| It's the last day of April already. How'd that happen? Brian Stelter here at 11:01pm ET Thursday with the latest on Tribune, Rudy, Facebook, Rachel Hollis, Netflix, and much more...  "Bonkers" profits for Big Tech
Amazon posted record quarterly profits on Thursday, "capping a blockbuster earnings season for the world's largest technology companies," the WSJ's Sebastian Herrera wrote, citing "significant gains in profits and revenue" for Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
But words like "significant" and "blockbuster" are understatements! As the NYT's Shira Ovide put it, "The dictionary doesn't have enough superlatives to describe what's happening to the five biggest technology companies." The headline of her analysis uses the word "bonkers." Apple has well exceeded a $2 trillion market cap. Microsoft and Amazon are not far from the $2 trillion mark. "These companies are just so dominant," a portfolio manager told CNN's Paul R. La Monica the other day.
The pandemic was an accelerant. "They were already on the way up and had been for the best part of a decade, and the pandemic was unique. For them it was a perfect positive storm," NYU professor Thomas Philippon told Ovide.
But "the wildly successful last year also raises uncomfortable questions for tech company bosses, the public and elected officials already peeved about the industry," she wrote: "Is what's good for Big Tech good for America? Or are the tech superstars winning while the rest of us are losing?"
A post-pandemic mindset
CNN's Clare Duffy writes: "After listening to this week's earnings calls, it seems the thinking at tech companies has begun to shift more dramatically to the post-pandemic future. Whereas much of the conversation over the past year has been 'here's how the pandemic is changing demand,' it's now sounding more like 'here's how the pandemic has permanently changed the tech landscape, and how we're planning to capitalize on those changes going forward.' As CEO Satya Nadella said in Microsoft's earnings report Wednesday: 'Over a year into the pandemic, digital adoption curves aren't slowing down. They're accelerating, and it's just the beginning.'" Read Duffy's story about Amazon's earnings here...
Ad market's "bull run"
Companies coming out of a pandemic coma need to reach customers. So they need to pitch themselves. "We're on an advertising bull run," WaPo biz exec Jarrod Dicker commented as the earnings reports piled up this week. Google's earnings were fueled by "a surge in digital ad spending." Same for Facebook. And on Thursday "Amazon said ad and other sales rose 77% to $6.9 billion, ahead of analysts' estimate of $6.2 billion," per Reuters. Investing.com analyst Jesse Cohen said ad revenue is "increasingly becoming another substantial growth driver for Amazon..."
Companies like Spotify also highlighted ad sales growth this week. On the flip side, when Discovery's earnings showed some ad sales slippage, streaming was a factor: "Lower ad inventory was due in part to the company's own promotions for its new Discovery+ service occupying ad space on its networks, the company said..."
>> Kerry Flynn writes: "There's something to be said about how the world has gone to subscriptions while ads are thriving. Vox has a strong new piece about 'how subscriptions took over our lives...'" FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE -- Amazon "released a new data point" on Thursday: "More than 175 million Prime members have streamed TV shows and movies in the past year..." (Variety)
-- BTW, this year's Prime Day will be in June, instead of July... (Insider)
-- What a world: "A Microsoft Excel influencer quit her day job and is making 6 figures from her unconventional way of teaching spreadsheet hacks, tips, and tricks..." (Insider)
-- Big picture: "The Biden boom" is the lead story on CNN Business right now. "Stocks haven't performed this well in a president's first 100 days since John F. Kennedy..." (CNN) Friday's front page
Booming Big Tech earnings are part of a broader economic story that shouldn't be missed. The lead story in Friday's Washington Post is "Growth speeds up in 1st quarter." Here's the lead: "The U.S. economic recovery picked up speed, with the economy growing 1.6 percent in the first three months of the year because of rising coronavirus vaccinations and massive federal stimulus spending. The economy is on the verge of regaining all of its pandemic losses in coming months." Read on...
>> "Everything about this crisis has been unique," Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, told the Journal...
>> The WSJ editorial board and other conservative voices are asking why Biden's spending plans are necessary in light of the growth signs...
What about Twitter?
"Twitter's stock was down more than 11% in after-hours trading on Thursday after the company released its first-quarter earnings, missing on user growth expectations and providing lower revenue guidance for the second quarter than expected," CNBC reported...
