Top News:
Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:
NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell is leaving the company effective immediately, after a Comcast investigation into an employee's complaint of inappropriate conduct — Jeff Shell had been at the Comcast Corp. unit for roughly two decades — NBCUniversal Chief Executive Jeff Shell is leaving …
Discussion:
Comcast, CNBC, New York Times, Variety, @lucas_shaw, The Hollywood Reporter, @jbflint, NPR, @keitholbermann, @bryandfischer, @benjamingoggin, @keitholbermann, @keitholbermann, The Daily Beast, Deadline, @tvmojoe, @patiencehaggin, @mattbelloni, Bloomberg, @jbflint, @benmullin, @brianstelter, @kimmasters, Engadget, @mattbelloni, Reuters, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Mediaite, @brandonthurston, The Information, @brianstelter, The Hill, @great_katzby, The Wrap, Axios, @brianstelter, TVLine, New York Post, @benmullin, @pkafka, @dylanbyers, @tim_bays, @sherman4949, Insider, CBS News and NBC 6 South Florida
Discussion:
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times: Jeff Shell, C.E.O. of NBCUniversal, Steps Down After Inquiry
Lucas Shaw / @lucas_shaw: Big news in media land: NBCU CEO Jeff Shell is leaving the company after a complaint of inappropriate conduct. https://twitter.com/...
Abbey White / The Hollywood Reporter: NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell Departs Following Misconduct Investigation
Joe Flint / @jbflint: Associates describe Mr. Shell as bright and innovative, but helter-skelter as a manager. An outgoing exec, but higher-ups were concerned that he could be lose with info, disclosing plans or business happenings that he wasn't supposed to. https://www.wsj.com/...
Keith Olbermann / @keitholbermann: He said Whizzing lol https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Bryan Fischer / @bryandfischer: Well that is a notable exit (due to an inappropriate relationship at the company) ahead of some major rights negotiations and a potential writers strike. https://twitter.com/...
Ben Goggin / @benjamingoggin: Jeff Shell steps down as CEO of NBCUniversal, admitting to an “inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company” https://twitter.com/...
Keith Olbermann / @keitholbermann: And can we drop the euphemisms? He didn't “depart.” It wasn't “mutual.” He was FIRED. https://twitter.com/...
@keitholbermann: BREAKING: Wow. My onetime friend Jeff Shell OUT as chairman of NBC https://twitter.com/...
Corbin Bolies / The Daily Beast: NBCUniversal CEO Steps Down After ‘Inappropriate Relationship’ With Staffer
Lynette Rice / Deadline: Jeff Shell Exits As NBCUniversal CEO After Investigation Into Inappropriate Conduct
@tvmojoe: Variety frames this right: Mr. Shell isn't “leaving” the company. He's been fired. https://variety.com/...
@patiencehaggin: Inbox: Jeff Shell is stepping down as CEO of @NBCUniversal He acknowledges “an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company”
Matthew Belloni / @mattbelloni: The irony of Jeff Shell's exit after an affair is pretty rich. Jeff fired NBCU's Ron Meyer for HIS inappropriate relationship with a woman (though not an employee).
Susanne Barton / Bloomberg: NBCUniversal CEO Shell Leaves After ‘Inappropriate Relationship’
Joe Flint / @jbflint: NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell's nearly two decade career at Comcast ended Sunday after an HR investigation regarding inappropriate conduct. Move stunned NBCU and Comcast execs. Comcast president Mike Cavanagh overseeing Shell's duties. https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ
Ben Mullin / @benmullin: News: Jeff Shell's senior team is going to report to Comcast president Mike Cavanaugh. https://twitter.com/...
Brian Stelter / @brianstelter: WSJ: “Comcast launched an investigation soon after receiving a complaint from an employee against Mr. Shell, people familiar with the matter said.” https://www.wsj.com/...
Kim Masters / @kimmasters: Absolute shocker. Even my sources at NBCUni genuinely seem to be reeling. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ ...
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget: NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell is leaving Comcast over ‘inappropriate conduct’
Matthew Belloni / @mattbelloni: Another press release I first thought was fake: NBC Universal chief Jeff Shell is leaving the company after a Comcast investigation. “I had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret,” he says.
Mrinmay Dey / Reuters: Comcast says NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell leaving after probe into inappropriate conduct
Meg James / Los Angeles Times: NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell exits, citing ‘inappropriate relationship’ at company
Ken Meyer / Mediaite: NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell Ousted After Admitting to ‘Inappropriate Relationship’
Brandon Thurston / @brandonthurston: Less than a year after WWE then-CEO Vince McMahon resigns (and later comes back) after investigation into inappropriate relationship with employees, WWE's top business partner's CEO, Jeff Shell at NBCU resigns after investigation into inappropriate relationship with employee. https://twitter.com/...
Brian Stelter / @brianstelter: The two-paragraph press release — “Comcast Corporation Announces Jeff Shell Is Leaving the Company” — makes no mention of who will become CEO of NBCUniversal https://www.businesswire.com/ ...
Brandon Katz / @great_katzby: Need to learn more about the stunning Jeff Shell news. But if this had to happen to any company, NBCU is well positioned to manage the fallout/transition. Executive team is deep and talented. Sports, Media Networks, film, parks already strong and streaming is growing.
Brian Stelter / @brianstelter: Update: Jeff Shell's senior team “will now report directly to Mike Cavanagh, President of Comcast Corporation,” per an internal memo. So no immediate appointment of an NBCU CEO. (These things usually take some time to negotiate.)
Andy Swift / TVLine: NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell Steps Down Following Investigation Into ‘Inappropriate Relationship’
Jorge Fitz-Gibbon / New York Post: NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell quits over ‘inappropriate relationship’ with woman
Ben Mullin / @benmullin: More @nytimes -Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanaugh called Jeff Shell's direct reports this weekend to brief them. -Investigation happened over last several weeks after a woman came forward with a complaint. -Jeff Shell was working last week. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Peter Kafka / @pkafka: August 2020: NBC U boss Jeff Shell boss says a legendary exec was leaving because of a consensual affair. Today: NBC U boss Jeff Shell says he is leaving because of a consensual affair. https://twitter.com/...
Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers: + SHELL: “Today is my last day as CEO of NBCUniversal. I had an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, which I deeply regret. I'm truly sorry I let my Comcast and NBCUniversal colleagues down, they are the most talented people in the business...”
Tim Baysinger / @tim_bays: NBCU could do a lot worse than Donna Langley as CEO. Universal is on an absolute hot streak right now
Alex Sherman / @sherman4949: Some new details here from me and @Lilliannnn: *The employee that had a relationship with Shell filed a complaint with Comcast/NBCU *Comcast CEO Brian Roberts will take a more hands on approach to NBCU for the time being https://www.cnbc.com/...
Aaron McDade / Insider: NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell is stepping down following an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with a colleague
Zoe Kleinman / BBC:
Twitter restores the gold badges of some news organizations, including the BBC, The New York Times, and Bellingcat; the BBC and Bellingcat say they did not pay — Some Twitter accounts with more than one million followers have had their blue tick badges re-instated by Twitter without paying to subscribe.
Discussion:
Kenneth Roth / @kenroth: Twitter belatedly discovers that it makes sense to promote users with large numbers of followers rather than any troll who will pay @ElonMusk $8 a month. But in the meantime, the meaning of the blue check has been degraded by the new pay-to-play approach. https://www.bbc.com/...
Lynne S / @battlebridge_: @StephenKing Can you offer to pay him to have it removed? https://www.theguardian.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@marvicleonen: Other human beings do not deserve the same treatment? Those who were given the privilege for free cannot afford your 8 dollars a month? While ordinary people do not deserve the same accommodation? So, this is Twitter's new management? https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Robert Young Pelton / @ryp__: Elon Musk's Blue Check program explodes mid launch. https://www.bbc.com/...
