The Daily Beast starts accepting staff buyout applications, seeking to hit $1.5M in reductions, and plans additional cuts (Natalie Korach/The Wrap)

Mediagazer: The Daily Beast starts accepting staff buyout applications, seeking to hit $1.5M in reductions, and plans additional cuts (Natalie Korach/The Wrap)

Top News:

Financial Times:

Letter: Vivek Ramaswamy calls for BuzzFeed to axe staff, focus on video, and hire new voices, like Tucker Carlson, after raising his stake in BuzzFeed to 8.3%— Former US Republican presidential candidate urges media group to hire from ‘across the political spectrum’
Discussion: Variety, New York Times, The Guardian, Vivek Ramaswamy, @kenbensinger, Axios, The Wrap, @jamesrbuk, City A.M., Deadline, Bloomberg, @benmullin, @mattzeitlin, @tomgara, @mattgertz, Fox Business, @james.tartarus.org, @chrisgeidner, @rafat, The Information, @willystaley, @briannachesser and The Hollywood Reporter

Discussion:

Todd Spangler /
Variety: Pro-Trump Investor Vivek Ramaswamy Says BuzzFeed Should Make ‘Large-Scale’ Layoffs and Hire Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Aaron Rodgers

Benjamin Mullin /
New York Times: BuzzFeed Clashes With Vivek Ramaswamy

Callum Jones /
The Guardian: Vivek Ramaswamy uses Buzzfeed stake to demand staff cuts, conservative hires Vivek Ramaswamy: To the Board of Directors of BuzzFeed, BuzzFeed has lost its way. The company was a pioneer …

Ken Bensinger /
@kenbensinger: Strange that Vivek makes zero mention of HuffPost in his activist letter to the BF board, instead focusing on BuzzFeed News, which doesn't even exist anymore.

Kerry Flynn /
Axios: Vivek Ramaswamy calls for job cuts at BuzzFeed

Natalie Korach /
The Wrap: Vivek Ramaswamy Calls for New Buzzfeed Board Members, Heavy Cost-Cutting After Major Investment

James Ball /
@jamesrbuk: Suspect Ramaswamy doesn't really realise all of the BuzzFeed journalistic operation and most of the HuffPost ones were jettisoned long ago. Does he know what he's actually bought into?

Jill Goldsmith /
Deadline: New BuzzFeed Investor Vivek Ramaswamy Asks For Big Changes & Apology

Ben Mullin /
@benmullin: Here's Jonah Peretti's response to Vivek Ramaswamy: “Based on your letter, you have some fundamental misunderstandings about the drivers of our business...” And Vivek's letter: “BuzzFeed has lost its way.” [image]

Matthew Zeitlin /
@mattzeitlin: Seems pretty clear Vivek is trying to do elon twitter to what remains of BuzzFeed

Tom Gara /
@tomgara: Vivek to BuzzFeed: “The silver lining is that your competitors' records are equally bad”

Matthew Gertz /
@mattgertz: Also don't sleep on wealthy right-wingers doing hostile takeovers of media outlets, perhaps with the feds pressuring companies to sell to them. https://x.com/...

Bradford Betz /
Fox Business: Vivek Ramaswamy pushes for BuzzFeed board seats, says company has lost its way

James Aylett /
@james.tartarus.org: Focus on video, eh? I hadn't realised it was 2015 again. [embedded post] @chrisgeidner: Having to choose sides here is both easy and depressing. Fuck Vivek. (But also, get that Pulitzer out of your mouth, Jonah. You gutted the newsroom after using hundreds of us to gain value/credibility/prestige for your company.)

Martin Peers /
The Information: Politician-Turned-Activist Ramaswamy Pursues BuzzFeed

Willy /
@willystaley: That's cool. I bought 9 percent of BuzzFeed and I'm going to call for it to become Skate Grantland.

Brianna Chesser /
@briannachesser: He realizes that shifting (back) to video is more expensive than listicles, right? Go ruin your own thing.

