Business of Media
Musk says Twitter deal should go ahead if it provides proof of real accounts
Elon Musk said that if Twitter Inc. could provide its method of sampling 100 accounts and how it confirmed that the accounts are real, his $44 billion deal to buy the company should proceed on its original terms, reports Reuters.
“However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not,” Musk tweeted early on Saturday.
In response to a Twitter user asking whether the U.S. SEC was probing “dubious claims” by the company, Musk tweeted “Good question, why aren’t they?”.
Meta’s new AI chatbot can’t stop bashing Facebook
If you’re worried that artificial intelligence is getting too smart, talking to Meta’s AI chatbot might make you feel better, reports The Guardian’s Matthew Cantor.
Launched on Friday, BlenderBot is a prototype of Meta’s conversational AI, which, according to Facebook’s parent company, can converse on nearly any topic. On the demo website, members of the public are invited to chat with the tool and share feedback with developers. The results thus far, writers at Buzzfeed and Vice have pointed out, have been rather interesting.
Asked about Mark Zuckerberg, the bot told BuzzFeed’s Max Woolf that “he is a good businessman, but his business practices are not always ethical. It is funny that he has all this money and still wears the same clothes!”
The bot has also made clear that it’s not a Facebook user, telling Vice’s Janus Rose that it had deleted its account after learning about the company’s privacy scandals. “Since deleting Facebook my life has been much better,” it said.
IAC warns of pullback in corporate ad spending due to inflation
IAC warned of a softening in corporate advertising spending Tuesday, even as inflationary concerns appear to have not affected the consumer just yet, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Caitlin Huston.
In its second-quarter earnings report, the media company said its DotDash Meredith segment, publisher of People magazine, Entertainment Weekly and InStyle and more, saw a “rapid pullback in ad spend” starting in June. This joins similarly negative advertising reports from tech companies such as Snap, Meta and more in the last quarter.
“Whether out of fear, data, or opportunity, companies are clearly cutting spend well ahead of the consumer,” CEO Joey Levin wrote in a letter to shareholders.
BuzzFeed discloses $5.3M in restructuring fees, including layoffs
BuzzFeed brought in $106.8 million in revenue during the second quarter as total time spent by users declined to 154 million hours, representing a 19 percent drop year over year, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s J. Clara Chan.
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti previously said in May during the company’s earnings call that he expected Q2 revenues to surpass $100 million.
Though total revenue — driven by ads — surpassed that bench mark, BuzzFeed ended the quarter with $23.6 million in net losses. Content accounted for $40.3 million of the company’s revenue, representing a 66 percent year-over-year increase, while commerce revenue saw a 22 percent decline compared to the previous year, bringing in roughly $13.3 million during Q2.
Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa and music publishing drive Warner Music revenue growth
Warner Music Group, home to the likes of Cardi B, Ed Sheeran, and Bruno Mars, reported higher fiscal third-quarter revenue and net income on Tuesday as music publishing revenue grew 30 percent and a bounceback in some parts of the business previously affected by the COVID pandemic, report The Hollywood Reporter’s Georg Szalai and Ettan Vlessing.
It also cited “solid underlying streaming growth despite ad-supported pressure” amid macro-economic clouds.
Net income for the latest period ended in June amounted to $125 million, more than double the $61 million recorded in the year-ago period, the company said before the stock market open. Adjusted net income jumped 77 percent from $83 million to $147 million. The improvements came amid higher revenue and “the favorable impact of exchange rates on the company’s euro-denominated debt and a loss on extinguishment of debt in the prior-year quarter.”
Agencies
CX Lavender welcomes Adam Washington as CEO
CX Lavender has announced the appointment of Adam Washington as chief executive officer.
Washington joins the independent communication and customer experience agency with 15 years of experience leading Australian digital and communications teams. He was most recently at Orchard, where he ran its highly awarded consumer business.
The newly appointed CEO has also held roles at Deepend, Publicis and WPP, across clients including IKEA, BT, Electrolux, Procter & Gamble, Porsche, Foxtel, Kelloggs and Virgin Mobile.
In the role, Washington will lead CX Lavender through its next stage of growth. The agency also operates an emerging software company, CXTX.
CHEP Network promotes Amy Weston as executive creative director
Amy Weston has been promoted to the role of executive creative director at CHEP Network, joining the national creative leadership team.