@blackamazon: LOL sorry I'm now laughing because all three of those gave me hell for ( admittedly caustically) pointing out their failures of considering how social controlled their cues and half assed work on #yourslipisshowing Everyone have fun https://twitter.com/...
J. Clara Chan / The Hollywood Reporter: Twitter Inexplicably Adds Verification Back to Some Accounts, Including Dead Celebrities
@realhaulegluck: 🚩@elonmusk has previously said that the @Twitter finances were in dire straits when he took over and that Twitter was operating at a loss of $4m per day. 👉🏽Elon removing our legacy Checkmark won't help to stop twitter sinking! https://www.bbc.com/...
Ashis Basu / @basuashis: Twitter restores blue tick to high profile accounts. Beyoncé, Harry Kane, Richard Osman and Victoria Beckham are among those to have their blue tick back. The BBC News Twitter account also has its gold badge again, but has not paid for it. @zsk https://www.bbc.com/...
Amee Vanderpool / @girlsreallyrule: Elon Musk pays for Stephen King, LeBron James and Amee Vanderpool to keep Twitter blue checks: https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Laura Kuenssberg / @bbclaurak: The blue tick is back - (Mine just popped back up, haven't paid!) this is what's going on 👇🏼 https://www.bbc.com/...
Mark Shenton / @shentonstage: What a @twitter farce — @ElonMusk has intervened to allow some celebrity twitter accounts to retain their blue ticks by paying for them himself. No doubt some of the goons that have now paid for theirs will claim they didn't! https://www.theguardian.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Low De Wei / Fortune: Twitter blue checks for dead celebrities adds to confusion over Elon Musk's changes
James Ball / New Statesman: Farewell, blue tick
RELATED:
Dara Kerr / NPR:
Sources: Twitter removed its “visibility filtering rules”, or “shadow bans”, for Russian, Chinese, and Iranian government accounts and state-affiliated media
Discussion:
@alyssakann, Washington Post, @digiphile, @ben_mutxasteg1, @brianmannadk, @digiphile, @pamelafessler, @davetroy, @thesizzlereport, @sadgirlcassi, @vane303, @eduardosuarez, @throught_hills, @errantstrategry, @fharris2011, @rail_splitter1, @rvawonk, @jesselehrich, @jdice03, Variety, @deardrewdixon, @kim, @bcmerchant, @davidgura, @darakerr, @scottsigler, @cendemtech, @inafried, @akinunver, @dfrlab, @brianmannadk, DFRLab, Media Matters for America, Mashable and Associated Press
Discussion:
Alyssa Kann / @alyssakann: After months of declining follower counts, some state-affiliated media outlets on Twitter started to gain more followers, all around the same date. Here's the sudden shift of an account from Russia's RT, beginning a period of follower growth March 28 and onwards: https://twitter.com/...
Joseph Menn / Washington Post: Twitter removes labels from state-controlled media, helping propaganda
Alex Howard / @digiphile: As @washingtonpost: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... & @npr report, @twitter removed labels from state media. Twitter also removed labels from *all government* accounts — including US government — & unverified official @whitehouse accounts: https://twitter.com/... We're back to 2009 here https://twitter.com/...
@ben_mutxasteg1: “Twitter changes its algorithm to boost Russian, Chinese and Iranian state media, because that is what “free speech” is all about” https://twitter.com/...
Brian Mann / @brianmannadk: As interesting factual challenging voices back away from Twitter, the site is seeing a surge in the impact of state-sponsored propaganda from China, Iran and Russia. Reporting from NPR in the thread below 👇 https://twitter.com/...
Alex Howard / @digiphile: This week, @Twitter removed ALL labels designating accounts as government-controlled or funded, after intentionally ending its @policy of not recommending state-backed tweets in March. Now, China, Russia & Iran's state propaganda are getting more eyeballs. https://www.npr.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Pam Fessler / @pamelafessler: Check (no pun intended) out these graphs showing spikes in follower numbers for actual state-affiliated media outlets. https://twitter.com/...
Dave Troy / @davetroy: Vitally important thread here. Again, this machine is for information warfare. It is being used to empower authoritarian regimes. https://twitter.com/...
@thesizzlereport: Twitter removes state-media tags from Russian, Chinese accounts This could reek havoc during the 2024 election - we have got to get organized! #Dems4USA #BlueWave https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@sadgirlcassi: Twitter accounts run by Russia's RT, China's CGTN and Iran's PressTV suddenly began to gain followers; Twitter acknowledged a change in policy regarding state media accounts three weeks later. #propaganda https://dfrlab.org/...
Hendrik Lesser / @vane303: dear european politicians - we have to hold @elonmusk and @Twitter accountable for this. this has not much of to do with free speech if we allow and even help people spreading misinformation and with intent to destroy our democratic systems https://twitter.com/...
@throught_hills: We're looking at how twitter is transforming into propaganda outlet 🫤 https://twitter.com/...
Francis Harris / @fharris2011: Oh look, Elon Musk fixing Twitter to help the Kremlin's blood-spattered propagandists (Also deliberately downplaying tweets from Ukraine's war of survival) https://twitter.com/...
@rail_splitter1: Quietly, behind the blue-check diversionary active measure, this was the real event all along. Where we are: someone who should have much more urgent things to do spends inordinate amounts of times directing Twitter how to amplify the worst disinformation on the planet. https://twitter.com/...
Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D / @rvawonk: I wrote about this trend last week — and it appears to be continuing, and with even more state media accounts. https://weaponizedspaces.substack.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...
Jesse Lehrich / @jesselehrich: Elon has fully unshackled CCP & Kremlin propaganda. now Dmitry Medvedev is getting 7,000 RTs calling for genocide. https://www.npr.org/... https://twitter.com/...
Dice / @jdice03: Twitter has been hard at work driving away reputable news agencies like NPR & PBS while opening its doors to propaganda, hate and disinformation from the likes of Russia and China. Elon Musk is making Donald Trump's wildest dreams come true. https://www.npr.org/...
Todd Spangler / Variety: Elon Musk Drops Twitter's ‘State-Affiliated’ and ‘Government-Funded’ Media Labels After Backlash
Drew Dixon / @deardrewdixon: Twitter became a powerful platform where independent thinkers, writers, and movements spoke-out, scaled, and established authenticity. By dismantling this ecosystem, Elon is muting the impact of independent voices who challenge gate-keepers and the status quo. Is that the point? https://twitter.com/...
@kim: Big Picture By verifying extremists and purging the blue checkmarks of legitimate accounts, Clyde is essentially stealing the influence earned by long-time verified users and transferring that social media equity to some of the most unsavory guys on the interwebs. Not cool!
Brian Merchant / @bcmerchant: Still amazed that someone has not just made a Twitter clone that is not a) affiliated with weird subcultures of rightwing politics or a former president b) trying to “disrupt” news or c) a somewhat confusingly designed series of decentralized federations
David Gura / @davidgura: Dmitry Medvedev “took to Twitter earlier this month to denigrate Ukraine in a post using language reminiscent of genocidal regimes. And Twitter didn't stop him.” “Previous guardrails on government accounts in Russia, China and Iran have now been removed.” https://www.npr.org/...
Dara Kerr / @darakerr: Last night “state-affiliated media” labels disappeared across Twitter. Turns out those labels were in name only the last few weeks. Two former employees say Twitter made a deliberate decision to end the de-amplification those labels were intended to do. https://www.npr.org/...
Scott Sigler / @scottsigler: This won't impact elections at all, I'm sure. Pretty comprehensive write up — the bots are back in town. “Twitter once muzzled Russian and Chinese state propaganda. That's over now” https://www.npr.org/... https://twitter.com/...
@cendemtech: “Taking the restraints off state-affiliated media accounts could also lead to more general #disinformation on Twitter, said @Sarah_G_Cook, senior advisor at @FreedomHouse who researches China, Hong Kong & Taiwan:” https://www.npr.org/...
