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Thursday, February 01, 2024

Ex-staffers at The Messenger file class-action complaint, The WSJ slashes its workforce in Washington, Chicago Tribune staffers stage walk out, Tim Cook talks about Apple's ~vision~ for the future with Vanity Fair, right-wing media targets Ilhan Omar with a faulty translation of her speech, and Comedy Central offers the first promo with Jon Stewart back behind "The Daily Show" desk. But first, the A1.

THE A1

Big Tech's Big Beat

CNN Photo Illustration/AP/Getty Images

Three of the most consequential juggernauts in Big Tech reported earnings after the bell on Thursday. And while each member of the trio beat analyst expectations, Apple shares slipped while Meta and Amazon's stocks shot up an elevator.

So what happened? Here is a breakdown:

► Meta: The company handily beat on both earnings and revenue, up a whopping 25% in revenue year-over-year. That, coupled with the Instagram-parent announcing it will pay its first-ever dividend to shareholders, sent the company's stock jumping more than 15% after the bell. Mark Zuckerberg credited the company's efforts to infuse A.I. into its advertising business for helping bolster sales even as it slashed its headcount by 22% since last year. "We're delivering continued performance gains from ranking improvements as we adopt larger and more advanced models and this will remain an ongoing area of investment in 2024," Zuckerberg said, crediting "strong demand by advertising in China reaching people in other markets" for also boosting revenue growth. Separately, Zuckerberg voiced confidence in Threads, saying it has "more people actively using it today than it did during its initial launch peak" and that he believes it's "on track ... to be a major success."

► Amazon: Shares in the Jeff Bezos-founded company surged in after-hours trading, with the e-commerce giant's stock climbing more than 7% on news that it had beat analyst expectations. The company said net sales had increased to $170 billion in Q4, up 14% year-over-year. "This Q4 was a record-breaking holiday shopping season and closed out a robust 2023 for Amazon," Andy Jassy said. Amazon, which just added advertisements to its Prime Video service this month, showed 26% year-over-year growth in that sector. On the streaming service, it also touted a 24% total viewership increase for the second season of Thursday Night Football. In its earnings release, Amazon touted that it has embraced A.I. in advertising, having launched "a generative A.I. solution to help brands produce lifestyle imagery that can improve the performance of their ads while also making them more engaging." The company also announced a new A.I. chatbot for consumers on Thursday, named Rufus, which is aimed at helping shoppers.

► Apple: The iPhone-maker was the odd company out on Thursday, slipping about 3% after the bell. Apple beat analyst expectations on profits and revenue — posting a more than 2% rise in overall sales during the latest quarter, reversing four consecutive quarters of declines. Its services business, which includes Apple TV and Music streaming, rose 11% during the quarter to $23.11 billion, marking an "all-time revenue record." But the company's all-important sales in China, its third largest market, fell year-over-year from $23.9 billion to $20.8 billion, or nearly 13%, spurring some worry on Wall Street. The earnings, of course, came on the eve of its ambitious Vision Pro launch day (scroll down for more on that). Tim Cook addressed the important product launch, telling investors, "As customers begin to experience the incredible Apple Vision Pro tomorrow, we are committed as ever to the pursuit of groundbreaking innovation — in line with our values and on behalf of our customers." And in a rare public tease about the company's work on artificial intelligence products, Cook promised he would "share the details of our ongoing work in that space later this year."

——— BELOW THE FOLD ———

CNN Photo Illustration/Valerie Plesch/The New York Times/Redux

First in Reliable:| The Messenger's Malfeasance — In the wake of The Messenger's stunning demise, the outlet's now-former employees are pointing fingers over who is to blame for its catastrophic failure. In addition to owner Jimmy Finkelstein, one person who has come under scrutiny is former president Richard Beckman, who abruptly departed the digital publication in early January, citing health issues. I'm told that senior staffers at The Messenger long believed Beckman was running the business "into the ground," as one person put it, and was cultivating a "toxic culture" that led two female staffers to quit. The top staffers, I'm told, even went to Finkelstein last summer and asked for the then-president to be dismissed, but they were rebuffed by Finkelstein. Of course, it was Finkelstein's ship to steer and he ultimately bears responsibility of the business. Beckman didn't return requests for comment and his LinkedIn page vanished shortly after we reached out.

