One Year After Elon Musk Bought Twitter, X Monthly Users Are Down 15% and Ad Revenue Has Slumped 54%

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Get ready for Gawker 3.0: The twice-shuttered blog site has a new owner, who plans to bring the gossipy pop-culture brand back to life — but not in exactly the same way. Meng Ru Kuok, CEO and founder of Singapore-based Caldecott Music Group, acquired the assets of Gawker from Bustle Digital Group. In an email to Variety, Kuok confirmed that he has closed the deal buying the Gawker trademarks and domain name but not its article archives.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor TikTok has long touted the app as a place to discover new music — and its ability to propel songs into viral hits. Now TikTok is hoping to derive incremental revenue from music fans who use the app. The company’s new Add to Music App feature lets users save songs from TikTok to third-party music streaming services.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter, one of the biggest female streamers and gaming creators in the world, has signed with WME for representation. She most recently was repped by UTA. Valkyrae is known for streaming games “Among Us,” “Fortnite” and “Valorant,” among others.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The actors strike is over, and news has emerged that a biopic of Elon Musk, directed by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, is in the works. The movie from A24 is to be based on Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Musk.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Director Rob Reiner and journalist Soledad O’Brien have dug into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy — and they claim they have found evidence about who was really behind the killing. Reiner and O’Brien are the co-hosts of “Who Killed JFK?”, a 10-part podcast series featuring interviews with authors, witnesses, CIA officials and forensic experts as part of their investigation into JFK’s assassination 60 years ago, on Nov.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In the two years since Netflix launched its first games, the company has assembled a collection of 80-plus titles — but only a handful of those have been based on the streamer’s TV shows or movies, like a “Stranger Things” puzzle game and a “Queen’s Gambit” chess app. Now Netflix is bringing out four new exclusive games, each based on popular originals on the service, betting that the titles will play big among fans of those entertainment franchises.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Vince McMahon is cashing out. McMahon, the former CEO of WWE, intends to offer 8.4 million shares of Class A common stock in TKO Group, the company formed by the merger of WWE and UFC, which was engineered by Endeavor. Those shares are currently worth about $713 million at TKO’s most recently closing share price.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After more than 16 years, Jezebel, the sharp-edged feminist news and opinion website, is shutting down. Originally launched in 2007 by Gawker Media, Jezebel — which carried the tagline “Sex. Celebrity.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Disney, which is in the home stretch of swinging the deal to become the full owner of Hulu, will launch a beta test of an app next month that combines Disney+ and Hulu into a single experience, CEO Bob Iger said. Disney still needs to close its deal with Comcast to buy out NBCUniversal’s 33% stake in Hulu. In a filing last week, Disney said it would pay at least $8.61 billion to Comcast for the Hulu stake, with the final price tag — which could be much higher — to be based on an assessment of Hulu’s market value by each parties’ bankers.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor SiriusXM rolled out a new logo, a brand-new app — with a cheaper monthly streaming plan — and a slate of new channels and shows, all aimed at helping the company grow beyond its satellite-radio roots. The new SiriusXM streaming app will be available to subscribers across North America starting Dec. 14 in Apple’s App Store, Google Play and on Amazon Fire devices with additional platforms and features to come in early 2024.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor CAA has signed Haley Kalil, a scientist turned Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue model, comedic content creator and actor. The Minnesota native attended St. Cloud State University where she graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in medical biology and psychology and a minor in chemistry.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk famously is a huge video-game fan. But gaming companies apparently aren’t fans of what Musk is doing with X, the social network formerly called Twitter. Sony said it is removing support for Elon Musk’s X/Twitter from its PlayStation game consoles, effective next week.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Jeff Bezos is relocating to Miami, moving away from Seattle — which has been his home since he founded Amazon in 1994 out of his garage. Bezos announced the decision to move to Miami in an Instagram post Thursday. He explained that his parents (who “have always been my biggest supporters”) recently moved back to Miami, where the family had previously lived and where Bezos attended Miami Palmetto Senior High School (class of 1982).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Trevor Noah is entering his next act as a podcast host. The former host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” launches his deep-dive interview show, a Spotify original podcast, next week. In each episode of the new podcast, Noah will have an extended discussion with a single guest.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Isabela Merced and Christopher Briney star in “Influencer,” an Audible original YA psychological thriller about a murderous social-media personality. “Influencer,” which premieres Nov.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Roku shares rose after the streaming-platform company beat Wall Street expectations for the third quarter of 2023 on the top line. But in providing forward-looking guidance, Roku told investors that the macroeconomic environment remains “uncertain.” The company reported Q3 revenue of $912 million, up 20%, and a net loss of $330 million (or $2.33 per share) — more than double the net loss of $122 million in the year-ago period.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Former TV news anchors Amy Robach and T. J. Holmes are going to tell their story — and discuss the news of the day — in a new podcast with iHeartMedia.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A year ago, tech mogul Elon Musk griped that he was “obviously overpaying” for Twitter in the $44 billion deal that the social network sued him to complete. Now we know how inflated Musk believe his bid was: X, the new name of Twitter, on Monday informed employees eligible for stock grants that they would receive shares at a valuation of $19 billion.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Matthew Perry‘s Chandler Bing — the most sarcastic of the “Friends” sextet — is the No. 1 favorite character of the sitcom’s fans, according to votes on ranking site Ranker. Based on 169,000 total votes, Bing tops the list of the best characters on “Friends,” per Ranker.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amazon kept the cash register ringing in the third quarter, including a strong 26% uptick in advertising revenue, turning in results that came in above Wall Street forecasts. Overall, Amazon reported Q3 revenue of $143.1 billion, up 13%, and net income up more than threefold to $9.88 billion (94 cents per share).