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Hubris Is Not Killing the Media. Tech Giants Are.

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One version of the abrupt, spectacular downfall of The Messenger, the news site that shuttered abruptly on Wednesday after its founders blew $50 million in less than a year, revolves around the arrogance and stupidity of its founders. Pitched as a centrist, nonpartisan outlet, it apparently was conceived on the (wrongheaded) assumption that because many Americans consider themselves independents and mistrust the media, there must be a massive, untapped market of news consumers who just want the cold hard facts. And the site was going to tap that market—more than 100 million monthly readers, it hoped—with a decade-old strategy.

And yet, there’s another version that’s also true. Even if The Messenger’s founder, Jimmy Finkelstein, had been competent—and I want to be very clear that he was not—the site had almost no chance of succeeding anyway. The economics of media in 2024 are as dismal as they have ever been. Even outlets that have been profitable and successful of late—notably The Washington Post, but also Vox and Insider—have seen significant job cuts. After spending a decade jumping from business model to business model, the media industry has run out of options. And the fault lies less with the leaders of these organizations than with the real powers that be: tech giants.

The Messenger launched last May with big talk about reinventing the news. Finkelstein, who previously had turned The Hill into a shameless aggregation machine and fount of crackpot punditry, said the outlet would “champion balanced journalism in an era of bias, subjectivity, and misinformation.” He promised that a huge staff would storm the gates of the establishment, winning over people who had grown skeptical of outlets that strive to occupy the center, like The New York Times. And Finkelstein thought he could do it in a matter of months.

But after assembling an enormous and talented team—the company eventually hired around 300 people—Finkelstein and his minions quickly pivoted away from original reporting and instead instructed their editorial team to crank out as many stories as possible—typically by aggregating existing stories from reputable outlets (like the Times) and more tawdry ones (like The Daily Mail). The obvious goal was to game search and social traffic, thereby juicing digital ad revenue—a strategy that many observers immediately identified as flawed. Last May, Nieman Lab’s Joshua Benton wrote that The Messenger represented “an aggressive sort of denial about the world of digital news publishing in 2023. It’s LARPing an earlier time.”

In another era, it might have worked—for a couple of years, anyway. But today, there are simply no ways to run a newsroom of The Messenger’s size on digital ad revenue alone. Google and Facebook have eviscerated the online advertising world; tens of millions of clicks might net you a few million dollars over the course of a year, enough to maybe run a newsroom a fraction of the size of The Messenger’s. And the thing is, digital ad revenue has all but dried up, thanks in large part to the very platforms that Finkelstein’s team was trying to game. (Of course, it didn’t help that the company also dropped more than $8 million on glitzy offices in New York, Washington, and Florida.)

The Messenger was a particularly spectacular failure, but it also highlights how desperate the media industry has become to find a viable business strategy, especially at scale. Various pivots—notably to video via Facebook and YouTube, and audio via podcasting—led to brief windfalls. Both have dried up in recent years, thanks to tech companies’ dominance in advertising, their lies about revenue and audience potential, and the general glut of content.

Subscriptions and membership plans offered another possible path—albeit one that would have been difficult to pursue for a new outlet of The Messenger’s size and ambition. But this model has its risks too. The Washington Post expanded dramatically thanks to a boom in Trump-era subscriptions, but those declined precipitously in recent years, leading to a wave of cancellations and then, last month, buyouts. Now, the Times seems like the only large, mainstream outlet built on this model—and its robust subscription numbers owe as much to non-journalistic offerings (puzzles and recipes) as they do to stories.

There are larger economic problems as well. Not long ago, digital startups could survive by pivoting to the latest revenue model, as long as they could continue raising money from investors with promises of continued growth. This was, in retrospect, a phenomenon of the zero-interest-rate era. Now that capital actually costs something for investors, they’re far less likely to throw money at risky ventures like digital media. (This has also played a role in the decline of advertising. Recently, digital news outlets could rake in cash from Silicon Valley start-ups promising to disrupt the underwear industry. Now venture capitalists are being more careful, and there’s less ad money being thrown around to raise brand awareness of start-ups.)