► Ex-staffers at The Messenger filed a class-action lawsuit against the company on Thursday, alleging that the manner in which they were laid off violated New York labor laws, The Daily Beast's Justin Baragona and Josh Fiallo report. However, there was a tiny glimmer of good news for the now jobless former employees that emerged. After The Messenger's website was nuked from the internet Wednesday, I'm told that the site's journalists will be gaining access to the articles they authored during their brief time at the outlet. Senior editors, I'm told, were notified Thursday that staffers will be given a password to access the site's archives.

KILLING THE MESSENGER

Jimmy Finkelstein proposed a merger between The Messenger and The LAT to billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, Natalie Korach and Emily Smith report. "Patrick was very keen to do the merger – which is why the announcement to staff about The Messenger closing was delayed. Patrick had the money, and at that point, Jimmy would have taken anything," one source told the duo. (TheWrap)
Per Lachlan Cartwright, Soon-Shiong made a "lowball" offer, which eventually fell through. (THR)
"The Messenger, as a business, was a Quibi-style misread of the media landscape from the start," Parker Malloy writes. "This kind of mismanagement is common in media, but the level of it really cannot be overstated." (The Present Age)
Nhari Dan wrote about how Finkelstein "burned $50 million in less than a year," noting that his "exorbitant spending on the site is unusual by industry standards." (Observer)
"I knew taking the position was a roll of the dice": Jordan Hoffman writes about working at The Messenger and the ill-fated publication's final days. (NY Mag)

THE INDUSTRY

CNN Photo Illustration/Mark Lennihan/FILE

'Bloodbath' at The Journal:The WSJ on Thursday cut a number of staffers as the Rupert Murdoch-owned broadsheet restructures under the stewardship of Emma Tucker. A spokesperson for The WSJ declined to say how many staffers were impacted by the cuts. But Business Insider's Lucia Moses, who spoke to sources describing the layoffs as a "bloodbath," was told the number was at least 20, and perhaps a bit higher. The cuts eliminated The WSJ's entire business team in Washington, with Tucker saying in a memo to staffers that she wants the revamped bureau to "focus on politics, policy, defense, law, intelligence and national security." Moses has more here.

THE FOURTH ESTATE

✂️ Cuts, cuts, cuts: Some 538 people working in news media lost their jobs in January, and that's not even counting the 300 journalists axed as a result of The Messenger's demise, a report from Challenger, Gray, & Christmas shows. (Challenger Gray)
More than 200 journalists at the Chicago Tribune and six other newsrooms commenced a 24-hour strike Thursday to protest "slow-walked" union negotiations by Alden Global Capital. (AP)
"300 local TV news stations are teaming up to launch a streaming service to capture shifting audiences and ad dollars," Lucia Moses reports. (Business Insider)
A Russian court extended the pre-trial detention of Alsu Kurmasheva on Thursday. (Reuters)
The Hill's Bob Cusack and Joe Ruffalo sat down with Kayleigh Barber for a wide-ranging conversation touching on NewsNation and what's to come for the D.C. publication. (DigiDay)

IN THE MARKET

Nelson Peltz is targeting the board seats of Michael B.G. Froman and Maria Elena Lagomasino, Alex Weprin reports. ( THR)
Disney, meanwhile, defended its "highly qualified board and clear strategy." ( Deadline)
This is really neat: THR launched Charts, "a place that offers in one easily accessible spot all the most up-to-date data on entertainment viewership across a multitude of platforms." ( THR)
The Ankler's anonymous former exec at a "streaming company" writes about how Netflix's "threat isn't Hollywood," but is YouTube. ( The Ankler)
SiriusXM saw a net drop of 94,000 satellite radio subscribers in Q4 and a loss of 109,000 Pandora subscribers. ( THR)
The video game industry is in trouble, writes Peter Kafka, with big-budget franchises dominating and not enough breathing room for smaller titles. ( Business Insider)

MEDIA MOVES

The USC Annenberg Center for Communication Leadership & Policy welcomed John Lansing as a senior fellow. ( NPR)
Business Insider named Julia Naftulin an editor on the special projects team. ( TBN)