Weston has been part of CHEP for the past seven years and, prior to that, was part of Clemenger Group since 2007 with roles at Clemenger BBDO Melbourne and Adelaide. She has been promoted from the role of creative director.
CHEP’s deputy chief creative officer, Glen Dickson, said of Weston’s promotion: “Amy is a truly creative person. And a natural creative leader. She’ll do amazing things in her new role at CHEP – for our clients, our people and our work.”
The newly appointed ECD has worked with clients including 7-Eleven, AGL, Mazda, TAC, Pernod Ricard, RACV and more.
We Are Social elevates Susie Hogarth to global head of cultural insights
We Are Social has announced the promotion of Susie Hogarth as the global head of cultural insights.
Hogarth steps into the global role from Lore Oxford, who departed the company in May. Hogarth will be on maternity leave from September.
The newly appointed global head of cultural insights will lead the company’s drive to innovate the practice, further embed cultural insights throughout the global network and ensure it is core to every client brief.
Hogarth will report to We Are Social’s global chief strategy officer Mobbie Nazir and will work closely with Paul Greenwood, head of research and insights.
Hogarth first joined We Are Social in 2020 as research and cultural insights director, and was promoted to the role of senior research and cultural insights director last year.
G Squared welcomes Billy McLean and Kate Duffield to the consultancy
G Squared has announced the appointments of Billy McLean as head of strategy and Kate Duffield as head of SEO and content.
McLean and Duffield join the Sydney-based digital consultancy in newly created roles following a repositioning focussing on consulting services across SEO, paid media and web, with a separate team dedicated to delivery and implementation.
The agency, founded in 2012 by George Photios and George Pappas, drives return on investment through bespoke integrated digital solutions backed by data and analytics.
Its team of 60 works with clients including Nick Scali, Mitsubishi Electric, Mirvac and Sealy Posturepedic.
Television
Number 96 stars reunite for new TV history book
Five decades on, former cast members of iconic TV soap Number 96 reunited on the weekend for the launch of a new book on the show created by David Sale, reports TV Tonight.
In attendance were Roger Ward (Weppo), Harry Michaels (Giovanni), Diana McLean (Dorothy Dunlop), Phillippa Baker (Roma) Louise Howitt (Pamela), while others watched via Zoom.
Number 96: 50th Anniversary Album is a collection of chapters penned by the stars who were there, edited by author Nigel Giles. It includes an introduction by Abigail.
The event held at Woollahra Hotel, not far from the location of the original apartment block, was hosted by TV historian Andrew Mercado and launched by The Guardian’s media correspondent Amanda Meade, whose father actor Gareth Meade and step mother Elaine Lee both featured in the series.
Sports Media
Sports would be ‘nuts to risk’ walking away from Foxtel: Delany
Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delany reckons sporting bodies would “be nuts” to walk away from the News Corp-controlled pay TV provider, as the AFL attempts to secure a new $600 million-a-year broadcast deal, report Nine Publishing’s Max Mason and Mark Di Stefano.
Offers to broadcast and stream the AFL from 2025 began rolling in last week, as incumbents Foxtel and Seven West Media seek to fend off Paramount, the owner of Network 10, and Nine Entertainment.
“You’d have to be nuts to put your sport at risk with anyone else,” Delany told The Australian Financial Review on Tuesday.
“We’ve got the best capacity to pay, we’ve produced the best sports, we’ve got the best ability to promote on all our platforms, especially with News Corp, we’ve got a huge subscriber base at 4.5 million subs now, which delivers massive audiences responses, we’ve got a flawless tech platform – it’s bankable, and all the sports are with us.”
Journalist Sam McClure resigns from print role at The Age
The Age journalist Sam McClure has resigned from his print role after being told he could not read live commercial reads in his new role as 3AW’s sports host in a nightly show, reports News Corp’s Will Hogan.
McClure’s Sports Entertainment Network boss, Craig Hutchison, confirmed McClure had resigned from The Age over new guidelines that prevented all staff from reading sponsor credits on live radio.
The Age issued an apology after McClure’s controversial appearance in a Sportsbet ad despite his recent reporting of the invasive use of betting ads in the AFL.
As a result of that exposure Hutchison told The Sounding Board podcast The Age had now brought in a policy banning journalists reading live ads on radio.