@akinunver: The correct angle here is for Twitter to muzzle propaganda from *all* governments. It is a bit unrealistic and long-term unsustainable to think that it is only China, Russia and Iran that do propaganda and not others. https://twitter.com/...
@dfrlab: @Twitter ... Following @DFRLab's investigation, @NPR confirmed @Twitter made the deliberate decision to stop filtering government accounts in Russia, China, and Iran. @Reuters reported Twitter had removed its state media labels from said countries' accounts as well. https://www.npr.org/...
Brian Mann / @brianmannadk: Twitter in the Musk era looking more and more like the public square — if you mean Tiananmen Square and Red Square. 🤔 https://www.npr.org/...
Acarvin / DFRLab: State-controlled media experience sudden Twitter gains after unannounced platform policy change
Chloe Simon / Media Matters for America: Elon Musk ended legacy verification and now Twitter users can't determine reputable sources
Chase DiBenedetto / Mashable: LGBTQ centers leave Twitter following removal of hateful conduct protections
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
Twitter emails advertisers to say they must now have “a verified checkmark or subscribe to either Twitter Blue or Verified Organizations” to keep running ads
Discussion:
Slate, @mattnavarra, Mashable, @gidmk, Insider, @nash076, @sumambivertlady, @vladaknowlton, @abusulayman, @fridayinhalifax, @joeyfortman, The Hill, Boing Boing, MediaPost, @jamieeast, @dloehr, @mattnavarra, The Guardian, @tylermahancoe, @elilikesrice, @jessehawken, @pinche_pi, @edzitron, @jappleby, @petbugs13, @mkobach, @leratomannya, @scottmonty, @petershankman, @padresj, @bradmossesq, @bradmossesq, @helenkennedy, @film_girl, @theseantcollins, @peoplesoracle, @aintscarylarry, @jamespmcleod, @tante, @reportbywilson, Bloomberg, @blackamazon, @mediaevan, Gizmodo, IGN, The Daily Beast, Variety, The Information and The Drum, more at Techmeme »
Discussion:
Alex Kirshner / Slate: Elon Musk's Weekend-Long Masterclass in Business Failure
Matt Navarra / @mattnavarra: WOW... Twitter is now telling advertisers it MUST subscribe to Twitter Blue or Verified Organisations to continue running ads! https://twitter.com/...
Chance Townsend / Mashable: Twitter Blue nets 28 signups so far since legacy checkmark purge
@gidmk: “Blue could be one dollar a month, and Twitter could figure out spam tomorrow, and tons of people would still have zero interest in the subscription, because they don't like Musk or the people who follow him around” https://slate.com/...
Jordan Hart / Insider: Twitter Blue users paying $8 to stay verified hit by ‘#BlockTheBlue’ campaign
@nash076: The only way you can not understand this is if you deliberately don't *want* to understand it: He's an asshole. We don't want to be seen supporting assholes. We don't like assholes. They're not good people. They make life difficult for no reason. https://slate.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@sumambivertlady: So the business genius is trying to tank Twitter and the US govt is trying to ban TikTok, 2 spaces where frequent sharing of systemic injustice and unfiltered news occurs and where folks connect to other marginalized folks, all while the govt is trying to control the internet. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Vlada Knowlton / @vladaknowlton: “It took multiple strokes of business failure: First by Musk making Twitter worse, second by charging more for Twitter Blue at the same time he was making the site worse, and third by making himself an unappealing person for people to associate themselves with in public.” https://twitter.com/...
@fridayinhalifax: To be fair like 6 our of 10 ads now are clearly revived accounts pushing Elon's crap so, not much change https://twitter.com/...
@joeyfortman: I'm not sure I understand the purpose in this. Isn't that biting the hand that feeds you?! https://twitter.com/...
Grant St. Clair / Boing Boing: Elon Musk slaps free Twitter Blue checks on critics, whether they want it or not
Colin Kirkland / MediaPost: Twitter Mandates That Advertisers Pay For Verification
Jamie East / @jamieeast: This is pretty hilarious. An email from twitter saying that you have to pay for verification before you can have the privilege of advertising on Twitter. Absolutely deranged. https://twitter.com/...
David J. Loehr / @dloehr: So if you use the “Blues Blocker” extension in Chrome, you'll also have an ad-free Twitter experience? Good job, genius. https://techcrunch.com/...
Matt Navarra / @mattnavarra: Dril and other Twitter power users begin campaign to ‘Block the Blue’ paid checkmarks “The campaign to “Block the Blue” - that is, any user still with a blue checkmark which signifies they are paying Musk for it - is in full swing” https://mashable.com/...
Kari Paul / The Guardian: Fake accounts, chaos and few sign-ups: the first day of Twitter Blue was messy
Tyler Mahan Coe / @tylermahancoe: Is there some kind of loophole he's trying to exploit? Like, could there possibly be some benefit to Elon in bankrupting Twitter? Maybe he can't legally just walk away but killing the company gives him some kind of out? Help me understand. https://twitter.com/...
Jesse Hawken / @jessehawken: This is a great idea because it will almost completely get rid of ads https://twitter.com/...
@pinche_pi: Are they also informing advertisers that many users are blocking every account that buys ads on this platform or nah? 🤔 https://twitter.com/...
Ed Zitron / @edzitron: These changes rock because he definitely is like “yes this will get us guaranteed revenue from every advertiser” as opposed to the other way you get revenue from them - selling them advertising https://twitter.com/...
Jack Appleby / @jappleby: This is a colossal Elon error. Does it rationally make sense to ask companies to pay a few bucks to advertise on Twitter? I'd actually say yes. Does implementing this rule now, when advertisers are already abandoning Twitter, make ANY sense? No. https://twitter.com/...
@petbugs13: wait wait wait so what you're saying is if i install the extension that blocks blue checkmarks, i block all ads? lmfao https://techcrunch.com/...
Matthew Kobach / @mkobach: Twitter ALWAYS should have charged businesses to use their platform. https://twitter.com/...
@leratomannya: Lmaoooooo easiest way to piss people off, moving my focus back to Facebook, Instagram and TikTok 🫶🏾 https://twitter.com/...
Scott Monty / @scottmonty: Twitter's new advertising requirement that advertisers must be subscribed to Twitter Blue reminds me of an old National Lampoon cover... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Peter Shankman / @petershankman: “Daddy, why are the only ads on Twitter for either vape pens or penis enlargement pills?” “ Well, Timmy, a billion dollars a year in interest payments alone makes a manchild do some things he's not too proud of.” https://twitter.com/...
Bradley P. Moss / @bradmossesq: Was anyone getting ads in the past from accounts that were not verified already? https://twitter.com/...
Bradley P. Moss / @bradmossesq: Pay for a worthless blue checkmark so you can pay us to advertise on this platform. Yeah, Elon is a genius https://twitter.com/...
Helen Kennedy / @helenkennedy: You could make a place alluring to advertisers by getting rid of racist undesirables, not pushing your politics and juvenile humor on users, and verifying identities. Or you could demand advertisers pay for the privilege of paying you. https://twitter.com/...
Christina Warren / @film_girl: The remaining sales people at Twitter must hate their boss so much. What a disaster. https://twitter.com/...
Sean T. Collins / @theseantcollins: How much money will this possibly make him? Bet your bottom dollar it's less money than simply courting advertisers like a normal businesshuman would! https://twitter.com/...
Dayna Lynn Nuckolls / @peoplesoracle: So he's intentionally bankrupting this platform, yes? Or is he really that bad at product development and revenue creation? Both? https://twitter.com/...
@aintscarylarry: Elon Musk's rapid scheduled disassembly of twitter is really accelerating. #ElonMuskIsaGiantTurd https://twitter.com/...