New Yorker:

How a struggling actor duped friends and investors in a $690M+ Hollywood Ponzi scheme, claiming to buy cheap movie rights and sell them to major streamers— A struggling actor struck it rich in Hollywood—then the F.B.I. showed up. — Anyone who visited Zach and Mallory Horwitz in 2019 …

Discussion:
New York Post, @xenocryptsite, @franklinleonard, @ewong, @eosnos, @newyorker, @dancow and @eosnos

Discussion:

Ariel Zilber /
New York Post: How a B-movie actor duped friends and family out of $690M for 'Hollywood's biggest Ponzi scheme' @xenocryptsite: Good article. Funny thing is, at the end, it mentions that this dude's story has already been on various shows and podcasts about scams. Does the demand for journalism about scammers outstrip the supply.

Franklin Leonard /
@franklinleonard: The story is wild. The details are hilariously staggering. https://www.newyorker.com/...

Edward Wong /
@ewong: The latest true-life yarn from @eosnos bringing us into the world of the American con artist. If you like Ripley, read this.

Evan Osnos /
@eosnos: New piece I've been working on for a long time — the very strange, very American tale of fake-it-will-you-make-it gone bananas. Why do we fall for con men over and over and over again? https://www.newyorker.com/... @newyorker: .@eosnos details how the aspiring actor Zach Horwitz moved to Hollywood to pursue stardom and began operating a massive Ponzi scheme, bilking investors—beginning with his closest friends—out of hundreds of millions of dollars. https://nyer.cm/1MolFaI

Dan Nguyen /
@dancow: Would watch a Netflix series about this guy who pretended to have millions of dollars in Netflix deals

Press Gazette:

FT CEO John Ridding says news publishers “have leverage and should insist on payment” from AI companies and disintermediation is the industry's “biggest threat”— Financial Times chief executive John Ridding has told other news publishers they “have leverage and should insist on payment” from AI companies.

Discussion:
Talking Biz News, @mitalilive, @olifranklin and @ftpressoffice

Discussion:

Mitali Mukherjee /
@mitalilive: ⁦@John_Ridding⁩ of ⁦@FinancialTimes⁩ - “The biggest risk to the industry today is disintermediation - separating readers from their publications.” #AI #journalism ⁦@NewspaperWorld⁩ #WNMC24 [image]

Oli Franklin-Wallis /
@olifranklin: Counterpoint: media companies should stop signing agreements with tech companies that are actively trying to replace them and put them out of business

The Hollywood Reporter:

Comscore: Memorial Day weekend box office grossed an estimated $128.3M, a 29-year low, excluding 2020 and 2021, and down ~37% YoY; Furiosa led with just $32M— Overall revenue for the four-day holiday also hits a 29-year low as the early summer calendar suffers from an unprecedented absence …

Discussion:
Business Insider, New York Times, Variety, The Hill, Albert Fong on LinkedIn, Paul Dergarabedian on LinkedIn, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, JoBlo, Washington Post, IGN, @patrickbigpix, Steve Siskind on LinkedIn, NBC News, Screen Rant, CNN, The A.V. Club, The Wrap, Business Insider, Deadline, Screen Rant, ComingSoon.net, Forbes and IndieWire

Discussion:

Brooks Barnes /
New York Times: ‘Furiosa’ Is a Box Office Dud, Adding to Hollywood Woes

Rebecca Rubin /
Variety: Box Office: ‘Furiosa’ Just Barely Beats ‘The Garfield Movie’ in Disastrous Memorial Day Weekend — the Worst in Decades

Dominick Mastrangelo /
The Hill: Hollywood suffers rough holiday weekend at box office

Albert Fong /
Albert Fong on LinkedIn: Like most sequels, this one leaves many wanting. With the lowest box office results in nearly three decades, this Memorial Day weekend could be called “Wasteland”. …