THE VALLEY

Vanity Fair/CNN Photo Illustration

Cooking Up the Future: We finally have photos of Apple boss Tim Cook donning the company's $3,500 Vision Pro goggles. Those images came to us on the eve of the pricey headset's debut courtesy of a fantastic piece from Vanity Fair's Nick Bilton. Bilton was granted access to Cook over the past couple of months as he and Apple prepared for arguably one of the most consequential launches in its history. In the piece, Cook recalled the first time he saw the true potential of spacial computing, explaining that years ago he tried on a prototype of Vision Pro in Apple's ultra-secretive labs. Cook described the device back than as a "monster" placed around his face. "You weren't really wearing it at that time," Cook told Bilton. "It wasn't wearable by any means of the imagination."

Now, of course, it is — and the public will finally get to experience it in a real way Friday. Bilton, who was granted early access to Vision Pro, ended his piece expressing some worry about the technology. "When I take it off, every other device feels flat and boring: My 75-inch OLED TV feels like a CRT from the '90s; my iPhone feels like a flip phone from yesteryear, and even the real world around me feels surprisingly flat. And this is the problem," Bilton wrote. "In the same way that I can't imagine driving a car without a stereo, in the same way I can't imagine not having a phone to communicate with people or take pictures of my children, in the same way I can't imagine trying to work without a computer, I can see a day when we all can't imagine living without an augmented reality. When we're enveloped more and more by technology, to the point that we crave these glasses like a drug, like we crave our iPhones today but with more desire for the dopamine hit this resolution of AR can deliver."

Bilton recalled that Apple SVP of marketing Greg Joswiak told him that the company had "reached into the future and grabbed this product" and brought it back in time. "I think it's the other way around," Bilton wrote. "Apple is taking us into the future, into a new era of computing. Some of us are running as fast as we can to get there, and others are being dragged, kicking and screaming. But we're all going. We're going to the moon, and we're going to look around at the ghostly luminescence of ancient dust under a black, star-studded sky, and we'll just know that this is the future of computing and entertainment and apps and memories, and that this apparatus wrapped around our head will change everything." Read Bilton's full piece here.

TOO MANY TABS

Universal Music Group has officially pulled its entire music library from TikTok. So what happens now? "We wait to see who blinks," Ben Sisario writes. (NYT)
"Over time the trust will come": Dexter Thomas sat down with TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew for a wide-ranging interview. ( WIRED)
ByteDance has launched Coze, its "one-stop A.I. development platform" that's looking to take on OpenAI's ChatGPT. ( SCMP)
YouTube's music and premium services passed the 100 million subscriber mark on Thursday. ( THR)
Meanwhile, music piracy is up, with visits to piracy websites seeing a 13% on-year increase, Angela Watercutter reports. ( WIRED)
Meta "continues to profit by selling ads to scammers who are trying to fleece its users," Emanuel Maiberg reports. ( 404 Media)
Snap recalled all the Pixy flying selfie camera drones it sold because the batteries pose a fire hazard. ( The Verge)
✂️ Cuts, cuts, cuts: Zoom axed 150 jobs, or 2% of its workforce, Brody Ford reports. ( Bloomberg)

THE INFO WARS

CNN Photo Illustration/Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Lost in Translation: They are at it again. This week, a number of top right-wing media figures began demanding that Rep. Ilhan Omar be expelled from Congress, with some even saying she should be deported from the country for committing supposed treason. Why? Because of what appears to be a faulty translation of a speech she recently delivered in the Somali language. Right-wing commentators claimed that, in the speech, Omar had pledged allegiance to the Somali government, among other things. But The Minnesota Reformer and Minneapolis Star-Tribune each spoke to translation experts who said Omar was wildly mistranslated (which Omar had, herself, also said.)

Of course, as we've said repeatedly in this newsletter, facts have little bearing on how the right-wing media universe operates today, nor do they have much bearing on how many in the GOP operate. So on Thursday, despite the evidence pouring cold water on the bogus media claims, Marjorie Taylor-Greene filed a proposal to censure Omar for supposedly "treasonous statements." Greene's motion is unlikely to go far, but it's yet another case study to file away, showing how dishonest and broken conservative politics are today.