The result is a dismal situation for media companies of all sizes and types. Local news was the first casualty of the rise of Google and Facebook, as these outlets have lost tens of thousands of jobs in recent years, resulting in a crisis of reporting across the country. But that crisis has now reached national outlets as well. There isn’t enough money in subscriptions. There isn’t enough money in advertising. You can build a large audience and still only bring in a few million dollars, as The Messenger did (just $3 million to be exact).

A sea of Substacks and hyperlocal nonprofit news organizations cannot fill this hole, and indeed they have not. The only answer would seem to be government intervention—either in the form of regulating or breaking up social media networks and search engines, or directly funding news outlets. But there is little appetite for doing either thing, at least on the national level. On Wednesday, tech CEOs were hauled before Congress to address social media’s role in child exploitation. It’s hard to imagine a similar hearing focused on their role in the decimation of the media industry. Saving the media, given the public’s general antipathy for reporters, is not exactly a winning political issue.

And so, the media industry is stuck in what feels like a slow-motion apocalypse. On Wednesday, The Messenger’s employees learned, via tweets from reporters at Semafor and The New York Times, that the company would be abruptly shutting down; not long after, they learned from reporters at the same outlets that they would not be receiving severance. The site, which once published hundreds of stories a day—it often doubled or tripled the output of the Times—went to white, eliminating not just their employment but any evidence that they had worked there at all.

Eight months and $50 million later, that’s what’s left of The Messenger: nothing. It’s Jimmy Finkelstein’s fault, to be sure: He wanted to replace the Times but instead built a journalistic Quibi. But the crisis facing the media industry is much larger, and it’s still getting worse. It certainly doesn’t help if a media company is run by an idiot. But at this point, even one run by a genius would likely shutter before long.

 

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What to stream this weekend: ‘Civil War,’ Snow Patrol, ‘How to Die Alone,’ ‘Tulsa King’ and ‘Uglies’

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Hallmark launching a streaming service with two new original series, and Bill Skarsgård out for revenge in “Boy Kills World” are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.

Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Alex Garland’s “Civil War” starring Kirsten Dunst, Natasha Rothwell’s heartfelt comedy for Hulu called “How to Die Alone” and Sylvester Stallone’s second season of “Tulsa King” debuts.

NEW MOVIES TO STREAM SEPT. 9-15

Alex Garland’s “Civil War” is finally making its debut on MAX on Friday. The film stars Kirsten Dunst as a veteran photojournalist covering a violent war that’s divided America; She reluctantly allows an aspiring photographer, played by Cailee Spaeny, to tag along as she, an editor (Stephen McKinley Henderson) and a reporter (Wagner Moura) make the dangerous journey to Washington, D.C., to interview the president (Nick Offerman), a blustery, rising despot who has given himself a third term, taken to attacking his citizens and shut himself off from the press. In my review, I called it a bellowing and haunting experience; Smart and thought-provoking with great performances. It’s well worth a watch.

— Joey King stars in Netflix’s adaptation of Scott Westerfeld’s “Uglies,” about a future society in which everyone is required to have beautifying cosmetic surgery at age 16. Streaming on Friday, McG directed the film, in which King’s character inadvertently finds herself in the midst of an uprising against the status quo. “Outer Banks” star Chase Stokes plays King’s best friend.

— Bill Skarsgård is out for revenge against the woman (Famke Janssen) who killed his family in “Boy Kills World,” coming to Hulu on Friday. Moritz Mohr directed the ultra-violent film, of which Variety critic Owen Gleiberman wrote: “It’s a depraved vision, yet I got caught up in its kick-ass revenge-horror pizzazz, its disreputable commitment to what it was doing.”

AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

NEW MUSIC TO STREAM SEPT. 9-15

— The year was 2006. Snow Patrol, the Northern Irish-Scottish alternative rock band, released an album, “Eyes Open,” producing the biggest hit of their career: “Chasing Cars.” A lot has happened in the time since — three, soon to be four quality full-length albums, to be exact. On Friday, the band will release “The Forest Is the Path,” their first new album in seven years. Anthemic pop-rock is the name of the game across songs of love and loss, like “All,”“The Beginning” and “This Is the Sound Of Your Voice.”