Paul Dergarabedian /
Paul Dergarabedian on LinkedIn: Honored to have our Comscore, Inc. data and comments as part of Brooks Barnes excellent reporting for The New York Times …

Ryan Faughnder /
Los Angeles Times: What the Live Nation suit is really about (Hint: It's not Taylor Swift)

Lindsey Bahr /
Associated Press: ‘Furiosa’ sneaks past ‘Garfield’ to claim No. 1 spot over Memorial Day holiday weekend

Chris Bumbray /
JoBlo: Memorial Day Box Office: Furiosa beats Garfield by under $1 million for the 4-day weekend

Adam Bankhurst /
IGN: Furiosa Wins the Domestic Weekend Box Office But Has the Worst Memorial Day Opening in 30 Years

Patrick Goldstein /
@patrickbigpix: Really a stretch to blame Hollywood's Memorial Day weekend box-office fiasco on strike-related delays instead of total lack of audience interest in mediocre movies: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ ...

Steve Siskind /
Steve Siskind on LinkedIn: Furiosa, the heroine and the movie, both faced long odds in the at times treacherous entertainment landscape of 2024 …

Lewis Glazebrook /
Screen Rant: Furiosa's Box Office Opening Explained: What The Hell Happened With The Mad Max Prequel?!

Drew Gillis /
The A.V. Club: Furiosa barely ekes out victory over Garfield at the weekend box office

Jeremy Fuster /
The Wrap: ‘Furiosa’ Leads Worst Memorial Day Box Office Since the '90s With $32 Million Opening

Anthony D'Alessandro /
Deadline: ‘Furiosa’ Inches Out ‘Garfield’ With $32M But No. 1 Race Still Close In Dullest Memorial Day Weekend - Monday AM Update

Hannah Gearan /
Screen Rant: Furiosa Box Office Narrowly Beats Garfield In Worst Memorial Day Weekend In Decades

Vansh Mehra /
ComingSoon.net: Furiosa Box Office Ties With Garfield but Misfires on Memorial Day Weekend

Tim Lammers /
Forbes: ‘Garfield’ Battles ‘Furiosa’ At Memorial Day Weekend Box Office With $32M Debut

Tom Brueggemann /
IndieWire: ‘Furiosa’ and ‘Garfield’ Fight for #1, but There Are No Winners

New York Times:

Q&A with Netflix's Ted Sarandos on the state of Hollywood, shifting US tastes, programming strategy, ads, corporate activism, YouTube, live events, AI, and more— Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times — If you're anything like me, you probably spent some large portion of this week sitting on your couch watching Netflix.

Discussion:

Andi Ortiz /
The Wrap: Netflix's Ted Sarandos Slammed for Bragging That His Son Watched ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ on His Phone: ‘Actually Made My Skin Crawl’

Zack Sharf /
Variety: Netflix Boss Ted Sarandos Says AI Won't ‘Write a Better Screenplay Than a Great Writer’ or ‘Take Your Job,’ but Someone ‘Who Uses AI Well’ Just Might

Aymar Jean Christian /
Aymar Jean Christian on LinkedIn: It's been clear for some time that Netflix's original ambition to HBO was never going to hold up to its global ambitions and it's …

Martin Miller /
The Playlist: Netflix CEO Says ‘Barbie’ & ‘Oppenheimer’ Would Have Been Just As Successful On Streaming

Todd Vaziri /
@tvaziri@mastodon.social: The first part is gibberish and the second part turns disqualifying. — Ted Sarandos interview in The New York Times — https://www.nytimes.com/... [image]

Jordan Ruimy /
World of Reel: Netflix CEO Says Watching ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ on Your Phone is Just as Good

Sarah Fortinsky /
The Hill: Netflix CEO says AI won't replace writers or ‘take your job’

Priya Mathew /
@pmathew814: Netflix programs for about 650M people around the world. Meet the man who pioneered the “binge watch.” @netflix CEO Ted Sarandos talks with @lourdesgnavarro this week for “The Interview” from @nytimes https://www.nytimes.com/... @enigmamfilms: Just because I watch a film or show all the way through doesn't mean i “love” it. I rarely do but I watch a lot. If that is the measure of critical analysis of an audience, no wonder we're swimming in middle of the road crap. Why algorithms suck https://www.nytimes.com/...

