Tech

Vox Media, the media company whose brands include New York Magazine, The Verge, Vulture, Thrillist and Popsugar, is laying off 39 employees in a new cost-cutting move the CEO says is in response to “economic uncertainty.” The cuts, representing less than 2% of Vox Media’s roughly 2,000 workforce, come seven months after it merged with

Verizon has upped its streaming pact with the Mouse House. Starting today, the telco is offering Disney+ to prepaid wireless customers free for six months when they activate or upgrade to Prepaid Unlimited plans. Verizon has already offered the six-months-free deal to customers on qualifying postpaid unlimited plans. Now it’s extending the promotional deal to

However this tweetstorm ends, Elon Musk will come out a loser. This spring, the right-wing celebrity tech CEO agreed to pay $44 billion for Twitter — boasting that he would turn his favorite social media site into a bigger revenue machine and a bastion of “free speech.” (Critics interpreted that as Musk condoning a flood

Guy Oseary has proven himself in every field he’s taken on: as a music manager, as an early digital investor and most recently as an entrepreneur in the emerging world of NFTs and Web3 entertainment. But for all that, he had privately catered to one bit  of insecurity that he finally let go during the

Hulu will now start accepting ads for political issues, according to Disney — a move that comes after Democrats lambasted Hulu for rejecting ads calling out the GOP on abortion and gun issues. “After a thorough review of ad policies across its linear networks and streaming platforms over the last few months, Disney is now

UPDATED: Twitter, which is fighting to extract billions from Elon Musk after he said he wanted to walk away from his $44 billion deal to buy the social network, recorded costs of $33.1 million for the second quarter related to the now-in-limbo merger. The company also set Sept. 13 as the date for a special

YouTube still banks a huge bucket of ad bucks — hitting $7.34 billion in the second quarter — but the video giant’s growth has decelerated to its lowest pace in more than two years. YouTube’s ad revenue grew just 4.8% in Q2, according to Alphabet, the parent of Google and YouTube. That was under Wall

Amazon will crank up the price of Prime membership fees in Europe and U.K. — in some cases by 43% — with the ecommerce giant citing rising expenses and inflation for the hike. In the U.K., the annual price of Prime will increase 20%, from £79 to £95. Customers in Spain, France and Italy will

Keke Palmer’s next role after starring in Jordan Peele’s sci-fi/Western horror film “Nope”: Hosting Meta’s “Are We There Yet?” — a video series hyping the “boundless possibilities” of the tech giant’s VR platforms. In the first episode of “Are We There Yet?”, released Tuesday, Palmer is behind the wheel of car alongside Vishal Shah, Meta’s

Two of Instagram’s most-followed celebs — Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner — want the Meta-owned social service to stop trying to mimic surging rival TikTok. The sisters both posted the same message on Instagram Stories that says, “Make Instagram Instagram Again.” It continues, “(stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos

Hulu and its corporate parent Disney are facing a backlash kicked off by Democratic leaders who expressed fury over Hulu’s rejection of ads attacking the GOP’s track record on guns and abortion. On Tuesday morning, the hashtag “#BoycottHulu” was one of the top-trending topics on Twitter in the U.S. That came after three Democratic organizations

Fire up your high-end home entertainment rigs: HBO Max next month will unleash all eight seasons of “Game of Thrones” in 4K Ultra HD, HDR 10, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, promising richly detailed video and cinema-like sound. HBO Max has not provided an exact date yet for when the 4K versions of “GOT” will

Joe Rogan pushed back against claims that he’s a “secret conservative,” saying on a recent episode of his Spotify podcast that Republicans’ opposition to gay marriage is one reason he’s not a conservative (via Mediaite). Chatting with comedian Andrew Schulz, Rogan defended gay marriage and slammed Republicans such as Ted Cruz for wanting to ban

Keith Olbermann will be dishing on politics, sports and more in new daily podcast debuting next week. The former MSNBC anchor, ESPN host and author is teaming with iHeartMedia to launch “Countdown With Keith Olbermann,” billed as a news-driven show featuring his trademark “Special Comment” political analysis, “The Worst Persons in the World” segment, and

As rumored, Meta announced on Monday that it will be changing the way artists and music rightsholders are paid from Facebook, moving to a revenue-sharing model for user-generated video content, although it has not shared full details. In the new system, video creators who use licensed music in videos over 60 seconds long on Facebook

