Little Free Libraries, meet Free Blockbusters

The Muck Rack Weekly newsletter includes some of the most talked about stories in the journalism and public relations communities over the past week, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial opinion of Muck Rack.

Media statistic of the week

How much are Americans paying for access to streaming services?

“On average, American households that subscribe to streaming video entertainment services said they spend $61 per month for four services, according to Deloitte’s 18th annual Digital Media Trends report,” writes Todd Spangler for Variety. “That’s up 27% from $48 per month on last year’s survey.”

A few more fun facts from the survey:

• Just over one-third (36%) of those surveyed said the content available on streaming video services is not worth the price.
• Nearly half (48%) of respondents say they would cancel their favorite subscription VOD service if monthly prices went up by $5 per month.

Check out the full results.?

This past week in the media industry

Extending an olive branch to Trump?

As we head into the 2024 presidential election…

For Semafor, Max Tani deep dives into the landscape of political news after NBC News told the New York Times it had hired former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel as an on-air commentator.?

“Semafor offers up a depressing explanation for NBC News' hire of Ronna McDaniel - it's a sign big companies, including media outlets, are bracing for Trump's re-election. (If that were true, why wouldn't NBC hire someone he hadn't just kicked out a job?)” tweets Eric Deggans.?

Here’s an interesting snippet from Tani’s piece:?

“Behind the move is the reality that is sinking in for U.S. corporate media, and corporate America in general: They may soon be dealing again with a Trump administration, willing to use the tools of government to reward allies and punish enemies. For the great publicly traded conglomerates like NBCUniversal Media’s parent, Comcast, that may leave little choice but to extend an olive branch to the former president.”

The story continued yesterday when Puck’s Dylan Byers broke the news on X that NBC plans to drop McDaniel as a contributor after backlash.?

Inside media’s ‘12 splintering realities’

In a bit more election-related news, Axios’ co-founder and CEO Jim Vande Hei takes readers inside what he’s calling? “media's 12 splintering realities.”

“You can't understand November's election — or America itself — without reckoning with how our media attention has shattered into a bunch of misshapen pieces,” he writes before outlining the 12 most powerful bubbles of how we consume our news.?

Take a sneak peek into his clever breakdown:?

“The Musk-eteers: This is a fast-growing, mostly male group who feed off Twitter, podcasts (especially "All-In" and Joe Rogan), and follow independent reporters, led by Bari Weiss, through social media or newsletters.

New-age grandmas: Consumers of news on Facebook have been trending older. Yes, Facebook has deliberately deemphasized news over the past three years, emphasizing what Meta global affairs president Nick Clegg calls "babies, barbecues and bar mitzvahs." But a lot remains.

Liberal warriors: Think of Rachel Maddow as patron saint of this bloc. Hence her sky-high ratings. This crowd feeds daily off The New York Times (especially opinion pieces) and prestige magazines (especially The Atlantic and The New Yorker). They once were addicted to Twitter but left, or lessened their dependency, after Musk turned it into X.”

Take a look at the full piece—which bubble do you fall in?

“Necessarily reductive, but still interesting, on different groups of Americans + how they perceive the world. Based on what I've seen + experienced (I probably consume more media than most, absent TV "news"), it feels roughly right,” tweets John Voelcker.?

A few more

• “Avoiding the news isn’t the same as not consuming it,” writes Mark Coddingto and Seth C. Lewis in this long read for Nieman Lab.?
• The Financial Times is testing an AI chatbot called “Ask FT” that can answer questions subscribers ask, according to The Verge’s Emma Roth and Quentyn Kennemer who tested out the product.
• A must read this week: this column by Patrick Lohmann for ProPublica: “I Moved to Rural New Mexico to Report on the Aftermath of a Massive Wildfire. My Neighbors Were My Best Sources.”
• Cool news from Spotify. “Spotify’s UK users are getting access to a fourth category of content to sit alongside its existing library of songs, podcasts and audiobooks: online courses,” reports Jon Porter for The Verge.??
• “Little Free Libraries, meet Free Blockbusters,” tweets Brian Stelter about Livia Albeck-Ripka and Aimee Ortiz’ piece for the New York Times about “the neighborhood lending libraries [that] have popped up around North America, offering a nostalgic return to DVDs.”
• Threads is giving users more control over what they see in their feed by allowing users to “limit” or “don’t limit” political and social content, according to ZDNet’s Lance Whitney.?
• If you’ve ever wondered how many listeners Joe Rogan’s podcast has, Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman has the answer: “Last month, Spotify quietly began testing a feature that shows just how popular Rogan and other podcasters actually are … Rogan’s show, as of this morning, has 14.5 million followers. That’s nearly three times more than the next most followed program, TED Talks Daily,” Caman writes.?
• A fascinating look into influencer snark pages on Reddit, courtesy of Feven Merid for Columbia Journalism Review. “In their most basic form, the snark subreddits function as a place for people to vent their frustrations about the common irritants of the influencer industry: ceaseless product promotion, ostentatious lifestyle content, hyperfocus on appearances. They are not well moderated, and often get details wrong. And they can be cruel: posts on these pages sometimes engage in body shaming and bullying. But these snark subreddits provide another utility. At a time when the influencer economy is booming, snark subreddits are often the only places taking a close inspection of how the industry and its most successful figures operate,” Merid writes.???
• Here’s what Gannett CEO Michael Reed has to say about NewsGuild: “I think the Guild, unfortunately, plays dirty and lies to our employees," Reed told Axios at the annual Mather Symposium on media in Atlanta. Axios’ Sara Fischer reports all the details.?

From the Muck Rack team

AI remains a hot topic across industries—but how has it taken hold in the PR industry?

Muck Rack’s Linda Zebian recently hosted a webinar to dig into the most popular ways PR pros use AI, how PR pros can use AI to be more productive and how to address concerns around AI.?

Stephen Waddington, founder and managing partner of Wadds, Inc., and Matt Dzugan, director of data at Muck Rack, shared their insights.

During the webinar, attendees submitted questions. See how the pros advised!