Nick Field /
@nick_field90: Ted Sarandos' son can't afford a TV? https://www.nytimes.com/... [image]

Armando Tinoco /
Deadline: Netflix's Ted Sarandos On A.I. Threat To Hollywood: “A.I. Is Not Going To Take Your Job, The Person Who Uses A.I. Well Might”

Kwan Wei Kevin Tan /
Business Insider: Netflix chief doesn't think AI programs are going to replace writers, actors, and directors

Harrison Richlin /
IndieWire: Ted Sarandos to Creatives: AI Won't ‘Take Your Job,’ but a ‘Person Who Uses AI Well Might’

TechCrunch:

YouTube's Playables, a collection of over 75 free games available on mobile and desktop, rolls out to all users— YouTube's “app store” for games is rolling out more broadly. The company announced on Tuesday that its collection of lightweight, free games dubbed “Playables” …

Discussion:
YouTube Official Blog, The Verge and 9to5Google, more at Techmeme »

Discussion:
YouTube Official Blog: Playables are now on YouTube — More than 75 games are now available to play directly on YouTube.

Ash Parrish /
The Verge: YouTube rolls out its new Playables games to all users

The Guardian:

Push alerts from the BBC News app have become hugely influential in the UK; the app has an estimated 12M installs, with ~60% of its users getting notifications— With BBC news app alerts reaching as many as 7m Britons, parties are desperately trying to influence what gets pushed out

Discussion:

Esther Anatolitis /
@_esther: Yet another reason why commercial media in Australia consistently sets its sights on ⁦@abcnews⁩: https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

Shashank Joshi /
@shashj: “Print newspaper front pages remain heavily analysed, but their reach has collapsed. Twenty years ago, the Sun still sold 3.5m copies a day. Now the biggest selling print newspaper is the Daily Mail, on 700,000 copies.” https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

Charlesarthur /
The Overspill: Start Up No.2231: how early western PCs were made to work in China, traffic lights for self-driving cars?, AI headphones, and more

Mike Holden /
@mikeholden42: I'm sure we are a reassured that instead of the Sun pumping out partisan headlines, Laura K is doing it for the BBC instead.

Carl Baker /
@carlbaker: The push notifications people put up with amaze me. If an app starts giving the kind of nonsense you get from BBC Breaking, I uninstall it or disable notifications. But in my experience not everyone even knows that you can turn them off or customise... https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

Sasha Scott /
Sasha Scott on LinkedIn: 'The most powerful person in British media during this election, in terms of having the most direct access to voters, is no longer the editor …

Jane Singer /
@janebsinger: The most powerful UK media person this election cycle? It's not the editor of News at 10 or a major newspaper. It's not a social media influencer. It's whichever journo is taking a turn behind the BBC News app, pushing alerts to millions of British phones. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

Gordon MacMillan /
Gordon MacMillan on LinkedIn: This is interesting. The most influential service during the general election isn't a social media app or influencer, newspaper, or TV news—it's the BBC's breaking news alerts. …

Stephen Bush /
@stephenkb: Excellent piece on the BBC news app by @jimwaterson: https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

Reuters:

Meta adds safety features to CrowdTangle for use during the EU elections, in a bid to address EU concerns over Meta's plan to shut down the tool in August 2024— Meta Platforms (META.O) has added safety features to its misinformation tracking tool CrowdTangle for use during European Parliament elections …

Discussion:
@clothildegouj, @orestepollicino, @bravebosom, @mathver and @rajiinio

Discussion:

Clothilde Goujard /
@clothildegouj: About a month after the European Commission opened a probe into Meta under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the company has opened up to external scrutiny ahead of the EU elections. https://www.politico.eu/...

