TIME INC REVENUE MISSES AS PRINT AD SALES CONTINUE TO COLLAPSE: The
company said print ad revenue, which accounts for more than two-thirds
of total ad sales, fell about 10 percent to $288 million, in the third
quarter ended
Sept. 30. The
publisher's digital advertising revenue increased 63.3 percent to $129
million. Time Inc's total revenue fell nearly 3 percent to $750 million,
missing the average analysts' estimate of $770.6 million, according to
Thomson Reuters
CONDE NAST'S TECH PUBLICATIONS LAUNCH $4,000 A YEAR MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM: Condé
Nast’s Wired Media Group, consisting of Wired, Ars Technica and
Backchannel, is going a step further. It’s launching a membership
program for executives who want to stay on the cutting edge of
technology. For $4,000 a year, members of the Emerging Technology
Council (and up to four of their colleagues) get access to in-person and
virtual events where they can hear presentations by tech startups; join
a 24/7 online community; receive a newsletter (likely monthly) and
other perks. The first event, set to take place in January, will be a
virtual discussion on intelligence and machine learning with Ars
Technica founder and editor in chief Ken Fisher.
A WRETCHED DAY, WEEK, MONTH YEAR FOR ANYONE WHOSE PAYCHECK DEPENDS ON PRINT ADVERTISING: The
Wall Street Journal has started the process of laying off staff and
will significantly trim down its print edition as it grapples with
advertising revenue declines. The downsized Journal, which will debut
November 14, will combine some sections and reduce others, resulting in less coverage of arts, culture and local news.
FACEBOOK ADDS THE EQUIVALENT OF TWITTER'S ENTIRE USER BASE IN ONE YEAR, BUT:
The stock fell, despite the fact that Facebook increased its revenue
by 56% over the same period last year, increased its net income and
earnings per share by 166% and 165%, respectively, and increased its
monthly active users by 16% to 1.8 billion. The company reported
enviable operating margins of 45%. Facebook is growing faster than
startups and high-growth tech companies that arguably have much more
room to grow than it does, and it’s a profit machine, to boot. CEO Mark
Zuckerberg has had an impressive run.
MIC'S NEW iOS APP DOESN'T EVER HAVE TO BE OPEN BY THE USER: Mic
is attempting to solve the problem of notification and app overload
with its new Mic for iPhone app for iOS. The app serves news summaries
and short videos, all in the form of notifications, so users don’t have
to take the tedious step of opening the app or even unlocking the phone.
“We’re trying to make it as frictionless as possible to get the most
important stories, to get enough context quickly,” said Cory Haik, Mic’s
chief strategy officer.
FACEBOOK WILL CONTINUE TO GO AFTER SNAPCHAT, THIS TIME WITH NEW APP CAMERA: CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined Facebook's plans to build cameras right into its apps, much like Snapchat.
On Wednesday,
Mr. Zuckerberg discussed Facebook's experiments to develop a new camera
for its apps after reporting earnings. The camera will be close to the
heart of the experiences inside Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp.
PRINT ADVERTISING REVENUE ERODING RAPIDLY AT NEW YORK TIMES: The
New York Times was obviously not happy to report an 18.5% drop in print
advertising revenue for the company's third quarter, but CEO Mark
Thompson sought to convince analysts that it's not the end of the world.
THE DESIGN COMMUNITY DESTROYS THE RELAUNCH OF VOX MEDIA'S 'THE VERGE' WEBSITE: They
simply killed the logo and switched from a weird 70s to a cheap 90s
sci-fi look, with all those 45° angles (you nailed it, I thought the
same thing). By the way, they lost all their charisma when Topolsky
left. The Verge is a bad media itself. So the redesign that is just as
pretentious and douchebaggy as themselves is quite alright, I think.
AMERICANS, BRAZILIANS AND BRITS REALLY LOVE NETFLIX: Netflix
Inc. is the most-loved brand across the U.S., U.K. and Brazil,
according to The Love Index 2016, compiled by Accenture Interactive and
the company's design unit, Fjord. Apple Inc. , Microsoft Corp. and
Netflix are the most-loved brands in the U.S., according to the
research. And consumer interactions with Netflix, FitBitInc. ,
Amazon.com Inc. Apple and Facebook Inc. are setting benchmarks for brand
experiences across other products and services in the U.S.
THE SKIMM HITS 4 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS: At
the Skimm, which sends a newsletter called Daily Skimm to the in-boxes
of more than 4 million young professionals each morning, the debate was
the main event, too. But the tenor of the Skimm’s coverage was, uh, less
formal: “Trump and Hillz had a night out in Vegas,” the summary began.
In Skimm parlance, “Hillz” is Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump doesn’t get a
nickname, though during the 2012 election Mitt Romney was known as
Mittens.
THE CO-FOUNDERS OF THE NOW DEFUNCT VINE APP IS WORKING ON A NEW LIVE STREAMING APP, 'HYPE': Rus
Yusupov and Colin Kroll hadn’t officially debuted Hype, a live
streaming app that offers a slew of creative tools that competitors,
like Periscope and Facebook Live, don’t have. But after privately
testing it for three months from their SoHo headquarters in New York
City, they figured it was pretty much ready for showtime. So they
started broadcasting, official announcement be damned. “What a day
today,” Yusupov said as he kicked off the stream. “Heard some news from
Twitter. It was kind of a surprise to us.” Within minutes, enough
viewers joined the broadcast that it crashed.
DIGITAL AD SPEND JUMPS 19 PERCENT: It's
so rare that we get to talk about unambiguously good news for
publishers here on TMB that we thought we should mark the occasion -
internet ad revenue rose 19.1 percent in the first half of 2016,
according to an IAB study conducted by PwC. That marks an all-time high,
driven by changing audience habits that are seeing them spend more time
with publisher and brand content than ever before.
APPLE IS NOT INTERESTED IN TIME WARNER: Apple
is not interested in buying Time Warner at present, people familiar
with the thinking at the company said. There is no Time Warner bid
coming from Apple at this point, sources said, although the regulatory
process could last for months, and things could change.
SUBSCRIBERS FLEEING DISNEY'S ESPN: ESPN
lost 621,000 cable subscribers in October, the most subscribers it’s
ever lost in a single month, Outkick the Coverage reports. The dramatic
drop in subscribers coupled with poor viewership on sports content
spells a clear and present danger for the sporting industry.
YOUTUBE RED ONLY HAS 1.5 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS: When
YouTube Red launched a year ago, the plan was for the service to grow
into a competitor against the likes of Netflix and Hulu. Now, less than a
year later, subscriber totals show that YouTube still has a long way to
go before the public will accept paying a monthly fee for YouTube.
SNAPCHAT OFFERS UP NEW CAPABILITIES TO WOO ADVERTISERS: Snapchat
is trying hard to woo advertisers as it prepares for an IPO. The
company is pushing attachments to ads such as articles, long-form video
and app-install ads. Snapchat also is allowing advertisers to run
horizontal video within the attachment rather than vertical, which is
its signature style.
BUSINESS INSIDER WAS HACKED: Business Insider was hacked
on Wednesday
morning. Attackers identifying themselves as OurMine posted and edited
some stories on the US version of the website. “Hey, don’t worry we are
just testing your security, we didn’t change your password or anything,”
the message said.
-Good Morning
Reviewed by Editor
on
Thursday, November 03, 2016
Rating:
