Little Free Libraries, meet Free Blockbusters

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

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!

George Fironov

We stand with Ukraine 🇺🇦

8mo

love these insights, Gregory Galant 😉

Like
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Kathy Zucker

Award-Winning Writer. Startup Founder. Mother of 3. Speaker at KathyZucker.com

8mo

I am an elite power consumer. My kids get their news from TikTok. This dynamic makes for interesting evening conversations.

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