Netflix soars to 230 million subscribers, co-founder steps down

Netflix soars to 230 million subscribers, co-founder steps down
In this file photo taken on January 17, 2020, Netflix co-founder and director Reed Hastings delivers a speech as he inaugurates the new offices of Netflix France, in Paris. (AFP)
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Updated 20 January 2023

Netflix soars to 230 million subscribers, co-founder steps down

Netflix soars to 230 million subscribers, co-founder steps down
  • Co-founder Reed Hastings standing down as CEO ends a two-decade long leadership that saw the company grow from a rent-by-mail DVD service to an entertainment juggernaut

SAN FRANCISCO: US streaming giant Netflix on Thursday said it ended last year with more than 230 million global subscribers, beating analysts’ expectations as hits such as “Wednesday” and “Harry & Meghan” enticed new viewers.
“2022 was a tough year, with a bumpy start but a brighter finish,” the company said in a letter announcing bumper fourth quarter earnings.
Netflix also announced that co-founder Reed Hastings was standing down as CEO, ending a two-decade long leadership that saw the company grow from a rent-by-mail DVD service to an entertainment juggernaut.
Hastings ceded everyday control of Netflix to his two longtime associates Chief Operating Officer Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos, who has been the face of Netflix in Hollywood and had already been named co-CEO.
“Our board has been discussing succession planning for many years (even founders need to evolve!)” Hastings said in a blog post.
He said he would hold the new job of executive chairman, noting this was a role that tech giant founders often take, using Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Microsoft’s Bill Gates as examples.
The changing of the guard was announced as Netflix posted added subscribers that blew past even the most optimistic expectations.
The streaming giant said it enticed 7.7 million new members in three months, bringing Netflix membership around the world to 230 million people.
Netflix praised a successful slate of new content that included horror-themed comedy “Wednesday,” saying the “Addams Family” spinoff was the company’s third most popular series ever.
Royal tell-all documentary “Harry & Meghan” also scored, Netflix said, as well as “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” starring Daniel Craig.
“This is in stark contrast to the first half of the year. Creating the next biggest blockbuster drives subscribers,” said tech and media analyst Paolo Pescatore.

The fresh titles helped attract users to a new lower-priced “Basic with Ads” subscription, as consumers cut back on their entertainment spending amid soaring inflation and an uncertain economy.
Revenue in the October to December period, at $7.85 billion, was in line with estimates and helped send shares in Netflix up by more than six percent after the announcement.
Netflix insists that counting new users is no longer the most important criteria for assessing the company’s health and that revenue should instead be the main metric.
“What may be getting lost in the mix is that some number of new subscribers — we don’t know how many — likely came in on Netflix’s ad-supported tier,” said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Paul Verna.
“That means, most likely, lower average revenue per subscriber, which is a measure Wall Street will be paying more attention to as Netflix’s ad businesses scales up,” he said.
After years of standing alone as the world’s premiere streaming site, Netflix now faces strong competition from deep-pocketed rivals, including Disney +, which has also introduced an ad-based subscription.
But despite the new challenges, Netflix is one of the rare tech giants to have garnered confidence from Wall Street with its share price up almost 50 percent in the past six months.
Other tech giants, and streaming rival Disney, have been hammered on the markets as firms lay off employees and cut costs after a massive hiring and spending spree at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
 


Prince Harry tells UK court press has blood on its hands

Prince Harry tells UK court press has blood on its hands
Updated 56 min 24 sec ago

Prince Harry tells UK court press has blood on its hands

Prince Harry tells UK court press has blood on its hands
  • Prince Harry and more than 100 others are suing Mirror Group Newspapers, over allegations of widespread wrongdoing between 1991 and 2011

LONDON: Prince Harry said the press had blood on its hands as he gave evidence against a tabloid publisher whose titles he accuses of phone-hacking and other unlawful activities, becoming the first senior royal in a witness box in more than a century.

Harry, the fifth-in-line to the throne, briefly smiled as he passed the phalanx of waiting photographers and camera crews when he arrived at the modern Rolls Building in central London, ahead of the very rare court appearance by a royal.

He and more than 100 others are suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), the publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, over allegations of widespread wrongdoing between 1991 and 2011.

The younger son of King Charles III entered the witness box to face hours of cross-examination from Andrew Green, MGN’s lawyer, over 33 newspaper articles Harry said were based on information which had been unlawfully gathered.

Green began by personally apologizing to Harry on his client’s behalf over one instance in which it admitted unlawful information gathering.