Dragons are coming. A month ahead of the premiere of “Game of Thrones” prequel series “House of the Dragon,” HBO Max has launched “House of the Dragon: DracARys” — a free, augmented-reality app for the series that lets fans hatch and raise their own virtual dragon at home. Each dragon will be unique to its

Kobalt, one of the world’s largest music publishers, has removed its entire 700,000-song catalog from Facebook and Instagram in the United States, a rep for the company confirms to Variety. The company’s U.S. licensing contract with Meta, parent of the two social-media giants, has expired and the two parties have failed to reach a new

On Friday, Disney+ launched the first R-rated movies on the streaming platform: “Deadpool,” “Deadpool 2” and “Logan.” The three Marvel movies were produced by 20th Century Fox, which is now part of Disney — and they’re filled with violence, adult themes and profanity. “Logan” contains “extremely strong, bloody comic book violence” along with nudity, profanity

Genres — and romantic entanglements — collide in L.A.-set “Love and Noraebang,” billed as the first K-drama/telenovela podcast series. The series, which debuted this week, stars Randall Park (“Fresh Off the Boat”), Justin H. Min (“The Umbrella Academy”) and Francia Raísa (“How I Met Your Father,” “Grown-ish”). Set in modern-day Los Angeles, the rom-com chronicles

Twitter revenue for the June 2022 quarter came in short of Wall Street estimates — declining 1% — with the company in part blaming Elon Musk’s attempt to back out of his acquisition deal. The social network also swung to a net loss in the period, whereas investors were expecting Twitter to be in the

Snap reported second-quarter results that came in under analysts’ already reduced expectations — and the company didn’t provide Q3 guidance — sending the stock down more than 25% in after-hours trading. The social messaging and content app company also intends to “substantially slow our rate of hiring, as well as the rate of operating expense

YouTube announced that it will begin cracking down on videos that contain misinformation about abortion. Starting Thursday, “we will remove content that provides instructions for unsafe abortion methods or promotes false claims about abortion safety under our medical misinformation policies,” YouTube said in a thread on Twitter. The expanded YouTube policy comes after the Supreme

Decentralized content ecosystem MContent has set a five-year strategic partnership with London-based indie producer and financier The Goldfinch Group. Under the terms of the deal Goldfinch becomes the content sourcing, funding and production arm of MContent in Europe, which includes a first look deal on all forthcoming Goldfinch productions. Goldfinch will leverage its expertise to

Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are now the preferred mode of news consumption for British teenagers, a report by U.K. media regulator Ofcom has found. Ofcom’s News Consumption in the U.K. 2021/22 report reveals that for the first time, Instagram is the most popular news source among teenagers, used by 29%. TikTok and YouTube are close

Not everyone is jumping on the NFT bandwagon. Minecraft, the open-world game platform owned by Microsoft, has notified players that “integrations of NFTs with Minecraft are generally not something we will support or allow.” In the July 20 notice, the game’s developer, Mojang, said it has rules in place to ensure that Minecraft “remains a

Netflix has quietly pulled the plug on its popular Twitter customer-help account after 13-plus years and more than 900,000 tweets, Variety has confirmed. The end of Netflix CS (@Netflixhelps) comes as the company has been trying to rein in costs amid a subscriber contraction. However, insiders insist the move is more about the streamer focusing

A new podcast telling Harley Quinn’s origin story — from her perspective — is coming to Spotify, starring Christina Ricci in the title role of the iconic Gotham villain. Spotify, in partnership with Warner Bros. and DC, announced the start of production for audio series “Harley Quinn & The Joker: Sound Mind.” The podcast is

T-Mobile is uncorking a special new offer for streaming en español. The wireless carrier announced a deal with TelevisaUnivision giving new and existing T-Mobile customers one year free of ViX+, the media company’s new Spanish-language subscription VOD package. Set to launch July 21, ViX+ will regularly cost $6.99/month in the U.S. — a nearly $84

Rideback founder and CEO Dan Lin has announced the launch of “Rideback Rise,” a non-profit accelerator focused on developing BIPOC-created film, TV, digital and audio content. Rideback — the entertainment company known for producing “The LEGO Movie” and “It” movie franchises, as well as Disney’s “Aladdin,” along with series television including the CW’s “Walker” —

Terapin Studios, a U.S.-Korean media investor backed by NPX Capital, has paid $160 million to acquire Toomics Global, one of South Korea’s fastest rising platforms for webtoons. Webtoons, vertically-scrolling comic strips designed to be viewed on smartphones, emerged in South Korea about 15 years ago and have become a major cultural phenomenon across Japan, Korea