Comcast's conundrum
"If you want a clear picture of the state of the media industry, Comcast offers a clear snapshot: It's losing cable TV subscribers while gaining in streaming," i.e. Peacock, the NYT's Edmund Lee wrote Thursday. "The conundrum: cable still generates the most dollars while streaming loses the most."
Here's his full story about Comcast's better-than-expected earnings. Lee noted that this is "the operating thesis behind every major media company today: replace the eroding base of profit-rich cable customers with loss-making streaming viewers in the hope that over time the digital audience will become more valuable..."
>> Wild stat: "About 14 million households are regularly watching NBCU's Peacock service, just one-third of the 42 million people who have signed up for it..." (The Information)
Endeavor's first public day
Shares in Endeavor Group Holdings, "the owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the largest Hollywood talent agency," closed at $25.20 per share after entering public trading on Thursday at $24 per share. The public rollout "sets the stage" for Ari Emanuel's "potential comeback after a harrowing year and a half," the LAT's Ryan Faughnder and Anousha Sakoui report... 🎧 This week's Reliable podcast: The future of entertainment 🎧
A trio of CNN's entertainment gurus and newsletter regulars -- Chloe Melas, Lisa Respers France and Frank Pallotta -- joined me on the "Reliable Sources" podcast to analyze the end of awards season, the tentative reopening of movie theaters, and shifting streaming release strategies. The big question: What is the post-pandemic entertainment world going to look like? As Lisa said, "Hollywood is going to have to change because we've changed."
We also talked about which movies we're looking forward to seeing in theaters this summer. For Frank, it's "F9." For Lisa, "Black Widow." For Chloe and me, "In The Heights." Check out the conversation via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, or your favorite app... FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO -- This is at least partly thanks to vaccinations: "The seven-day average of new Covid-19 deaths in the United States hit its lowest point since October 2020," per a CNN analysis of Hopkins data... (CNN)
-- And/but: Roughly a quarter of adults say they will not try to get the shot, according to CNN's newest polling... (CNN)
-- Meanwhile, in India, the amount of suffering is "staggering," Clarissa Ward reported on "AC360" Thursday. "People are struggling to breathe. They're literally dying on the streets, and there is just no end in sight..." (Twitter)
-- India's ThePrint has a new look at "how global media has covered" India's crisis..." (ThePrint)
-- BREAKING: "Stewart Bainum Jr. is offering to put more of his own money into a takeover attempt for Tribune Publishing Co. as he tries to recruit like-minded partners for the deal..." (Bloomberg)
-- The newest story about Philip Roth biographer Blake Bailey is painful to read. It is titled "Mr. Bailey's Class..." (Slate)
-- Jake Tapper's reaction to the story: "I sure hope prosecutors and police are as invested in this story as editors and journalists..." (Twitter) Joe Rogan: 'I'm not a doctor'
Kerry Flynn writes: "Joe Rogan has addressed his controversial remarks suggesting 'healthy young people' should not get the Covid vaccine. On Thursday's episode of his podcast, he attempted to clarify his remarks by saying he is 'not an anti-vaxx person,' which I do not think was implied in the coverage. Rogan did not walk back his opinion, saying 'vulnerable' people should be vaccinated to protect themselves, and he quipped that he is 'not a doctor' and 'not a respected source of information...'" FRIDAY PLANNER Craig Melvin's interview with Biden will air on the "Today" show...
Biden will travel to Philly for an event marking Amtrak's 50th anniversary...
The NFL Draft will continue...
