't remember the company retreat in June 2017 as a nice long weekend.

Discussion: @muslimadvocates, @bradstone, @daveyalba, @fightextremism, @alexbarinka, @bridgeinit, @joshsteimle and PenguinRandomhouse.com

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

As Reach journalists join the UK's largest newspaper strike in decades, some describe struggling to pay their own bills as they cover the cost-of-living crisis — Industrial action expected on Wednesday is largest strike to hit UK newspaper industry in decades

Discussion: BBC, @hgvandepeer, @photolinepic, @royalreporter, @janerockhouse, Press Gazette, @jimwaterson, @jenwilliamsmen and Press Gazette

Alan Yuhas / New York Times:

Amid growing outrage, Bell Media CEO Mirko Bibic denies that “age, gender, or gray hair” were factors in dismissing veteran CTV News journalist Lisa LaFlamme — The chief executive of a Canadian news network pushed back against allegations that sex, age or gray hair were factors …

Discussion: @danbilefsky, @nickkristof, @charlesadler, @michellemanafy, B&T, Columbia Journalism Review and Boing Boing

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:

Live Nation's Ticketmaster partners with Dapper Labs to issue ticket NFTs on the Flow blockchain and expands its NFL deal to give NFTs to attendees of 100 games — Ticketmaster will now let event organizers issue NFTs (non-fungible tokens) tied to tickets on Flow, a blockchain operated by a16z-backed Dapper Labs.

Discussion: CoinDesk, Billboard and @yoda, more at Techmeme »

Dan Kennedy / Media Nation:

Internal memo: Boston Globe Media plans to add a sports betting section to its free Boston.com site in partnership with sports betting company Better Collective — Boston Globe Media is going into the sports-betting business, announcing a partnership with an outfit called Better Collective.

Julian Borger / The Guardian:

A new book says the NSA asked GCHQ to stop The Guardian from publishing Edward Snowden's leaks about secret mass data collection, but GCHQ rebuffed the request — Head of GCHQ rebuffed late-night request from National Security Agency amid strained relations in Five Eyes intelligence coalition

Discussion: @iainthomson, @arusbridger and @fabiochiusi

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

Just 18 months after launching The National Wales, Newsquest shutters it, citing “competition from free news outlets” and falling subscriptions due to inflation — Newsquest is closing its news website for Wales, The National, 18 months after it launched.

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