It’s difficult to get away from the main talk of the media town this week, and that’s Elon Musk. But behind the headlines, there are a number of other spooktacular stories bubbling up this All Hallows’ Eve, so let’s go bobbing for Apple’s…
There was much cause for celebration at the company last week, as it reported record September quarter revenues of $90.1bn. But again, what’s lurking behind the headlines can often be the juicier fruit, and it’s also true that global iPhone sales slightly missed analyst expectations in Apple’s latest results.
A quantitative blip no doubt, but qualitatively this could signify choppier waters ahead for the tech giant… because ask yourself this question – Apple lover or no – does the brand still carry the same je ne sais quoi that it once did?
I know I went out and bought an old laptop from the CeX a couple weeks ago, due to Apple’s enduring inability/point blank refusal to update Mac gaming capabilities. My sister went one better last week and ordered a Samsung flip-phone, marking the end of a 10yr relationship with the Apple brand.
In any case, the company’s main woes may not end up being on the demand side as we head into winter, but rather from the supply. Numerous outlets report that a number of Covid-quarantined workers ‘jumped the fence’ from an iPhone assembly factory in Zhengzhou over the weekend, with one worker telling the Financial Times it was “total chaos in the dormitories inside.”
And that’s a good line to take it to the bridge…
… because Wired has nicely summarised the current media reaction to Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, which finally went through on Thursday. It’s headline on the matter simply states, ‘Elon Musk’s Twitter Will Be Chaos’ and says that the SpaceX, Tesla, and now Twitter owner is considering a number of radical changes at the company, including introducing content moderation, charging subscription fees, and even “branching out beyond social media”.
Of course, as one may expect with any high-profile takeover of this magnitude, there has – and continues to be – much scrutiny surrounding layoffs at the company. Musk has already fired a number of leading executives, including former CEO, Parag Agrawal. Worrying times for those currently working at the company no doubt, and as speculation mounts around the entrepreneur’s relationship with free speech, perhaps worrying times on a more macro level as well…
Katie Vanneck-Smith named CEO of Hearst UK
In more positive appointments news, Katie Vanneck-Smith has been named as the Chief Executive Officer of Hearst UK. The exec joins from Tortoise Media, a global outlet that she co-founded in 2018. Prior to that, she was the President and Chief Customer Officer for Dow Jones, where she helped build and lead The Wall Street Journal’s successful online membership-based business.
It’s an interesting time for Vanneck-Smith to be departing Tortoise, as it was announced earlier this month that the media company had inked a deal with Sky Studios to allow its original podcasts to be turned into high-end series and features, across scripted and documentary. But with so much going on at Hearst right now though, who’s got time for television…
Netflix rolls out ad-supported model
Well, seemingly a lot of people! Because Netflix will NEXT MONTH roll out its all new ad-supported model in 12 countries around the world. Priced at $6.99 in the US, and £4.99 in the UK, the move sees the plan added as an additional alternative to the company’s existing ad-free basic, standard, and premium options.
It’s another pioneering move by one of the media industry’s key players… as the ‘Subscription vs Advertising’ debate gathers further pace ahead of the looming Cookiepocalypse. Nutshell is that subscriptions were once (like Elon Musk) the talk of the media town, but as saturation points have begun to emerge and advertising has again once again started to look like an attractive offering, the debate is BACK ON! How Netflix’s new offering fares may well provide a good insight into how consumers feel about the options…
And finally…
With the jury still out on just how positive an impact the private sector can ever have around issues of free speech and fake news, the UN is taking matters into its own hands. Last week (and culminating today) saw the staging of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Global Media and Information Week.
Delivering what it calls ‘a thundering message of the urgency of media and information literacy at all levels of society’, the organisation’s flagship Feature Conference and Youth Forum is being hosted in Nigeria, with the simultaneous staging of 900 small and large events around the world. Full story here.
[Main image: Shutterstock.com/dennizn]