Beloved MSNBC reporter and political analyst Steve Kornacki is so popular that the network has a live feed all night called the Kornacki Cam — and Vulture is keeping track of his every move. So far I’ve watched him shuffle papers, take a sip from his mug, bite his pen, and do stuff on his huge touchscreen.
The Information reports that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance grew its overall revenue to $73 billion in the first half of 2024 — just shy of Meta’s $75.5 billion. The share of ByteDance’s revenue that comes from TikTok grew to 23 percent, meaning its operations outside of China are increasingly important for the company’s bottom line.
More than 600 Times engineers, product managers, data analysts, and designers went on strike today, and publisher AG Sulzberger told staff that it’s likely the strike will continue into Election Day.
According to a letter of support signed by newsroom staff, nearly half of the Tech Guild works on election projects. Let’s hope someone is around to fix the needle tomorrow.
Entertainment outlet Giant Freakin Robot will stop publishing new content to its site and instead focus on YouTube, citing plummeting Google traffic.
It’s not the first small publisher who’s been vocal about how changes to Google’s search algorithm has made it all but impossible to keep the lights on. And Google has said it “can’t guarantee” traffic to independent sites will ever recover.
[GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT]
Instagram is adding more filters for the inbox so creators can sort through endless DM requests. The update includes a way to filter by account type (verified accounts, businesses, etc.) and to sort by recency or the number of followers the sender has.
Top US archivist Colleen Shogan has quietly been changing educational material and exhibits at the Archives museum — including removing references to dark periods in US history, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Current and former staff say Shogan engaged in censorship by removing mention of events like Japanese American incarceration, displacement of indigenous peoples, and the Civil Rights Movement.
Sorry, I had to. Anyway, please look at these pictures of how Nerds Gummy Clusters are made — and keep your eyes peeled for them this Halloween because they are scary good.
[The New York Times]
Forbes reports that advertisers have paid Meta more than $1 million to place hundreds of ads promoting lies about the upcoming presidential election. The ads are running despite Meta’s own rules against election misinformation, including posts that “call into question the legitimacy of an upcoming or ongoing election.”
Court documents from the MrBeast Burger lawsuit revealed pitch decks prepared by his team for potential brand partners, and Business Insider went through them.
You get the sense that his team didn’t try very hard when putting decks together: slides have weird layouts, overlapping text, and are borderline unreadable. And maybe that’s the biggest takeaway here — the MrBeast brand sells itself.