“It should never have happened and it will not happen again,” he said, adding if the court agreed MGN had committed wrongdoing on other occasions “you will be entitled to, and you will receive a more extensive apology.”

In questioning, Harry was asked about a passage in his written witness statement in which he referred to “appalling” behavior by the British press. “How much more blood will stain their typing fingers before someone can put a stop to this madness?” he wrote.

Asked by Green if he was suggesting MGN journalists who wrote the articles at the center of his lawsuit had blood on their hands, Harry replied: “Some of the editors and journalists that are responsible for causing a lot of pain, upset and in some cases — perhaps inadvertently — death.”

The prince is the first senior British royal to give evidence for 130 years. He was speaking from the same witness box in Court 15 where singer Ed Sheeran and French actress Eva Green have both recently appeared in separate and unrelated cases.

The MGN trial began last month, with lawyers for Harry and the other claimants seeking to prove that unlawful information gathering was carried out with the knowledge and approval of senior editors and executives.

Harry is one of four test cases, and his specific allegations form the focus of the first three days of this week.

However, he did not appear on Monday, having only left the United States, where he now lives with his American wife Meghan, the previous evening as it was his daughter Lilibet’s birthday on Sunday. The judge, Timothy Fancourt, said he was surprised at his absence.

Looking serious and speaking firmly but quietly, Harry said thousands if not millions of stories had been written about him, as Green pressed him on whether he had specifically read the MGN articles in question.

Harry agreed that he and his lawyers had chosen the most intrusive articles and those which had caused the most distress for his complaint.

Asked if he remembered reading the first story he had complained about, an article about his mother visiting him for his 12th birthday, Harry said: “I was a child, I was at school, these articles were incredibly invasive. Every time one of these articles were written it had an effect.”

On Monday, Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne said his late mother Princess Diana, had also been a victim of hacking, and the prince referred to this in his witness statement, laying the blame at the Daily Mirror’s former editor Piers Morgan.

He said the thought of Piers Morgan and his “band of journalists earwigging” into my mother’s messages “makes me feel physically sick and even more determined to hold those responsible, including Mr. Morgan, accountable for their vile and entirely unjustified behavior.”

Morgan, now a high-profile broadcaster who works for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, has always denied any involvement in, or knowledge of phone-hacking or other illegal activity.

MGN, now owned by Reach, has previously admitted its titles were involved in phone-hacking, settling more than 600 claims, but Green has said there was no evidence that Harry had ever been a victim.

The publisher also argues that some of the personal information involved had come from senior royal aides, including from one of his father’s former top officials.


US fines Microsoft $20 million over child data violations

US fines Microsoft $20 million over child data violations
Updated 06 June 2023

US fines Microsoft $20 million over child data violations

US fines Microsoft $20 million over child data violations
  • Microsoft allegedly collected personal data from children under age 13 who signed up to its Xbox gaming system from 2015 to 2020 without their parents’ permission and retained this information

WASHINGTON: Microsoft will pay $20 million to settle government charges that it collected personal information from children without their parents’ consent, officials said Monday.
The Federal Trade Commission alleged that from 2015 to 2020 Microsoft collected personal data from children under age 13 who signed up to its Xbox gaming system without their parents’ permission and retained this information.
To open an account, users had to provide their first and last names, an email address, and date of birth.
The FTC said Microsoft violated a law called the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA.
“Our proposed order makes it easier for parents to protect their children’s privacy on Xbox, and limits what information Microsoft can collect and retain about kids,” said Samuel Levine, head of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
“This action should also make it abundantly clear that kids’ avatars, biometric data, and health information are not exempt from COPPA,” Levine added.
The decision still needs the approval of a federal court before it can be implemented.
The FTC said Microsoft will be required to take several steps to bolster privacy protections for child users of its Xbox system.
Under the COPPA law, online services and websites aimed at kids under 13 must notify parents about the personal information they collect and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting and using any personal information collected from children.
Microsoft did not immediately reply to an AFP request for comment.