James McLeod / @jamespmcleod: Elon Musk built his empire basically off massive government subsidies for EVs and rockets, and it's hilarious how he's flailing wildly running a business where he actually needs to navigate market forces and human behaviour. https://twitter.com/...
@tante: Totally not a desperate move by a company without a working strategy. https://twitter.com/...
Teddy Wilson / @reportbywilson: “Twitter's broader verification strategy” “We're making this shit up as we go along” https://twitter.com/...
@blackamazon: The funny thing is for the most part this just means we're back in Twitter circa 2014. Like it sucks in many ways .. and a lot of the indignation is mostly about taxonomic manipulation https://twitter.com/...
Evan DeSimone / @mediaevan: Not sure I'd go swinging this leverage around if my ad platform was the least critical one in everyone's stack. https://twitter.com/...
Adele Ankers-Range / IGN: Elon Musk Is Paying for Some Celebrities' Twitter Blue Verification
Justin Baragona / The Daily Beast: Daily Wire Host: I'll Pay for Twitter Blue to ‘Show My Support’ for Elon Musk
Todd Spangler / Variety: Twitter Reportedly Is Now Requiring All Advertisers to Pay for Verification Unless They Spend at Least $1,000 per Month
Jahnavi Nidumolu / Reuters:
Twitter drops the “Government-funded” and “state-affiliated” labels from accounts of media outlets and journalists, including NPR, BBC, CBC, RT, and Xinhua
Discussion:
@mattbinder, @bobbyallyn, @robertmackey, Boston Business Journal, @benkuchera, @johntaofficial, Politico, @ngrossman81, @afp, @mattbinder, @josephmenn, Mashable, Deadline, NPR, @spenolpalinusa, CNN, Agence France-Presse, @mrrickywhittle, @kenroth, @chrisgeidner, @politicussarah, @paleofuture, @jkarsh, @mattzeitlin, @andrewfeinberg, @defensebaron, @jesse_brenneman, @alexvtunzelmann, @blackamazon, @donmoyn, @pt, @wilson__valdez, @mattbinder, @anews, RADIO ONLINE, @brindusab1, @keithboykin, @michaelcaster, The Verge, Inside Radio, @derjarjour, @nathalieloiseau, @tommywalkerco, @jeffveillette, Voice of America, The Hill, @chadloder@kolektiva.social, @noahshachtman@mstdn.social, Forbes, The Wrap, TechCrunch, Semafor, Current, Newser, Engadget, Gizmodo, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, Fox News, Rehak/Stuebing Mostly Media, The Desk, BBC, Reuters and @JosephMenn@infosec.exchange
Discussion:
Matt Binder / @mattbinder: paid bluechecks with 10 followers running celebrities off the platform for simply choosing not to pay. the business genius strikes again. https://twitter.com/...
Bobby Allyn / @bobbyallyn: NEW: Elon Musk tells me Twitter has now dropped all media labels. Asked why, Musk says: “This was Walter Isaacson's suggestion.”
Robert Mackey / @robertmackey: Mission accomplished. While everyone was distracted by his blue-check removals, Musks's Twitter deleted labels that alerted users that they were reading news from state-run propaganda outlets of authoritarian governments. Potemkin news channels now free to inject disinformation. https://twitter.com/...
Ben Kuchera / @benkuchera: Twitter had the best influencer program in the world. The company created an incentive structure where the most famous people on the planet created content on the site, daily, for free. Destroyed in one day because the new owner thought Stephen King should pay to write for him.
Ivan Shevtsov / @johntaofficial: “If you can't fight misinformation, you have to lead it.” Apparently this is the new Twitter policy thanks to @elonmusk https://twitter.com/...
Jack Shafer / Politico: Elon Musk Figured Out the Media's Biggest Weakness
Nicholas Grossman / @ngrossman81: Editor in chief of RT thanks Elon Musk for freeing her outlet from the state media label and making her appear more in searches. “Cui bono”—look for who benefits, assume they caused it—is often conspiracy theorizing. I doubt RT caused Twitter's changes. But they sure do benefit. https://twitter.com/...
@afp: #UPDATE Twitter has dropped “state-affiliated” and “government-funded” labels from media accounts, according to a review by @AFP on Friday of many high-profile pages on the platform Many major media outlets that had either of those tags no longer display them, according to AFP. https://twitter.com/...
Matt Binder / @mattbinder: actually, looks like when removing legacy verified blue checkmarks...Twitter accidentally removed *all* state-affiliated, government-funded, & public-funded media tags on every account not just RT...NPR, PBS, BBC, CBC...none of them have it anymore lol https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Cecily Mauran / Mashable: After NPR left the platform, Twitter removed all ‘government-funded media’ labels
Patrick Hipes / Deadline: Twitter Removes “Government-Funded Media” Labels From NPR, PBS, Others After Backlash
@spenolpalinusa: So Musk quietly removed the “Russia state-affiliated media” label from all the Russian propaganda accounts. I suspected he would do that at some point, and it became pretty clear when he labeled CBC “69% government-funded.” The whole point was to turn the label into a joke. https://twitter.com/...
Ricky Whittle / @mrrickywhittle: The oblivious who think this is about money or status shows how manipulated & out of touch they are.Couldn't care less personally,but it's about my fans safety.The verification was about trust,credence & followers knowing a person/company/organisation was who they said they were https://twitter.com/...
Kenneth Roth / @kenroth: Is @ElonMusk really so benighted as to be unable to distinguish between a media outlet with state funding that retains editorial independence and a state-funded propaganda outlet? https://www.reuters.com/...
Chris Geidner / @chrisgeidner: Today in, “What are today's organizing principles, decided based on what single interaction?” https://twitter.com/...
Sarah Reese Jones / @politicussarah: Elon doing Putin et al's bidding by erasing state affiliated media label. https://twitter.com/...
Matt Novak / @paleofuture: I know people who are really excited to read Isaacson's upcoming biography of Musk but if he's brainstorming business ideas with the billionaire that's a really bad sign. https://twitter.com/...
Jason Karsh / @jkarsh: This is the other thing Musty doesn't get. Jurnos and celebs showed up here because the place was interesting, immediate, and fun. If you turn it into Gab, white nationalists and nazis aren't fun or interesting. So tentpole users will just leave, as so many are. https://twitter.com/...
Matthew Zeitlin / @mattzeitlin: one funny dynamic right now is that because the paid blue checks are so, uhh, intensely self-selected, if you're a Big Account, the only replies you're going to see are from paid blue checks, which may affect the Twitter Experience https://twitter.com/...
Andrew Feinberg / @andrewfeinberg: Fwiw it's not clear this was intentional. It's more likely that the labels required the old blue check. Remove the check, remove the label with it. https://twitter.com/...
Jesse Brenneman / @jesse_brenneman: Ah I see now. A blue check was much like a classic title or land bestowed by the monarchy, which has now been replaced by democracy (people paying a billionaire $8 for a check). https://twitter.com/...
Alex von Tunzelmann / @alexvtunzelmann: Just looked up the tweets and all the blue tick replies appear first under any tweet, meaning that a reader must now wade through a swamp of dullness before anyone says anything funny or interesting. So I guess that's conversation killed on here as well https://twitter.com/...
@blackamazon: So the very specific kind of flight that folks always warned of is beginning https://twitter.com/...
Don Moynihan / @donmoyn: Musk has dropped all labels of news organizations, meaning that the new status quo is that propaganda outlets are no longer labeled as such https://twitter.com/...
Parker / @pt: This is where you wonder whether China called him and asked if he wanted Tesla to make its APAC sales targets. I mean, he's probably just dealing with a real bad case of the anti-woke mind virus, but the point is we don't know! https://twitter.com/...
@wilson__valdez: This was always his goal. Seems pretty obvious that one of the reasons he added the labels on reputable outlets like NPR & BBC, was so he could say, “See? I just removed them all. Now everyone is equal.” He is truly a one-man disinformation machine. https://twitter.com/...