— For fans of raucous guitar music, Jordan Peele’s 2022 sci-fi thriller, “NOPE,” provided a surprising, if tiny, thrill. One of the leads, Emerald “Em” Haywood portrayed by Keke Palmer, rocks a Jesus Lizard shirt. (Also featured through the film: Rage Against the Machine, Wipers, Mr Bungle, Butthole Surfers and Earth band shirts.) The Austin noise rock band are a less than obvious pick, having been signed to the legendary Touch and Go Records and having stopped releasing new albums in 1998. That changes on Friday the 13th, when “Rack” arrives. And for those curious: The Jesus Lizard’s intensity never went away.

AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

NEW SHOWS TO STREAM SEPT. 9-15

— Hallmark launched a streaming service called Hallmark+ on Tuesday with two new original series, the scripted drama “The Chicken Sisters” and unscripted series “Celebrations with Lacey Chabert.” If you’re a Hallmark holiday movies fan, you know Chabert. She’s starred in more than 30 of their films and many are holiday themed. Off camera, Chabert has a passion for throwing parties and entertaining. In “Celebrations,” deserving people are surprised with a bash in their honor — planned with Chabert’s help. “The Chicken Sisters” stars Schuyler Fisk, Wendie Malick and Lea Thompson in a show about employees at rival chicken restaurants in a small town. The eight-episode series is based on a novel of the same name.

Natasha Rothwell of “Insecure” and “The White Lotus” fame created and stars in a new heartfelt comedy for Hulu called “How to Die Alone.” She plays Mel, a broke, go-along-to-get-along, single, airport employee who, after a near-death experience, makes the conscious decision to take risks and pursue her dreams. Rothwell has been working on the series for the past eight years and described it to The AP as “the most vulnerable piece of art I’ve ever put into the world.” Like Mel, Rothwell had to learn to bet on herself to make the show she wanted to make. “In the Venn diagram of me and Mel, there’s significant overlap,” said Rothwell. It premieres Friday on Hulu.

— Shailene Woodley, DeWanda Wise and Betty Gilpin star in a new drama for Starz called “Three Women,” about entrepreneur Sloane, homemaker Lina and student Maggie who are each stepping into their power and making life-changing decisions. They’re interviewed by a writer named Gia (Woodley.) The series is based on a 2019 best-selling book of the same name by Lisa Taddeo. “Three Women” premieres Friday on Starz.

— Sylvester Stallone’s second season of “Tulsa King” debuts Sunday on Paramount+. Stallone plays Dwight Manfredi, a mafia boss who was recently released from prison after serving 25 years. He’s sent to Tulsa to set up a new crime syndicate. The series is created by Taylor Sheridan of “Yellowstone” fame.

Alicia Rancilio

NEW VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY

— One thing about the title of Focus Entertainment’s Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 — you know exactly what you’re in for. You are Demetrian Titus, a genetically enhanced brute sent into battle against the Tyranids, an insectoid species with an insatiable craving for human flesh. You have a rocket-powered suit of armor and an arsenal of ridiculous weapons like the “Chainsword,” the “Thunderhammer” and the “Melta Rifle,” so what could go wrong? Besides the squishy single-player mode, there are cooperative missions and six-vs.-six free-for-alls. You can suit up now on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S or PC.

— Likewise, Wild Bastards isn’t exactly the kind of title that’s going to attract fans of, say, Animal Crossing. It’s another sci-fi shooter, but the protagonists are a gang of 13 varmints — aliens and androids included — who are on the run from the law. Each outlaw has a distinctive set of weapons and special powers: Sarge, for example, is a robot with horse genes, while Billy the Squid is … well, you get the idea. Australian studio Blue Manchu developed the 2019 cult hit Void Bastards, and this Wild-West-in-space spinoff has the same snarky humor and vibrant, neon-drenched cartoon look. Saddle up on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S, Nintendo Switch or PC.