IN THE BATTLEFIELD

No surprise here: Disney has appealed its lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. ( CNN)
David Gilbert spoke to experts who further underscored the role right-wing conspiracy theories and extremist rhetoric may have played in the Pennsylvania decapitation. ( WIRED)
Meanwhile, One America News host Dan Ball found a way to blame Joe Biden for the beheading suspect's actions, while also claiming it has "nothing to do with MAGA." 🤔 ( MMFA)
Spend some time with this piece by Curt Devine, Donie O'Sullivan, and Sean Lyngaas: "A fake recording of a candidate saying he'd rigged the election went viral. Experts say it's only the beginning." ( CNN)
Charlie Sykes wrote about departing The Bulwark and "getting off the daily hamster wheel of crazy": "It turns out that having your face pressed up against the firehouse of hackery, lies, and absurdity is not the optimal way of understanding what is actually happening to us." (The Bulwark)
Jake Tapper discussed the "deranged" Taylor Swift conspiracy theories with Jimmy Kimmel, also noting that the "incentive structure" in right-wing politics is broken. (TheWrap)
Nikki Haley also reacted to the conspiracies, telling Tapper that they are "bizarre," while praising Swift. (CNN)
On "King Charles," Charles Barkley called those who think Swift is ruining football "loser[s]" and Bob Costas smartly added, "I can guarantee you all this news on Fox News would not happening if she was wearing a MAGA hat. They would love it." (Mediaite)
Kishor Napier-Raman and Bianca Hall wrote about how James Murdoch was "savaged" by the judge who voided Elon Musk's pay package (SMH)
Mother Jones and The Center for Investigative Reporting are officially merging. (Mother Jones)
Ben Shapiro's rap collaboration with Tom MacDonald surged to the top spot on iTunes. (WaPo)
Philip Bump's latest carries this headline: "Irony overdoses reported as Jesse Watters accuses MSNBC of brainwashing. (WaPo)

CURTAIN CALL

Comedy Central/CNN Photo Illustration

First in Reliable | Your Moment of Zen: Are you ready for Jon Stewart to return to "The Daily Show"? Comedy Central on Friday is set to begin airing its first promos teasing his return to the iconic late-night show — and we have a sneak peek ( watch the first promo here). "In an election year guaranteed to divide us," a narrator says in a clip provided to us, "finally a second term we can all agree on." Stewart himself, back behind "The Daily Show" desk for the first time in years, jokes in the promo, "I will be wearing a suit, I will be showered. I'm sorry, I'll be wearing overalls and I won't shower."

🔎 Zooming in: The promo is the first entry in a big marketing push leading up to the February 12 debut of Stewart's encore in the host chair. That marketing push will include a big game day presence for Super Bowl LVIII, which is hosted on sister network CBS. It all reflects the excitement inside Paramount Global for Stewart's return, a coup pulled off by Chris McCarthy, president and chief executive of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios.

OFF STAGE

Two major Hollywood unions, the IATSE and Teamsters Local 399, are slated to sit down with the AMPTP starting March 4 ahead of the contracts' July 21 expiration, Dominic Patten reports. (Deadline)
In the Mood of a Melody: Billy Joel's first new song in 17 years, "Turn the Lights Back On," is out. (YouTube)
Lana Del Rey teased a new country album, "Lasso." ( Pitchfork)
Netflix has secured the rights for Will Ferrell's documentary "Will & Harper" in an eight-figure Sundance deal. ( THR)
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — the duo behind HBO's "Game of Thrones" — are working on a Netflix series starring Matthew Macfadyen and Michael Shannon. (THR)
Jerry Bruckheimer's Disney drama "Young Woman and the Sea," which stars Daisy Ridley, will head to theaters on May 31 for a limited run. (TheWrap)
Tim Burton will direct the remake of Warner Bros.'s 1958 "Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman." ( Deadline)
Starz released the official trailer to "Mary & George," starring Julianne Moore and Nicholas Galitzine. ( YouTube)

Thank you for reading! This newsletter was edited by Jon Passantino and produced with the assistance of Liam Reilly. Have feedback? Send us an email. You can follow us on Instagram, Threads, and LinkedIn . We will see you back in your inbox next week.

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