Matt Binder / @mattbinder: before today Joe Biden's Twitter account was labeled “US government official” after the legacy verified blue checkmarks were removed...the labels gone too https://twitter.com/...
@anews: #Twitter on Friday dropped the “state-affiliated media” #tag on some accounts like National Public Radio (NPR) and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a label by the social media platform that implies #government involvement in editorial content. https://anws.link/j4b9ck
@brindusab1: #Twitter #StateAffiliatedMedia Ongoing experiments ... good or bad, only time will tell ... Some might compare yesterday's #SpaceX 2nd stage blast to Twitter's management ... https://www.reuters.com/...
Keith Boykin / @keithboykin: In a victory for NPR over Elon Musk, Twitter has dropped the “Government-funded Media” label from the National Public Radio account. @NPR recently stopped posting on Twitter, but it's unclear if the media outlet will return after Musk's new reversal. https://www.reuters.com/...
Michael Caster / @michaelcaster: #Twitter removed “state-affiliated media” label from some accounts. The label is important to identify government influence on editorial content but labels have also been removed from #China state-affiliated media responsible for information manipulation. https://www.reuters.com/...
Emma Roth / The Verge: Elon Musk removes Twitter's ‘government-funded media’ labels after outlets flee the platform
@derjarjour: It would be funny if it weren't truly terrifying that this platform is now run with so little care https://twitter.com/...
Nathalie Loiseau / @nathalieloiseau: Twitter's rapid unscheduled disassembly. #Twitter #BlueCheckMarks https://twitter.com/...
Tommy Walker / @tommywalkerco: Legacy blue tickets removed. Also “China state affiliated media” tags also gone for angry propaganda hawks. Twitter becoming a circus, anyone can say anything with no accountability nor checks. Maybe great for content but ground zero for bullshit.
Jeff Veillette / @jeffveillette: Just an absolute genius at work https://twitter.com/...
Liam Scott / Voice of America: Twitter Drops ‘State-Affiliated,’ ‘Government-Funded’ Labels from Major News Outlets
Nick Robertson / The Hill: Musk removes ‘government-funded’ labels after scrutiny leads some outlets to exit Twitter
Chad Loder / @chadloder@kolektiva.social: I've been disgusted by the lack of professional solidarity among journalists ever since Musk bought Twitter. As Musk bans journalists one-by-one, their colleagues stay on Twitter, tweeting out their work, hoping that they'll survive the next round.
Noah Shachtman / @noahshachtman@mstdn.social: I don't usually go for conspiracy theories. But sometimes my mind drifts, especially when I think about who funded Musk's Twitter takeover. — I wonder: Would these people have paid billions for a third-tier social network? …
Matt Novak / Forbes: Russia's RT Editor-In-Chief Thanks Elon Musk For Scrapping ‘State-Affiliated Media’ Label On Twitter
Eileen AJ Connelly / The Wrap: Twitter Drops ‘Government-Funded’ Label From NPR, PBS After News Orgs Quit Platform in Protest
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: Twitter removes ‘government-funded’ news labels after NPR and other flubs
Tyler Falk / Current: Twitter drops “government-funded” label from NPR, PBS
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
A timeline of BuzzFeed News, from hiring Ben Smith in December 2011 to announcing IPO plans in March 2017, including funding deals and competitors' critiques — The “BuzzFeed is the most important news organization in the world” era. — A little over a decade after BuzzFeed News came to life …
Discussion:
Washington Post, @slate, @newrepublic, @anachech, @newrepublic, @neil_irwin, @oliviamesser, @scrilla100, @ellisitems, @evanhill, @jeffjarvis, @asteadwh, @laurawags, @jacob_brogan, @nthjohnwilliams, @kimzetter, @niemanfdn, @niemanfdn, @onthemedia, @abigailwise, Puck, Nieman Lab, Talking Points Memo, CNN, Financial Times, Poynter, Axios and The Atlantic
Discussion:
@slate: The new book pinpoints the tragic delusion that fueled the digital gold rush. The author himself was not immune. https://slate.com/...
@newrepublic: Through the stories of BuzzFeed and Gawker, Ben Smith aims to show how the media, high on the early internet's spirit of creative adventure and freedom, got hooked on traffic, unleashing volatile social and cultural forces it no longer could control. https://newrepublic.com/...
@anachech: BuzzFeed News earned Pulitzer Prize in 2021 for exposing China's vast infrastructure for detaining hundreds of thousands of Muslims in its Xinjiang region. It won an award for its reporting how Facebook facilitated, then failed to control, disinformation. https://www.latimes.com/...
@newrepublic: In an aesthetic sense, today's internet seems less the spawn of BuzzFeed than of another media venture that vied with Jonah Peretti's project for online supremacy through the late 2000s and early 2010s: Gawker. https://newrepublic.com/...
Neil Irwin / @neil_irwin: This review of the new Ben Smith book on 2010s era of Buzzfeed and Gawker makes me all the more confident that a Mad Men-esque highbrow drama set in an early 2010s digital media company released in the 2030s could be A+. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Olivia Messer / @oliviamesser: Woof. This long, scathing review of Ben Smith's new book on the rise and fall of BuzzFeed and Gawker. https://newrepublic.com/...
Scott Messer / @scrilla100: The “pivot to video” was great for Facebook and although fatal for many-created a new ecosystem. The “pivot to news” was a bad idea for FB, but even worse for those who had little choice but to follow them into the hardest of low margin businesses: news. https://www.latimes.com/...
@ellisitems: It's amazing it lasted as long as it did. The smart ones left long ago. BuzzFeed News is shutting down as company cuts 15% of staff https://www.latimes.com/...
Evan Hill / @evanhill: “Given this state of affairs it's hard not to feel like ‘Traffic’ is making an inadvertent but compelling case that Gawker and BuzzFeed were, in the grand scheme of things, not particularly important.” By @readmaxread https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Jeff Jarvis / @jeffjarvis: From Max Reed's review of @semaforben's Traffic: Gawker v BuzzFeed: “irony vs. earnestness, criticism vs. civility, snark vs. smarm. “Denton and Peretti themselves are too weird and reptilian” Why BuzzFeed joined Gawker in the internet news graveyard https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@asteadwh: “At best, a brief, wacky interregnum between periods of sustained dominance by big national news publishers, at worst a pointless waste of journalistic creativity and resources spent pursuing a doomed business strategy.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Laura Wagner / @laurawags: “Peretti messaged often with Zuckerberg and made ‘a habit of cultivating the mid-senior-level Facebook employees’... which meant he had some say in the sorting mechanisms that could bestow publishers with life-changing amounts of traffic.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Jacob Brogan / @jacob_brogan: Max Read on Ben Smith's book is very good, also very funny: “I can confirm: There is lots of delusion in this book. There is also a little bit of rivalry. But I have to be honest. I do not think there are any geniuses.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@nthjohnwilliams: “Of the many delusions in the book, the grandest is the idea that digital publishers could build sustainable businesses by chasing immense audiences with free content.” Max Read with a lively (and sadly timely) review of Ben Smith's “Traffic.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Kim Zetter / @kimzetter: “the candid inside tale of two online media rivals, Jonah Peretti of HuffPost and BuzzFeed and Nick Denton of Gawker Media, whose delirious pursuit of attention at scale helped release the dark forces that would overtake the internet and American society” https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/ ...
@niemanfdn: “A little over a decade after BuzzFeed News came to life, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti's willingness to run a prestigious but money-losing news division has run out.” Here is Part I of @NiemanLab's history of @BuzzFeedNews. https://www.niemanlab.org/...
@niemanfdn: In a memo to staff on Thursday, CEO Jonah Peretti announced that @buzzfeednews would be shut down entirely. @NiemanLab has chronicled the ups and downs of BuzzFeed News since 2011. Here's part I of its history, stay tuned for Part II. https://www.niemanlab.org/...
