The Guardian / Mark Sweney
Advertiser exodus from X gathers pace with 26% ‘planning to cut spending’ →“Research by data firm Kantar, based on interviews with 18,000 consumers and 1,000 senior marketers around the world, has found that 26% of marketers are planning to cut back ad spend on X in 2025. ‘Marketers are brand custodians and need to trust the platforms they use,’ said Gonca Bubani, a director at Kantar.”
The Washington Post / Jeremy Barr
Mehdi Hasan saw a market for a new kind of media company →“Four months in, Zeteo has pulled in 31,000 paid subscribers through the Substack platform, including more than 1,000 at the $500-and-up ‘founder’ level, accounting for about $3 million in annualized revenue. Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie called Zeteo’s launch ‘one of the most successful and fastest growing in Substack history.’ That subscriber count makes Zeteo the fifth most-popular politics publication on Substack, trailing long-established offerings from popular pundits Bari Weiss (the Free Press) and Nate Silver (Silver Bulletin) and outlets like the Bulwark.”
CNN / Zachary Cohen, Donie O
DOJ alleges a Russia-funded US media company is linked to right-wing social media stars →“The goal of the operation, according to prosecutors, was to fuel pro-Russian narratives, in part, by pushing content and news articles favoring Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and others who the Kremlin deemed to be friendlier to its interests. Among the commentators listed on Tenet Media’s website are right-wing personalities Benny Johnson, Tim Pool and Dave Rubin. All have released statements saying they were victims of the alleged Russian scheme and they maintained editorial control of the content they created. Each has a loyal fanbase online, with a combined roughly 6 million followers on YouTube alone.”
Washington Post / A.G. Sulzberger