US senator presses for declassified report on Al Jazeera reporter’s killing

US senator presses for declassified report on Al Jazeera reporter’s killing
Updated 06 June 2023

US senator presses for declassified report on Al Jazeera reporter’s killing

US senator presses for declassified report on Al Jazeera reporter’s killing
  • The US Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority (USSC) conducted an investigation, but the report remains classified

WASHINGTON: US Senator Chris Van Hollen called on Monday for declassifying a government report on the death of Al Jazeera’s Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist who was shot and killed while covering an Israeli army raid last year.
One of the most recognizable journalists covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for two decades, Abu Akleh was killed in May 2022 during an Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Jenin. Her death triggered outrage across the region.
Israel says Abu Akleh, who was wearing a clearly marked protective press vest and helmet, was likely unintentionally shot by an Israeli soldier but could also have been struck by Palestinian fire. Abu Akleh’s family believes she was killed deliberately, and witnesses to the incident have said there were no Palestinian fighters firing in the area she was standing.
The US Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority (USSC) conducted an investigation, but the report remains classified. In a statement, Van Hollen, a Democrat on the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, said the report contains important insights into her death.
That includes “relevant information and findings about the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces (Israeli military) unit involved in that operation – as well as other IDF units operating in the West Bank,” Van Hollen said.
Van Hollen said that while the USSC team was “unable to conduct an independent investigation” due to lack of access to key witnesses, the report’s public release was still vital to ensuring accountability in the shooting death of a US citizen.
The US State Department, which oversees the USSC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In December, Al Jazeera made a submission to the International Criminal Court over Abu Akleh’s killing. Her family has supported such efforts while urging action by the Biden administration.
Israel insists that its soldiers do not deliberately target journalists and has refused to identify the soldier who may have shot Abu Akleh.

 


Hundreds of journalists strike to demand leadership change at biggest US newspaper chain

Journalists protest outside the offices of the Austin American Statesman newspaper on June 05, 2023 in Austin, Texas. (AFP)
Journalists protest outside the offices of the Austin American Statesman newspaper on June 05, 2023 in Austin, Texas. (AFP)
Updated 06 June 2023

Hundreds of journalists strike to demand leadership change at biggest US newspaper chain

Journalists protest outside the offices of the Austin American Statesman newspaper on June 05, 2023 in Austin, Texas. (AFP)
  • “Gannett CEO Mike Reed didn’t have a word to say to the scores of journalists whose livelihoods he’s destroyed, nor to the communities who have lost their primary news source thanks to his mismanagement,” DeCarava said in a statement

NEW YORK: Journalists at two dozen local newspapers across the U.S. walked off the job Monday to demand an end to painful cost-cutting measures and a change of leadership at Gannett, the country's biggest newspaper chain.
The strike involves hundreds of journalists at newspapers in eight states, including the Arizona Republic, the Austin American-Statesman, the Bergen Record, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, and the Palm Beach Post, according to the NewsGuild, which represents workers at more than 50 Gannett newsrooms. Gannett has said there would be no disruption to its news coverage during the strike, which will last for two days at two of the newspapers and one day for the rest.
The walkouts coincided with Gannett’s annual shareholder meeting, during which the company’s board was duly elected despite the NewsGuild-CWA union urging shareholders to withhold their votes from CEO and board chairman Mike Reed as an expression of no confidence in his leadership. Reed has overseen the company since its 2019 merger with GateHouse Media, a tumultuous period that has included layoffs and the shuttering of newsrooms. Gannett shares have dropped more than 60% since the deal closed.
Susan DeCarava, president of the The NewsGuild of New York, called the shareholder meeting “a slap in the face to the hundreds of Gannett journalists who are on strike today.”
“Gannett CEO Mike Reed didn’t have a word to say to the scores of journalists whose livelihoods he’s destroyed, nor to the communities who have lost their primary news source thanks to his mismanagement,” DeCarava said in a statement.
In legal filing, the NewsGuild said Gannett's leadership has gutted newsrooms and cut back on coverage to service a massive debt load. Cost-cutting has also included forced furloughs and suspension of 401-K contributions.
“We want people in our local community to know what this company is doing to local news, and we want Gannett shareholders to know what Gannett is doing to local news,” said Chris Damien, a criminal justice reporter and unit guild chair the Desert Sun, which covers Palm Springs and the surrounding Coachella Valley in Southern California.
Gannett Chief Communications Officer Lark-Marie Anton said the company disagreed with union's recommendation to vote against Reed.
“During a very challenging time for our industry and economy, Gannett strives to provide competitive wages, benefits, and meaningful opportunities for all our valued employees,” Anton said in a statement.
Some of the striking newsrooms are negotiating contracts and accuse the company of dragging its feet and negotiating in bad faith, but Anton said the company continues to negotiate fairly.
Among the contract demands are a base annual salary of $60,000. The median pay for Gannett employee in 2022 was $51,035, according to the company’s proxy filing. Reed’s total annual compensation was valued at nearly $3.4 million, down from $7.7 million in 2021.
At the shareholder meeting, NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss said the union proposed lowering Gannett's median CEO-to-employee ratio from 66:1 to 20:1. But Schleuss said the meeting last just eight minutes and Reed didn't address any questions.
"What a complete joke. Mike Reed needs to go,” Schleuss said in a series of tweets.
Gannett, which owns USA Today and more than 200 other daily U.S. newspapers with print editions, announced last August that it would lay off newsroom staff to lower costs as it struggles with declining revenue amid a downturn in ad sales and customer subscriptions.
The newspaper industry has struggled for years with such challenges, as advertising shifts from print to digital, and readers abandon local newspapers for online sources of information and entertainment. Major newspapers such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have gained substantial digital audiences for coverage of broad topics, but regional and local papers have struggled to replicate that success in narrower markets.
In its first quarter earnings report this year, Gannett said its digital subscriptions had grown 15% year-over-year, and revenue from digital circulation grew 20%. The company reported a $10.3 million profit versus a $3 million loss in the same period last year, although revenue fell by 10.6%. The company also reported repaying $37 million in debt.
According to the NewsGuild, Gannett's workforce has shrunk 47% in the last three years due to layoffs and attrition. At some newspapers, the union said the headcount has fallen by as much as 90%.
The Arizona Republic, for example, has gone from 140 newsroom employees in 2018 to 89 this year, the NewsGuild said. The Austin American-Statesman's newsroom shrunk during that period from 110 employees in 2018 to 41 this year.
Some newspapers have forsaken coverage of local sports or business, the union said. Reporters have had to take on several unrelated beats. Some publications have dropped local news coverage altogether to focus on regional news.
Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst for the Poynter Institute, said that while the union isn't powerful enough to prevent layoffs, the strike shows it has gained momentum.
Schleuss said 18 Gannett newsrooms have unionized in the last five years. Two more newsrooms voted to unionize Monday: the Athens Banner-Herald and the Savannah Morning News, both in Georgia.