@onthemedia: “We've chronicled the ups and downs of BuzzFeed News since 2011, when the company hired a blogger named Ben Smith. Here's part I of its history, from 2011 to 2017. Stay tuned for Part II.” https://www.niemanlab.org/...
Abigail Wise / @abigailwise: The end of @BuzzFeedNews is a huge loss for journalism and the internet as a whole. Thanks for all of the great work y'all produced. You will be missed. https://www.niemanlab.org/...
Dylan Byers / Puck: Jonah and the Whale — BuzzFeed News and the world it made, and didn't make, and what happened in between.
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab: A history of BuzzFeed News, Part II: 2017-2023
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo: Journalism's Wild Ride and the End of Buzzfeed News
Tom Jones / Poynter: BuzzFeed News stunner caps a wild week in media
Sara Fischer / Axios: BuzzFeed News shutters amid digital media reckoning
RELATED:
Hillary Frey / Slate:
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti innovated and kept BuzzFeed News going longer than others would have, only for Facebook's pivot away from news to kill his creation
Discussion:
@believekarolina, @the_amazingama, @hkanji, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, @film_girl, @brianstelter, @timkawakami, @timkawakami, @kausmickey, @caleweissman, @mckinneykelsey, @baekdal, @benpauker, @troyericg, @igorbobic, @pressgirlk, @mediaevan, @mjs_dc, @bakerluke, @ellencscott, @hilella, @oliverdarcy, @missrobinson, @froomkin, @mrwaltershapiro, @dannygroner, @niketa, @slate, @moorehn, @ylichterman, The Present Age, @scottnover, Defector, @lpolgreen, @ethangach, @jon_fischer, @mediaguildwest, Semafor, What's New in Publishing, The Independent and Media Voices
Discussion:
Karolina Waclawiak / @believekarolina: It was an honor and privilege to lead @BuzzFeedNews. I've spent 7+ years of my career working alongside the most talented and generous people in journalism. We changed the culture. We changed laws. Hire them all. A portion of my note from today: https://twitter.com/...
@the_amazingama: “Just this week, someone I was interviewing for a job at Slate asked me what I think the biggest challenge is for digital media right now. Growth, I said.” — A sobering article on digital media and why social media clicks-driven model is a net negative https://slate.com/...
Hussein Kanji / @hkanji: It's worthwhile to state outright what caused Buzzfeed's downfall: social media's—most specifically Facebook's—pivot away from news https://slate.com/...
Christina Warren / @film_girl: This is absolutely spot-on and it mirrors many of my own observations from that time. I think the failed SPAC and the misguided Complex purchase were also to blame here, but I just read this post and nodded the whole time. https://twitter.com/...
Brian Stelter / @brianstelter: “The old traffic tricks don't work anymore—what does is great work, and serving an audience who loves you so much they'll pay for you. That's actually always been the case with journalism... The 2010s were a detour, not the new path forward.” —@hilella https://slate.com/...
Tim Kawakami / @timkawakami: My version is a little less elegant (but also exceedingly ignored oh well, I came up with it years ago): Just put good s— on the internet. https://twitter.com/...
Tim Kawakami / @timkawakami: Damn this is smart and so often ignored: “The old traffic tricks don't work anymore—what does is great work, and serving an audience who loves you so much they'll pay for you. That's actually always been the case with journalism.” https://slate.com/...
Mickey Kaus / @kausmickey: BuzzFeed News was going to live off Facebook traffic. Turns out if you live by Facebook's whims you die by Facebook's whims. PS This piece also explains why all the news sites started to do those videos you didn't watch https://slate.com/...
Cale G Weissman / @caleweissman: the smartest and most succinct take on buzzfeed/state of media i've read thus far: https://slate.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Kelsey Mckinney / @mckinneykelsey: the media analysis in this piece is good! The retrospective on how we got here is good! But people (who? me? link your sources!) are mad because their FAILURES affect everyone but them. https://slate.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Thomas Baekdal / @baekdal: Time out. Sure Facebook has not been kind to publishers, but to base your publication on random traffic from another site was a fools errand no matter what Facebook did. We cannot blame Facebook for the demise of Buzzfeed News. It never had a lasting business model to begin with https://twitter.com/...
Ben Pauker / @benpauker: “The old traffic tricks don't work anymore—what does is great work, and serving an audience who loves you so much they'll pay for you. That's actually always been the case with journalism.” smart read by @hilella https://twitter.com/...
Troy Griggs / @troyericg: 'They raised up a generation of journalists that have made our industry better and smarter. It is crushing that it's going away for good. I believe that it's bad for journalism, and even democracy.' https://twitter.com/...
Igor Bobic / @igorbobic: “Newsroom workers needed assurances of severance and basic workplace protections even as the executives who were determined to get “in” with Facebook and ride the next trend always seemed to pop up elsewhere and do it all over again.” https://twitter.com/...
@pressgirlk: Great, nuanced piece. I appreciate the focus on the deep impact @facebook has had on shaping news revenue models - bc it's not only a U.S. problem. Sure, today @facebook is cutting its news media partnerships, but hopefully we won't forget the harms of its undelivered promises. https://twitter.com/...
Evan DeSimone / @mediaevan: A lot of takes on Buzzfeed News and the trajectory of digital media as a whole, but I think this one really gets to the heart of it. https://slate.com/...
Mark Joseph Stern / @mjs_dc: This @hilella postmortem on BuzzFeed doubles as an industry insider's view of everything that went right, and wrong, with digital media over the last ~15 years. Really fascinating stuff. https://slate.com/...
Luke Baker / @bakerluke: A valuable read for anyone interested in the business of journalism — BuzzFeed News ends: Who is really to blame for the site's demise? https://slate.com/...
Ellen C Scott / @ellencscott: this is it. you can only rely on FB etc for so long; one day the bubble will burst. Loyalty takes a lot longer to build and too many big bosses aren't patient enough to invest in that long-term. Now you've got a lot of publications panicking about social traffic dropping and... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Hillary Frey / @hilella: Perhaps at my own peril I shared thoughts I have about digital media over the last decade. https://slate.com/...
Oliver Darcy / @oliverdarcy: A spokesperson for BuzzFeed News told me that there are “ongoing discussions” about the future of the outlet's website, but said that all the work will be archived and available after the newsroom shutters. Full story here: https://www.cnn.com/...
Amber / @missrobinson: This is the online media landscape in a nutshell, and why it's practically impossible for newcomers to be profitable. Online ads are worthless and building subs revenue is hard. #BuzzFeedNews https://slate.com/...? https://twitter.com/...
@froomkin: A hopeful view: “being free of our reliance on tech platforms is going to be better for our business. The old traffic tricks don't work anymore—what does is great work, and serving an audience who loves you so much they'll pay for you.” https://twitter.com/...
Walter Shapiro / @mrwaltershapiro: This is by far the smartest and most honest media piece on the sad death of BuzzFeed News. And I so support @hilella ode to home pages and loyal readers. https://twitter.com/...
Danny Groner / @dannygroner: “I did not enjoy my time at Politico, but I learned a lot about what can happen if you pump a bunch of stuff into the universe with clicky headlines on a homepage crammed with them.” https://twitter.com/...
Niketa Patel / @niketa: Good read by @hilella https://twitter.com/...
@slate: BuzzFeed News' death takes a lot of the internet's promise with it. Could that be good for journalism in the long run? https://slate.com/...
Heidi N. Moore / @moorehn: You do not, under any circumstances, have to hand it to Jonah Peretti for building BuzzFeed. He was also the one who, for profit, voluntarily drove it into the ground https://slate.com/...
Joseph Lichterman / @ylichterman: “The old traffic tricks don't work anymore—what does is great work, and serving an audience who loves you so much they'll pay for you...Looking back on it all, the 2010s were a detour, not the new path forward.” https://slate.com/...
