Interesting plot twist ??

Media statistic of the week

Meta’s Threads has seen a decline in usage since its record-making debut. Amid “flagging interest,” Meta announced a desktop version of Threads will “roll out to users in the coming days,” Naomi Nix writes in The Washington Post.

Here are some of the revealing stats Nix included:

• Daily active Android users on Threads peaked on July 7 at 49.3 million only to plummet to 10.3 million a month later on Aug. 7.
• Sensor Tower estimates the daily active user total on Threads is still down 75% from launch.
• But SimilarWeb noted Twitter/X is stagnating—“Musk’s platform has experienced sporadic declines in usage over the past year.”

As senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities Daniel Ives told Nix in the piece, “I think [text-based social media in general is] all facing head winds. Monetization continues to be the issue, but the engagement on Twitter is unmatched.”

This past week in the media industry

Stop the press

Max Tani of Semafor alleges Newsmax tried to make Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy pay for coverage. Network chief Chris Ruddy also suggested Ramaswamy "buy more television ads on the network."

“If you've never heard of GOP candidate Perry Johnson, it's probably because you don't watch Newsmax much. But Johnson buys airtime on Newsmax, and also gets a lot of coverage—enough to apparently put him on the debate stage this week,” Bill Grueskin adds.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump says he will skip the Republican presidential primary debates, reports Jill Colvin of the Associated Press, and instead consider “counterprogramming options”—like an interview on Tucker Carlson’s show distributed on social platform X.

Jim Roberts clarifies, “The twice-impeached and four-times indicted former president says he will skip GOP presidential primary debates because ‘the public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had.’”

After VICE Media went bankrupt this spring, four top journalists, Jason Koebler, Samantha Cole, Joseph Cox, and Emanuel Maiberg from VICE’s tech brand Motherboard have left to start their own tech publication, 404 Media, reports Katie Robertson in The New York Times.

“I wish them the best but this is obviously going to fail,” augurs Ben Dreyfuss.

On the other end of sentiments, Hakan Tanriverdi says, “Nothing but love (and the best!).”

An AI world

Good news for human creators—a federal judge upheld a finding from the U.S. Copyright Office that “a piece of art created by AI is not open to protection,” writes Winston Cho of The Hollywood Reporter. “That may give Hollywood studios pause in any effort to harness generative AI to write scripts.”

“Seems fair - given all AI art is theft anyway,” comments Jack Wallen.

Natasha Chandel adds, “Interesting plot twist ??”

Of course, this happens right as Banijay, the “superindie” production company behind Big Brother and MasterChef, announced a plan to launch “a creative fund to develop television formats” using AI, Scott Roxborough of The Hollywood Reporter reports.

Meanwhile, Pratik Thakar, Coca-Cola's new global head of generative AI, “is leveraging this technology to foster stronger connections with digital artists,” notes Webb Wright in The Drum.

Around the (real) world

The Drum’s Amy Houston put together a list of how brands celebrated the FIFA Women’s World Cup final. And five members of SportsPro’s NEW ERA class of 2022/23 picked out their favorite World Cup marketing campaigns and explained why.

In Canada, Kristin Rushowy of The Toronto Star reports TVO producers and online educational content creators have hit the picket lines in a “first-ever strike at the provincial broadcaster.”

“STRIKE!!!” Colin Ellis announces. Duane Rollins offers, “Solidarity ??.”

Meanwhile, media and entertainment companies are finding more investment from the Middle East, writes Lucia Moses of Business Insider. And “many of those doing business with Middle Eastern regimes and investors have declined to speak to Insider on the record about their partnerships.”

A few more

• Barstool Sports will celebrate their 20th anniversary on Aug. 23 with host Dave “El Pres” Portnoy.
• Jordan Valinsky of CNN Business finds Barbie is about to become America's highest-grossing movie of 2023.
• Alex Weprin explores why streaming services are pushing subscribers to ad tiers for The Hollywood Reporter.
• Dan Whateley and Madeline Stone of Business Insider report TikTok is killing its Shopify storefront integration to ensure control of all aspects of its in-app commerce.
• Advocacy groups issue fresh calls to investigate YouTube over researchers' child protection claims, write Ronan Shields and Tim Peterson of Digiday.
• Publishers see dramatic drop in Facebook referral traffic as the social platform signals exit from news business, Oliver Darcy says for CNN Business.
• Peter Adams and Jessica Deyo of Marketing Dive ask “Retail media’s standardization race is heating up—what’s at stake?”

From the Muck Rack team

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Check out the new Muck Rack blog to learn what a PR crisis management plan is, why it’s an integral part of your communications toolkit, how to create your own crisis management plan and how software can help you monitor and respond more efficiently during a crisis.