Oreste Pollicino /
@orestepollicino: @MetaNewsEMEA The collaboration path is always the best one, as the code of practice shows

Mathias Vermeulen /
@mathver: Crowdtangle live displays have been switched on again at 18:00 CEST in 27 EU member states 1/2 [image]

Deb Raji /
@rajiinio: Nice to see the DSA in action—CrowdTangle (a platform transparency tool for Facebook) has been re-enabled through 2024 elections in EU member states. @mozilla & @brandonsilverm led a letter calling for this in March, after FB tried to shut the tool down:https://foundation.mozilla.org/ ...

New York Times:

A look at the growing importance of ads for video streaming services, as Antenna says that 56% of new subscribers chose the cheaper ad-supported tier in Q1 2024— Ads are here, there — almost everywhere — on streaming services now. — Not long ago, streaming TV came with a promise …

Discussion:

Catherine Perloff /
Adweek: Attribution and Granular Targeting Top Buyers' Wish List for Netflix's Adtech

Arlan Smith /
Arlan Smith on LinkedIn: The future of TV is TV. I've been saying it for years. So much so that I'm sure my peers are sick of hearing it. — Why are ads suddenly going to be everywhere on streaming? …

Bonnie Barclay /
Bonnie Barclay on LinkedIn: Not only is advertising ubiquitous but it's invasive. In gaming it's used as punishment, and you may see the same forced ad 10 times in a row. … @antennadata: Ad-supported streaming is having a moment (and not just because of Upfronts). Antenna found that in Q4'23, 51% of Gross Adds were ad-supported; that share increased to 56% in Q1'24. But consumer openness to advertising varies significantly by service... https://www.antenna.live/...

Christian Grece /
Christian Grece on LinkedIn: From the NYT: — Netflix rose to streaming dominance in part by luring customers to an ad-free experience. Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and HBO Max followed that lead. …

John Long /
@janthonylong: “Remember when Netflix thought they were above all this?” he said. “They came in, they destroyed commercial television. And now, guess what they want to sell you. Commercials. On television.” https://www.nytimes.com/...

Luke Bouma /
Cord Cutters News: Time Is Running Out for Many Smaller Streaming Services Who Are Running Out of Money

Axios:

The Daily Wire says it finished 2023 with a profit and more than $200M in revenue, with more than $22M from commerce, most from its line of shaving products— - “We launched Jeremy's Razors for the same reason we launched a general and kids entertainment business and a news …

Discussion:
@sarafischer, @kendallbaker, @ckrewson and @hitsamty

Discussion:

Sara Fischer /
@sarafischer: .@realDailyWire made $22 million from commerce in 2023, mostly selling razors and other bath products — Commerce is now 10% of its business — Company sees an opening in serving consumers with “anti-woke” branded goods https://www.axios.com/...

Kendall Baker /
@kendallbaker: “The Jeremy's Razors products are branded with the tagline, ‘shave woke-free.’ In its newest ad campaign, the company says its razors have been ‘radically redesigned so you can shave like a man, not a manifesto.’” 🤣🤣🤣

Chris Krewson /
@ckrewson: Wild to me how much more lucrative the partisan information ecosystem is than local news, which is a slog for publishers operating on razor-thin margins and not selling shaving cream

Axios:

The Associated Press has inked new deals with five local nonprofit newsrooms to share and distribute content ahead of the 2024 election— - And it continues to add more statehouse reporters through an ongoing collaboration with Report for America. … - Those newsrooms were selected based …

Discussion:
@jeffjarvis

The Wrap:

The Daily Beast starts accepting staff buyout applications, seeking to hit $1.5M in reductions, and plans additional cuts— Management indicated to the Guild earlier this month that workforce reductions were coming down the pipeline — New leadership at The Daily Beast has begun the process …

Discussion:
New York Times, @katie_robertson and @benmullin

Discussion:

Katie Robertson /