 


Arab News wins 9 honors at prestigious Society for News Design awards

Arab News wins 9 honors at prestigious Society for News Design awards
Updated 05 June 2023

Arab News wins 9 honors at prestigious Society for News Design awards

Arab News wins 9 honors at prestigious Society for News Design awards
  • The newspaper receiving multiple honors for its design work in coverage of sports events such as the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and the Formula E Diriyah E-Prix
  • 27 judges from around the world with expertise in journalism, new media and design reviewed nearly 2,700 entries across 11 categories during 4 days of judging in New York

DUBAI: Arab News, the leading English-language daily newspaper in the Middle East, won nine Awards of Excellence across more than five categories at the 44th Society for News Design’s Best of News Design Creative Competition.

For this year’s print media competition, 27 judges from around the world with expertise in journalism, new media and design reviewed nearly 2,700 entries across 11 categories during four days of judging in New York. Omar Nashashibi, head of design at Arab News, was one of the judges.

“To win nine awards across multiple categories at this year’s competition is a wonderful achievement for Arab News,” said Nashashibi.

“Seeing the high standards of the other entries firsthand — and Arab News competing with the biggest publications in the world — made it even more special.”

Designs used by Arab News for its sports coverage proved particularly popular among the judges, with the newspaper receiving multiple honors for its design work relating to stories on events such as the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and the Formula E Diriyah E-Prix.

The newspaper’s FIFA World Cup cover wrap, illustrated by The Sporting Press, won an Award of Excellence in several categories, including Front Page and Special Coverage.

Other winning entries included animated, eye-catching imagery for a story headlined “Saudi’s animal kingdom,” published on Endangered Species Day, which was honored in the combined print and digital category.

Meanwhile, the graphic design for the story “KSA prepares to tap resource-rich seas for fishing bounty” won in the Inside Pages (News) category.

“SND is one of the most prestigious competitions out there, entered by the world’s biggest and best publications, so to win nine Awards of Excellence is brilliant news for the whole team,” said Simon Khalil, consultant creative director with Arab News.

“These awards really showcase the variety of designs we create at Arab News. We utilize a broad range of illustration styles and graphic styles to ensure we keep our designs exciting for our readers.”

Founded in 1979, the Society for News Design is an international organization for news media professionals and visual communicators who create print, web and mobile publications and products. Its Best of News Design Creative Competition, considered among the most prestigious awards programs in the industry, honors excellence in visual storytelling, design and journalism.