Disneyland will reopen in Anaheim... Looking around the corner
The Kentucky Derby is on Saturday, live on NBC... "The Story of Late Night" is premiering Sunday on CNN... World Press Freedom Day is on Monday... The IAB NewFronts begin on Monday... FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE -- Rudy Giuliani went on his WABC radio show and assailed the "bullies" who are investigating him... Then, for his first TV interview, he went on Tucker Carlson's show, and Carlson explicitly supported him... (AP)
-- Meanwhile, his son Andrew went on "Erin Burnett OutFront" and said he doesn't believe Biden's comment about not being aware of the raid in advance... (Twitter)
-- "Texan rancher John Sewell was interrupted during a remote interview with Fox News on Thursday when federal agents sought to apprehend migrants on his property..." (Mediaite)
-- Erik Wemple "emailed social service agencies in more than 40 states to ask whether they'd registered any complaints related to" Tucker Carlson's incendiary claim that people should call authorities if they saw children wearing masks. At publishing time, several states told him they had "reported no such complaints or awareness of them..." (WaPo)
-- CNN's Kate Bennett talked to Town & Country about how covering Jill Biden is different than covering Melania Trump... (T&C)
-- This year's finalists for the Mirror Awards, recognizing excellence in media industry reporting, have been unveiled. Full disclosure, I was one of the judges in a couple of categories... (Mirror Awards) What the #'s for Biden's speech reveal:
That the public is exhausted with politics! And that live TV erosion is continuing.
The TV ratings for Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress were far lower than the equivalent events by past presidents -- 27 million viewers, down from 48 million for Donald Trump's same speech in 2017 -- but the decline probably has more to do with the state of TV than the state of the presidency. Sagging ratings for award shows like the Emmys and the Oscars have underscored live TV's declines. But it's easy to see Wednesday's ratings as a reflection of Biden's deliberately low-key presidency, too, a sharp break from the drama and deceit of the Trump years. Here's my full story...
>> "Being the un-Trump means Biden has already accomplished the first and most important promise of his Presidency," Susan Glasser writes...
One of the problems with incomplete #'s
Brian Lowry writes: "If you had said a year ago that the president's speech drew way more viewers than the Oscars, that would have sounded like a great number! Also, Thursday was a good reminder to outlets that like to run with preliminary ratings -- in this case, an 11.6 million viewer total that didn't include cable news, thus ignoring half of the Nielsen-measured audience. Here's an example from Reuters. Bad-faith actors and anti-Biden websites pounced on the #'s, even though it was clear the number wasn't accurate to anyone who knows anything about ratings. Some still haven't corrected their stories, hours after the real # was released. By pumping up incomplete #'s, you are essentially spreading disinformation..."
>> Joe Adalian quipped: "If TV ratings translated into votes, Trump would still be president." Trump DOJ spokeswoman joins Fox News as an editor
Fox News named "four network executives to its New York and Washington D.C. leadership teams" on Thursday, TVNewser's A.J. Katz reported. In one instance, the former executive producer of "Justice with Judge Jeanine," one of Fox's fiercest opinion shows, is becoming the head of weekend daytime news, a curious shift to say the least. And there's a new hire who would raise eyebrows at any other media company: Kerri Kupec, former spokesperson for then-Attorney General William Barr, "has been hired to serve as Washington editor" despite no evident journalism experience... FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR By Kerry Flynn:
-- Facebook's upcoming newsletter effort, a/k/a Substack copycat, will include giving $5 million to local journalists, with priority given to coverage of "audiences of color" in news deserts... (Reuters)
-- "Girl, Wash Your Timeline:" Katie Rosman reveals what went wrong with Rachel Hollis, the motivational speaker and "Girl, Wash Your Hair" author whose media brand has fallen apart... (NYT)
-- Responding to the NewsGuild's pay equity study, Gannett criticized it as an "inaccurate and misleading effort." NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss asked the company to "release complete, anonymized data" for all papers... (Twitter)
-- "Why Are So Many Journalists Leaving the Arizona Republic?" is the headline to Josh Kelety's must-read probe of the Gannett paper... (Phoenix New Times)
-- Reply All is coming back June 10. Cohost Emmanuel Dzotsi said the team is still rethinking the show after the "Test Kitchen" controversy... (Twitter) Coalition to Biden: You should form a disinfo task force
"A coalition of groups is calling on President Biden to create a task force that can explore ways to crack down on deliberate disinformation campaigns in ways that don't unduly limit free expression," Axios' Ina Fried reported Thursday. The groups include Pen America, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Center for American Progress. "Urgent action is needed to ensure that our democracy does not continue to be overrun by disinformation, be it domestic or foreign in origin," the groups wrote. "Sound public health policy, free and fair elections, and effective democratic deliberation all depend upon getting disinformation under control..." "Browsing books can lead to extremist rabbit hole"
This story by USA Today's Jessica Guynn asks: "Is Amazon recommending books on QAnon and white nationalism?" She cites a new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue that "says these algorithms steer people to books about conspiracy theories and extremism, sometimes introducing them to the work of conspiracy theorists who've been banned by other online platforms." Amazon says it takes the institute's concerns seriously, adding, "our shopping and discovery tools are not designed to generate results oriented to a specific point of view."