Parker Molloy / The Present Age: What Now For Media? — Yesterday, BuzzFeed announced the shuttering of its news division, BuzzFeed News 1.
Scott Nover / @scottnover: This is a smart point by @slate's @hilella on digital media. https://slate.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Diana Moskovitz / Defector: Greed Is Still The Problem
Lydia Polgreen / @lpolgreen: So much hard earned and big hearted wisdom from one of the best in the game,@hilella. BuzzFeed News ends: Who is really to blame for the site's demise? https://slate.com/...
@ethangach: Often think about how foundational Google feels to the modern internet that people rarely mention it in the same breath as Facebook when it comes damage done to media by social platforms https://slate.com/...
@jon_fischer: A good, sympathetic @hilella autopsy of BuzzFeed News that zeroes in on the fickleness of social-media giants, and the foolishness of media to ever depend on them for distribution https://slate.com/...
@mediaguildwest: “The whiplash was never ending, and the collateral damage was always the journalists and producers who had been hired to do the next cool thing. No wonder unionization swept digital media.” https://slate.com/...
Ben Smith / Semafor: The end of BuzzFeed News signals a vast shift in digital media: the old way of thinking about news as text distributed primarily on social media has passed
Maddy Crowell / Columbia Journalism Review:
A profile of Runa Sandvik, who started Granitt in June 2022 to help journalists, lawyers, activists, and other at-risk people keep their data safe from hackers — Runa Sandvik has made it her life's work to protect journalists against cyberattacks. Authoritarian regimes are keeping her in business.
Discussion:
Jamie Dubs / @jamiew: awesome profile of @runasand and her work protecting journalists https://www.cjr.org/...
@cjr: Runa Sandvik is a hacker who protects journalists against cyberattacks. Authoritarian regimes are keeping her in business. Maddy Crowell reports. https://www.cjr.org/...
@cjr: Cyberthreats, journalism, Edward Snowden, pole dancing, and the surveillance dystopia in which we live—it's all in a day for Runa Sandvik. Read the profile by Maddy Crowell. https://www.cjr.org/...
Jim Chilton / HBR.org: The New Risks ChatGPT Poses to Cybersecurity
Alan Baldwin / Reuters:
Funke Media Group sacks the editor of German magazine Die Aktuelle, which ran an AI-generated interview with Michael Schumacher, and apologizes to his family — The publishers of a German magazine that ran an ‘interview’ with Michael Schumacher generated by artificial intelligence have sacked …
Discussion:
BBC, Mumbrella, @disabilitystor1, @sophieelsworth, @andreasharsono, @jamesrbuk, @katebevan, @tldrnelson, Deadline and Japan Times
Discussion:
BBC: Michael Schumacher: Magazine editor sacked over AI-generated ‘interview’ with seven-time F1 champion
Damian Francis / Mumbrella: The formula to ruin one career - just use artificial intelligence rather than your own
Aparna Nair / @disabilitystor1: This story is grotesque; and its stories like these that make me hesitate so much about the uncritical use of AI among journalists and academics. What other unethical horrors will we come up with, simply because the tech can? Whose lives will we violate? https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Sophie Elsworth / @sophieelsworth: German magazine Die Aktuelle has apologised to Michael Schumacher's family and sacked its editor-in-chief after it published a fake interview with the seven-time Formula One champion, @australian @aus_media https://www.theaustralian.com.au/ ...
Andreas Harsono / @andreasharsono: The publishers of German magazine Die Aktuelle that ran an ‘interview’ with Michael Schumacher generated by artificial intelligence have sacked the editor and apologised to the Formula One great's family. He has not been seen in public since 2013 https://www.reuters.com/...
James Ball / @jamesrbuk: This was the only way this was ever going to end. Calamitously bad decision. https://twitter.com/...
Kate Bevan / @katebevan: Good. This was the most abject failure of ethics, taste and compassion. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Nelson Fernandes Serrao / @tldrnelson: Whilst sacking the editor-in-chief may seem disproportionate, the position of editor-in-chief is ultimately one of accountability. They must, whether directly or indirectly, take responsibility for each and every word published under them. https://www.reuters.com/...
Ben Smith / Vanity Fair:
An inside look at Disney's offer to acquire BuzzFeed in 2013 for $450M, with the potential to earn $200M more, which BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti nearly accepted — In an excerpt from his new book, Traffic, former BuzzFeed editor in chief Ben Smith reports how Jonah Peretti enraged Bob Iger …
Discussion:
@vanityfair: “From the perspective of a media company, an offer from Disney was like getting into Harvard.” In an excerpt from his new book, @semaforben reflects on what he calls the dumbest decision “in the history of digital media.” https://vntyfr.com/GZrxRXr
Jon Passantino / @passantino: “In the cold terms of venture capital, Peretti's—our—decision not to sell to Disney will go down as one of the dumbest in the history of digital media,” @semaforben writes https://www.vanityfair.com/...
Bloomberg:
Nielsen: Netflix accounts for between 7% and 8% of TV viewing in the US every month and between 70% to 80% of the top 10 shows in the US every week — Good afternoon from Ojai, California, where I am celebrating my girlfriend's birthday. Lunch was interrupted by huge news …
Discussion:
@markets, @lucas_shaw, @tvgrimreaper, @benedictevans, @lucas_shaw, @jontypesthings, @lucas_shaw, @benedictevans and @lucas_shaw
Discussion:
@markets: Netflix still dominates other streaming services in viewing and new hits, but it is showing weakness in two key areas. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Lucas Shaw / @lucas_shaw: Despite intense competition, Netflix still accounts for 2-5X more viewing than any of its direct competitors. It also accounts for about 70% of the most-viewed streaming titles every week. https://twitter.com/...
@tvgrimreaper: Pick your headline: Nobody watches any Hulu original show except #HandmaidsTale. Almost all original streaming shows are lightly watched compared to successful broadcast TV shows. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Benedict Evans / @benedictevans: The fact that Netflix spends as much as any traditional TV company on commissioning content seems to me as much a sign of weakness as strength - it has to spend what any other media company spends, and tech doesn't give it a different path. https://twitter.com/...
Lucas Shaw / @lucas_shaw: In other news, we crunched some numbers to reveal the most popular streaming shows in the US/world — and how streaming services stack up against one another. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Jon / @jontypesthings: Imagine spending *billions* to kill your legacy TV business only to get effortlessly bodied by Netflix month after month https://twitter.com/...
Lucas Shaw / @lucas_shaw: The most popular rerun on streaming is NCIS. It has spent more than 100 weeks in the Nielsen top 10. https://twitter.com/...
Benedict Evans / @benedictevans: Putting that another way - Netflix changes cable but doesn't change TV. Youtube (and Tiktok) changes TV
Lucas Shaw / @lucas_shaw: Big media companies surrendered billions of dollars by refusing to license old hits to Netflix, and keeping them for their one services instead. That worked...to a point. The one area where Netflix has lost a lot of ground to competitors is in acquired shows. https://twitter.com/...
Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
President Biden averaged 10 news conferences per year during his first two years in office, the fewest since Reagan, and has granted only 54 press interviews — As President Biden prepares to announce his bid for a second term as soon as Tuesday, his decision to keep the news media at arm's length is part of a deliberate strategy.
Alex Williams / New York Times:
Gail Christian, who broke barriers and rose to prominence at NBC News and PBS as a Black woman on-air correspondent and news executive, died on April 12 at 83 — An on-air career seemed unlikely for a Black woman in the 1970s. It didn't help that she had been imprisoned for armed robbery.