Lou Kesten

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Trump could cash out his DJT stock within weeks. Here’s what happens if he sells

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Former President Donald Trump is on the brink of a significant financial decision that could have far-reaching implications for both his personal wealth and the future of his fledgling social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). As the lockup period on his shares in TMTG, which owns Truth Social, nears its end, Trump could soon be free to sell his substantial stake in the company. However, the potential payday, which makes up a large portion of his net worth, comes with considerable risks for Trump and his supporters.

Trump’s stake in TMTG comprises nearly 59% of the company, amounting to 114,750,000 shares. As of now, this holding is valued at approximately $2.6 billion. These shares are currently under a lockup agreement, a common feature of initial public offerings (IPOs), designed to prevent company insiders from immediately selling their shares and potentially destabilizing the stock. The lockup, which began after TMTG’s merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), is set to expire on September 25, though it could end earlier if certain conditions are met.

Should Trump decide to sell his shares after the lockup expires, the market could respond in unpredictable ways. The sale of a substantial number of shares by a major stakeholder like Trump could flood the market, potentially driving down the stock price. Daniel Bradley, a finance professor at the University of South Florida, suggests that the market might react negatively to such a large sale, particularly if there aren’t enough buyers to absorb the supply. This could lead to a sharp decline in the stock’s value, impacting both Trump’s personal wealth and the company’s market standing.

Moreover, Trump’s involvement in Truth Social has been a key driver of investor interest. The platform, marketed as a free speech alternative to mainstream social media, has attracted a loyal user base largely due to Trump’s presence. If Trump were to sell his stake, it might signal a lack of confidence in the company, potentially shaking investor confidence and further depressing the stock price.

Trump’s decision is also influenced by his ongoing legal battles, which have already cost him over $100 million in legal fees. Selling his shares could provide a significant financial boost, helping him cover these mounting expenses. However, this move could also have political ramifications, especially as he continues his bid for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential race.

Trump Media’s success is closely tied to Trump’s political fortunes. The company’s stock has shown volatility in response to developments in the presidential race, with Trump’s chances of winning having a direct impact on the stock’s value. If Trump sells his stake, it could be interpreted as a lack of confidence in his own political future, potentially undermining both his campaign and the company’s prospects.

Truth Social, the flagship product of TMTG, has faced challenges in generating traffic and advertising revenue, especially compared to established social media giants like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook. Despite this, the company’s valuation has remained high, fueled by investor speculation on Trump’s political future. If Trump remains in the race and manages to secure the presidency, the value of his shares could increase. Conversely, any missteps on the campaign trail could have the opposite effect, further destabilizing the stock.

As the lockup period comes to an end, Trump faces a critical decision that could shape the future of both his personal finances and Truth Social. Whether he chooses to hold onto his shares or cash out, the outcome will likely have significant consequences for the company, its investors, and Trump’s political aspirations.

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Arizona man accused of social media threats to Trump is arrested

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Cochise County, AZ — Law enforcement officials in Arizona have apprehended Ronald Lee Syvrud, a 66-year-old resident of Cochise County, after a manhunt was launched following alleged death threats he made against former President Donald Trump. The threats reportedly surfaced in social media posts over the past two weeks, as Trump visited the US-Mexico border in Cochise County on Thursday.

Syvrud, who hails from Benson, Arizona, located about 50 miles southeast of Tucson, was captured by the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday afternoon. The Sheriff’s Office confirmed his arrest, stating, “This subject has been taken into custody without incident.”

In addition to the alleged threats against Trump, Syvrud is wanted for multiple offences, including failure to register as a sex offender. He also faces several warrants in both Wisconsin and Arizona, including charges for driving under the influence and a felony hit-and-run.

The timing of the arrest coincided with Trump’s visit to Cochise County, where he toured the US-Mexico border. During his visit, Trump addressed the ongoing border issues and criticized his political rival, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, for what he described as lax immigration policies. When asked by reporters about the ongoing manhunt for Syvrud, Trump responded, “No, I have not heard that, but I am not that surprised and the reason is because I want to do things that are very bad for the bad guys.”

This incident marks the latest in a series of threats against political figures during the current election cycle. Just earlier this month, a 66-year-old Virginia man was arrested on suspicion of making death threats against Vice President Kamala Harris and other public officials.

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