>> Jason Kint commented: "Read a report like this then think about it in a physical world. You've walked into a Barnes & Noble and you're looking at the darkest book they have and a door opens to another room…opens another…until you're surrounded by white supremacy hate books." FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE -- Twitter blocked "Uncle Tim" from trending after Tim Scott's speech Wednesday night, but the company was slammed for not taking action more quickly... (NRO)
-- "All Facebook employees can expense the purchase of an Oculus Quest 2 VR headset, Zuckerberg announced during an internal Q&A," The Information's Alex Heath reports... (Twitter)
-- Sarah Perez writes that Facebook is "leveraging yet another of its largest products to take on the Clubhouse threat: Instagram Live..." (TechCrunch)
-- Sune Engel Rasmussen and Aresu Eqbali report that Iranian authorities are "co-opting" Clubhouse to "drown out debate..." (WSJ)
-- Forbes Media "in talks to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) as it attracts new acquisition interest..." (Reuters) WSJ.com celebrates 25 years  "Today marks a significant date in the history of The Wall Street Journal," EIC Matt Murray emailed staff Thursday, pointing out that the outlet's website launched 25 years ago, on April 29, 1996. Murray shared an image of what the site looked like a few weeks after launch and said that, while he's not "very big on anniversary coverage for its own sake," he felt the milestone was worth marking. "We have a proud legacy of innovation," Murray wrote. "The need for our continuing evolution remains as urgent as ever—and the opportunities for us keep growing. It may be the 25th anniversary of WSJ.com, but we're still writing the early chapters of this story and big things lie ahead." FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX -- It's time for some cicada crowdsourcing! "With smartphones, anyone can help track Brood X — and maybe unlock cicada mysteries..." (WaPo)
-- Headline of the day? "When the Pentagon spokesman gets asked about Polish strippers and geopolitics: 'No, no, no...'" (Task & Purpose)
-- "Jimmy Kimmel's interview with the MyPillow CEO got pretty weird," Frank Pallotta reports... (CNN)  Lowry reviews 'Without Remorse'
Brian Lowry writes: "Michael B. Jordan already starred in a terrific Super Bowl ad for Amazon, but his new movie airing on the streaming service -- 'Tom Clancy's Without Remorse,' acquired from Paramount during the pandemic -- isn't nearly as good. Featuring Clancy's John Clark character, the pretty basic revenge thriller feels like the prequel to a better film that might be made some time down the road..." "Inside Netflix's Quest to End Scrolling"
Joe Adalian's behind the scenes look at the new viewing mode, called Play Something, is fascinating. The new mode is meant to tackle "decision fatigue" by instantly shuffling programming in front of indecisive customers. Read all about it over at Vulture... FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN -- Lisa Respers France writes: "Praise be! This week's Pop Life Chronicles celebrates the return of 'The Handmaid's Tale' and what else you should be watching this weekend..." (CNN)
-- Reese Witherspoon is one of this week's TIME cover stars as her company Hello Sunshine appeared on the mag's's Most Influential Companies list... (TIME)
-- In the TIME interview, Witherspoon shared that she "did some reflecting after watching the Britney Spears doc..." (CNN) CBS declares victory
Brian Lowry writes: "Buoyed by the Super Bowl as well as its regular lineup, CBS has declared victory in the official TV season, the one that runs from September through May. CBS led the second-place finisher among the broadcast networks, NBC, by nearly 900,000 viewers. It's the kind of claim CBS famously loves to tout at its upfront presentation, although that event this year will still come in a much different form than the splashy gatherings of the past, amid an overall downturn in linear TV viewing as resources get funneled to streaming..." SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...
Pet of the day
Former newspaper editor and current freelance writer Deborah Stewart emails: "This is our rescue dog Seve. He likes food, people, dogs, cats, tennis balls and big sticks, not necessarily in that order. He is also a stickler for proper spelling and grammar!"  You are receiving this message because you subscribed to CNN's Reliable Sources newsletter.
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