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
CNN announces King Charles, a weekly one-hour primetime show hosted by Gayle King and Charles Barkley, expected to launch in fall 2023 and air on Wednesdays — Gayle King and Charles Barkley will help break traditional barriers around news programming later this year when they launch …
Discussion:
Adweek, @bristei, @nkulw, @nkulw, @thejidetaiwo, @dylanbyers, @mattgoldich, @lesbowen, @bristei, Associated Press, NBC 6 South Florida, New York Post, CNN, Mediaite, TMZ.com, The Wrap, al.com, Deadline, Wall Street Journal, Awful Announcing, Next TV, The Daily Beast and The Hollywood Reporter
Discussion:
A.J. Katz / Adweek: Gayle King, Charles Barkley to Co-Host New CNN Primetime Show Starting This Fall
Brian Steinberg / @bristei: New CNN show co-hosted by Gayle King shows how more media companies are letting go of something they once prized: talent exclusivity. https://variety.com/... via @variety
@nkulw: Say what you will about the carnival barkers that inhabit their green rooms, at least CNN has also operated a large newsroom with an investigative unit
@thejidetaiwo: Charles Barkley and Gayle King is a duo I never thought I'd see. https://twitter.com/...
Dylan Byers / @dylanbyers: #Break: CNN's Chris Licht announces “King Charles,” new weekly show co-hosted by Charles Barkley and Gayle King, starting in fall and airing into 2024. @PuckNews first reported that CNN was eyeing both Charles Barkley and Gayle King as weekly hosts several months ago.
Les Bowen / @lesbowen: In a castle across the sea, an elderly man with thinning hair and prominent ears is looking at his phone thinking, “Waaaiiittt. They're calling it WHAT?” https://twitter.com/...
Brian Steinberg / @bristei: The show spotlights media companies' growing willingness to forego exclusivity with talent as audiences continue to fragment and grow smaller. CBS News is said to have signed off on this deal weeks ago https://variety.com/...
Sanjesh Singh / NBC 6 South Florida: Charles Barkley, Gayle King to Headline New Prime-Time CNN Show
Jon Levine / New York Post: CNN to debut new primetime show ‘King Charles’ with Gayle King and Charles Barkley
Joshua Vinson / The Wrap: Gayle King, Charles Barkley to Co-Host New CNN Primetime Show ‘King Charles’ This Fall
Ted Johnson / Deadline: Gayle King & Charles Barkley Announce New CNN Weekly Primetime Show ‘King Charles’
Isabella Simonetti / Wall Street Journal: Charles Barkley and Gayle King's New CNN Show Won't Be Political, Hosts Say
Jon Lafayette / Next TV: CNN Announces New Show With Gayle King and Charles Barkley
Financial Times:
Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner faces fresh calls to resign after a former worker's novel dredges up sexual misconduct and other allegations at the publisher — New book adds to pressure on chief of German media group after damaging leaks and allegations
Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes:
The proliferation of AI-generated content on marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr is causing transactional disputes and increasing client and freelancer mistrust — While some freelancers are losing their gigs to ChatGPT, clients are being spammed with AI-written content on freelancing platforms.
Reuters Institute:
Highlights from talks at International Journalism Festival 2023 in Perugia, Italy, about reporting in exile, investigative journalism, generative AI, and more — Here are a few highlights from the festival on topics such as press freedom, investigative journalism, climate coverage and AI
Discussion:
@abangmercy, @risj_oxford, @mitalilive, @ezraeeman, @rasmus_kleis, @eduardosuarez, @chitranshoe and @brianstelter
Discussion:
Mercy / @abangmercy: International Journalism Festival 2023: what we learnt in Perugia about the future of news | Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism “There is not a single recipe for the business of news”. #IJF23 https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac .uk/ ...
@risj_oxford: We've just updated our summary piece on #ijf23 with new insights and quotes from @sophiasgaler @davejorgenson @Inzunzarov @DarynaShev @SMusaieva. 📱 Please read below and share with colleagues who couldn't come to Perugia! https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac .uk/ ...
Mitali Mukherjee / @mitalilive: A fascinating few days in Perugia, talking, thinking & sometimes groaning about journalism. Safe travels to everyone headed home - here's a great read of many of the festival's standout moments by @risj_oxford. See you next year! 🤞#ijf2023 https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac .uk/ ...
Ezra Eeman / @ezraeeman: And with that the journalism festival in Perugia comes to an end. As always the @risj_oxford makes a great overview of the topics and panels that defined this edition. I'm honored to have our future newsrooms session in this year's review. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac .uk/ ...
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen / @rasmus_kleis: “The utter and ultimate protection for us is to keep doing the work” @Linaattalah says. This and much, much more in our piece of #ijf23 @journalismfest take-aways from the @risj_oxford energetic editorial team https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac .uk/ ...
@eduardosuarez: Leaving Perugia after a reinvigorating festival. I learnt a lot from so many speakers. You'll find some in this summary piece from @risj_oxford editorial team. Thank you Chris, Francesca and @_arianna for hosting us. Looking forward to #ijf24 https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac .uk/ ...
Chitranshu Tewari / @chitranshoe: Handy resource from @risj_oxford! @eduardosuarez and his team are compiling all the learnings and highlights from the ongoing @journalismfest: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac .uk/ ...
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Alastair Reid / @ajreid:
[Thread] At the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy, journalists debate the shifting value of social networks, especially Twitter and Facebook
Discussion:
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: Facebook, sure, is a lobbying organisation now, says @mitrakalita, but it was set up to rank women. Thinking that platform cares about a news ecosystem was always a non starter #ijf23
S. Mitra Kalita / @mitrakalita: Tis true. I hung on because it's the biggest audience I have, I derive value and I feared losing two-factor after I was hacked earlier this year. But eyes wide open ... https://twitter.com/...
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: Q from the floor: Should platforms be publicly owned? That opens the door to questions around authoritarianism and sustainability, says @CharlieBeckett. It's never going to happen in America, days @emilybell #ij23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: What about other platforms? Mastodon is great but it's predominantly white nerds, says @emilybell, and although it's improving it doesn't do what Twitter does in being a centralised platform where everyone is together #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: We looked at platforms as referral traffic rather than what we were actually doing on there, says @mitrakalita, which is a fundamental failure. Very good point: she worries about newsrooms serving platforms rather than serving the people on them #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: “Journalism in the face of American capitalism is like a marshmallow in the face of a dragon” says @emilybell #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: But Elon coming in is like a new developer coming to town, tearing down the buildings and saying “I don't care if that's where you met your friends, it's mine now” #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: So what about Facebook? News made up something like 3% of traffic, says @CharlieBeckett, and they stopped funding it. The pretence of caring about news and journalism is gone #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: But in some non-Western countries, where there are real government pressures on media outlets, Twitter can be vital for independent journalists in doing their job and telling their truth says @emilybell #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: There's a danger for journalists of thinking Twitter is the real world, says @CharlieBeckett, and we should not fall into the facade of disproportionality that it can create #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: The more platforms we have, the better says @CharlieBeckett. And rethinking our relationships with them is only a good thing. #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: Twitter is now “a train wreck but where every car is a dumpster and they're all on fire. And it's crashing” is a helluva way to kick things off from @mathewi #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: There are people about both companies who care about news, but at the top it is about stopping regulation, says @emilybell, regulation which is intended to pass money from one part of the information ecosystem to another #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: Twitter does something which no other platform does, says @emilybell, which is tell the world what is happening right now. Irrespective of status, background and, even, credentials #ijf23
Alastair Reid / @ajreid: In a packed room, @mathewi asks who is paying for Twitter. There is one. Plus @mitrakalita, on stage. “If I refuse to pay for products made by white men whose politics I disagree with, I probably wouldn't eat or have travelled here today” she says #ijf23
Federica Cherubini / @fedecherubini: #ijf23 what we learnt in Perugia (so far) about the future of news: @risj_oxford put together a few highlights from the first day of the festival on topics such as press freedom, investigative journalism, climate coverage and AI https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac .uk/ ...
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