Is Elon Musk breaking Twitter? In some ways, it would appear so.
And he might be feeling it where it matters most: his bank account.
OK, let me stop there for a second and rephrase that. Because anyone worth nearly $200 billion has no money worries. I doubt he’s clipping coupons.
But his investment in Twitter has definitely flown in the wrong direction.
According to Fidelity, Twitter is now worth just a third of the $44 billion that Musk paid to buy it in October 2022.
Bloomberg’s Aisha Counts and Tom Maloney wrote, “Musk, who has acknowledged he overpaid for Twitter, offered employees new equity grants earlier this year that valued the company at $20 billion. It’s unclear how Fidelity arrived at its new valuation or whether it receives any non-public information from the company. Fidelity first reduced the value of its Twitter stake in November, to 44% of the purchase price. That was followed by further markdowns in December and February.”
The fact that Musk himself valued the company in March at less than half of what he bought it for was a significant development. The Guardian’s Anna Isaac wrote then, “The company’s steep devaluation follows Musk’s turbulent takeover. Several large advertisers have left the platform and a major source of funds for Musk’s purchase of the company, the investment firm Fidelity, has written down the value of its stake by 56%.”
Again, that was in March. So it’s not hard to make a leap to even more of a devaluation at this time.
Still, don’t think for a second that Musk is sweating it. Counts and Maloney wrote, “The latest markdown erases about $850 million from Musk’s $187 billion fortune, according to the index. Despite Twitter’s issues, Musk’s wealth is up more than $48 billion this year, largely due to a 63% surge in Tesla Inc.’s share price.”
Covering up?
Big media story of the day comes from The New York Times’ Jane Bradley: “A British Reporter Had a Big #MeToo Scoop. Her Editor Killed It.”
Financial Times investigative reporter Madison Marriage recently had a major scoop. According to Marriage’s sources, a prominent left-wing columnist — Nick Cohen, who had resigned from Guardian News and Media — had for years made unwanted sexual advances and groped female journalists. But, Bradley reports, the Financial Times’ editor, Roula Khalaf, killed the story.
Bradley wrote, “It was not spiked because of reporting problems. Two women were willing to speak openly, and Ms. Marriage had supporting documentation on others. Rather, Ms. Khalaf said that Mr. Cohen did not have a big enough business profile to make him an ‘F.T. story,’ colleagues said. Mr. Cohen’s departure and the death of Ms. Marriage’s article offer a window into the British news media’s complicated relationship with the #MeToo movement. Leading American newsrooms — Fox News, CNN, NBC, The New York Times and others — have confronted misconduct allegations. British journalism has seen no such reckoning.”
Then came the crux of the story with this passage from Bradley: “The British news media is smaller and cozier than its American counterpart, with journalists often coming from the same elite schools. Stringent libel laws present another hurdle. And in a traditional newsroom culture of drinking and gender imbalances, many stories of misconduct go untold, or face a fight.”
Is that what happened here? Check out more of Bradley’s story.
Speaking of The New York Times …
The Times is rolling out a couple of new things.
First, a customizable, time-specific newsletter to help readers prepare for the weather during summer travels, or to keep track of dangerous weather in their area, or where loved ones are. “Your Places: Extreme Weather,” according to the Times, allows subscribers to “add and edit up to four locations across the contiguous United States. When forecasters see a risk of tornadoes, hail, high winds or excessive rain for any of the places you care about in the next three days, you’ll receive a morning email to help you plan ahead and to prepare for extreme weather. By pulling public data from the National Weather Service, The Times’s weather team will categorize the severity risk by yellow, orange and red signifiers, with red as the most severe.”
So, to be clear: You won’t get the newsletter daily; you’ll only get it when one of the areas you select could see bad weather in the next three days.
So that’s one thing.
The other is New York Times Games announced that those who subscribe to games or the all-access subscription will now have access to the previous two weeks of Spelling Bee puzzles. Here’s more information from the Times.
‘Succession’ leftovers
The cast of HBO’s “Succession,” shown here in March. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
A few days later, and those of us who are fans are simultaneously rejoicing and mourning the series finale of HBO’s “Succession.” Here are a couple more stories to read if you loved the show.
First, Vanity Fair’s Joy Press talks to one of the stars of the show in “Jeremy Strong on Succession’s Brutal Finale and Kendall’s Ending.”
The Daily Beast’s Kevin Fallon wrote about one of the lasting images of the series finale in “Shiv and Tom Holding Hands Infuriated Fans.”
And that theory that the name of a 1920s baseball player gave a hint as to who would take over the Roy family business? Well, maybe it’s just urban legend. Slate’s Stefan Fatsis with “Did Tom Wambsgans’ Name Give Away Succession’s Ending? Everyone Has It All Wrong.”
Also, there was this tweet from horror author Stephen King: “NYTimes headline: SUCCESSION is over. Why did we care? Here’s a newsflash for you: A lot of us didn’t.”
You have to respect the King, but my take is his tweet said a whole lot more about him than it did about “Succession” or The New York Times.
Media tidbits
- The Washington Post’s Adela Suliman with “Real-life ‘Morning Show’ meltdown grips Britain with sex, lies and betrayal.”
- Variety’s Tatiana Siegel with “ESPN Anchor and Vaccine Skeptic Sage Steele’s Free Speech Battle With Disney Heats Up.”
- The New York Times’ Kevin Roose with “A.I. Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn.”
- Danny Funt has a rather glowing feature about the website Defector for the Columbia Journalism Review.
- Good pushback: During an appearance on Fox News’ “America Reports” on Tuesday, South Carolina Republican Congressman Ralph Norman complained that lawmakers only had 72 hours to read the proposed debt ceiling bill ironed out by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. “America Reports” host John Roberts wasn’t about to let that softball go by. “It’s only 99 pages,” Roberts quipped. Here’s the video.
- Laura Wagner — who has worked at such places as Defector, Vice and Deadspin — has been hired by The Washington Post to cover the digital media industry. She will be based in New York City.
Hot type
- The Washington Post has a superb series called “Home School Nation.” The latest story is from Peter Jamison: “The revolt of the Christian home-schoolers.”
- NPR’s Eric Deggans, Aisha Harris, Linda Holmes, Bob Mondello, Bilal Qureshi and Glen Weldon with “These are the new movies and TV shows we can’t wait to watch this summer.”
More resources for journalists
- Subscribe to Poynter’s Friday newsletter, Open Tabs with Poynter managing editor Ren LaForme, and get behind-the-scenes stories only available to subscribers.
- Lead With Influence (July) (Seminar) — Apply by Friday, June 2.
- Sign up for Beat Academy (Now-Oct. 19) (Webinar series) — You’ll get tips, sources, inspiration and ideas to cover emerging newsroom beats. Enroll now.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.
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