Top News:
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Spotify reports Q4 revenue up 16% YoY to €3.7B, MAUs up 23% YoY to 602M, subscribers up 15% YoY to 236M, a €75M operating loss, and expects 618M MAUs in Q1 2024 — - Spotify posts second-largest gain ever for the quarter — Company has been cutting costs in drive to become profitable
Discussion:
Axios, Billboard, TechCrunch, Deadline, @sarafischer, @sarafischer, Music Business Worldwide, The Verge, @eldsjal, The Hollywood Reporter and Spotify, more at Techmeme »
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Spotify says Q4 ad-supported revenue grew 12% YoY to €501M, a quarterly high; CFO Paul Vogel expects the podcast segment to reach positive gross margin in 2024 — Spotify pulled in more than new listeners than it expected for the fourth quarter, as the streamer narrowed its net loss …
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Meta proposes standards to identify AI content that its industry peers could use, and plans to label AI images posted on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads — The social network wants to promote standardized labels to help detect artificially created photo, video and audio material across its platforms.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, CNN, Bloomberg, Wired, Axios, NBC News, The Guardian, The Verge, @metanewsroom, @andymstone and Meta, more at Techmeme »
Washington Post:
The Atlantic cuts ties with prominent contributor Yascha Mounk after writer Celeste Marcus accused him of rape; Mounk calls the claims “categorically untrue” — The Atlantic magazine has cut ties with writer Yascha Mounk, one of its prominent contributors, after a woman accused him of rape …
Discussion:
@celestemarcus3, @juliaioffe, Mediaite, @esotericcd, @willsommer, @mskellymhayes, @brandyljensen, @davidklion, @moiradonegan, @annacbross, @roddreher and The Wrap
Amy Or / Bloomberg:
Sources: Reddit had over $800M in revenue in 2023, up 20%+ YoY, and was not profitable for the full year; a source says Reddit was profitable in Q4 — - Social site posted over $800 million revenue last year — Reddit may reveal public IPO filing as soon as this month
Discussion:
The Information, more at Techmeme »
Selome Hailu / Variety:
Nielsen: the 66th annual Grammys hit an average 16.9M viewers, up 34% YoY, across CBS, Paramount+, CBS.com, and the CBS app; Paramount+ streams were up 173% YoY — The 66th annual Grammy Awards took a fast car towards ratings success on Sunday, bringing in an average 16.9 million viewers …
Discussion:
The Wrap, Deadline, Digital Music News, Associated Press, The A.V. Club, TVLine, New York Times, @mcbc, MediaPost, TV Insider, Forbes, Axios, @ewagmeister, @variety, @brianstelter, Los Angeles Times, Next TV, Billboard and The Wrap
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A US judge finds WBD didn't overstate HBO Max streaming subscriber numbers prior to its 2022 merger and dismisses a proposed class action lawsuit from investors — Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O) on Monday won the dismissal of a proposed class action led by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost …
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap
Will Fischer / Nieman Lab:
Q&A with Javonte Anderson, editor of Capital B Gary, a Black-focused nonprofit news outlet, on working with locals, shaping coverage via user surveys, and more — “We want to meet the people where they're at, whether that's churches, neighborhood block clubs, salons, or barber shops.”
Clive Cookson / Financial Times:
An interview with editor Richard Horton about The Lancet's political advocacy, commercial success giving him the freedom to make controversial decisions, more — Veteran editor says commercial success has given him the freedom to make controversial decisions
Discussion:
@Samuelmoore@hcommons.social
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
UK-based Reach strikes a deal with Amazon for “contextual” first-party data to target online ads, as the media industry adapts to the end of third-party cookies — Media sector scrambles to deal with fallout from phase out of cross-website trackers
Discussion:
Press Gazette, Search Engine Land, @katebevan, @rasmus_kleis, @baekdal, @lukolejnik, MarTech, Jamie Drucker on LinkedIn and MediaPost
Mike Scarcella / Reuters:
A US federal judge sets the trial for the DOJ's and multiple states' antitrust lawsuit against Google's ad business to begin on September 9, 2024 — A U.S. federal judge on Monday set a Sept. 9, 2024, date for the start of a jury trial in a lawsuit the U.S. Justice Department and a coalition …
Discussion:
@antitrust_bot, CNN and Search Engine Land, more at Techmeme »
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Last week's earnings showed signs of an ad market turnaround, with Meta's ad sales up 24% YoY, Amazon's ad business growing 27%, and Google's ad business up 11% — - The digital advertising market appears to be on the upswing based on quarterly results last week from Alphabet, Meta and Amazon.
Discussion:
@davewelike, Robert Derow on LinkedIn and SPLICETODAY.com
Financial Times:
Microsoft strikes an AI deal with Semafor for a breaking news feed called Signals; Ben Smith says it will be written by journalists, using AI as a research tool — Collaboration comes as tech giant faces multibillion-dollar lawsuit from the New York Times Microsoft is working with media start …
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