Vox - Code Media 2019: News & updates https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/52517/voxv.png2019-11-19T20:10:00-05:00http://www.vox.com/rss/stream/207350722019-11-19T20:10:00-05:002019-11-19T20:10:00-05:00Disney says it doesn’t need data to make great shows
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<img alt="Disney’s Kevin Mayer sitting onstage with Recode’s Peter Kafka at the 2019 Code Media conference." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vICUnvFpfUcoJMRE-pU_4UiazRk=/76x0:3063x2240/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65734946/REC_CM19_TSTOLPER-20191119-152026-5412.0.0.jpeg" />
<figcaption>Disney’s Kevin Mayer onstage with Recode’s Peter Kafka at the 2019 Code Media conference. | Tori Stolper for Vox Media</figcaption>
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<p>Netflix relied heavily on data to make programming decisions. Disney’s been in the business long enough, it doesn’t have to.</p> <p id="Sz8BQG">When it comes to deciding what shows and films to create for its new <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/12/20961365/disney-streaming-outage-bamtech">Disney+</a> streaming service, <a href="https://www.vox.com/disney">Disney</a> is relying on its leaders’ creative instincts much more than it’s considering data points. </p>
<p id="sLK85k">That’s what Kevin Mayer, chairman of direct-to-consumer and international at Disney, told Recode’s Peter Kafka at the 2019 Code Media conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, one week after the launch of Disney+. The service debuted with an expansive library that includes its Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars catalogs, as well as a handful of new and exclusive movies and shows. It’s gradually going to build out its offerings, and it plans to do so prudently. It’s going to consider what the data predicts will play best with audiences — but it won’t be overly reliant on these metrics.</p>
<p id="gZDhWX">“We might not always follow the data,” Mayer told Kafka. “We might have great, creative ideas that don’t fit right into where the data would point you to make a program, so we’re going to use both our judgment or the ideas we have in place, the capacities that we have in place, and the data that tells us what to make. Certainly, we will be paying attention to that.”</p>
<p id="x0uI8I">Mayer said he believes it’s a “fallacy” that data can and should be used to make minute-by-minute creative choices. “Creative processes fundamentally don’t yield to that sort of analytical look,” he said.</p>
<p id="H7P1a7">Implicit in Mayer’s remarks is how heavily Netflix, a pioneer in the streaming space, has relied on data in its programming choices and the shortcomings of this approach. Measures such as Nielsen ratings, box office hauls, and focus groups, which media companies like Disney have long relied on, already inform them about what does and doesn’t resonate with their audiences. </p>
<p id="J87I1I">As digital media executives <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/12/20959837/streaming-wars-10-lessons-matthew-ball-alex-kruglov-disney-apple-amazon-netflix">Matthew Ball and Alex Kruglov recently explained on Recode</a>, even Netflix has started to move away from such data-driven creative decisions:</p>
<blockquote><p id="RrNlLR">Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos has begun to change his tune. In 2015, he admitted that data represented only 70 percent of the decision process, with the judgment 30 percent “coming on top.” In 2018, this had inverted to 70 percent gut, 30 percent data. By 2019, it was 80/20.</p></blockquote>
<p id="jK71nj">Of course, Disney has decades of experience in figuring out what works in entertainment — something Mayer noted on Tuesday. “We make programs that are super popular, so I think we have a good finger on the pulse of what consumers like — or actually love,” he said. </p>
<p id="ddJy5k">That’s not to say that Disney has all the advantages. Netflix is ahead in terms of the scale of its multinational video quality, and it has a more solid infrastructure in place. “They’ve been doing this a long, long time at a big scale,” Mayer said, though he added he believes Disney “has the best content on the planet.” </p>
<p id="4qFBXE">“I think we each will end up looking like each other to some degree,” he said of the Disney-Netflix dynamic.</p>
<p id="yN2VXN">To get there, Disney will need to perfect its technology. On Tuesday, Mayer assured Kafka that <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/12/20961365/disney-streaming-outage-bamtech">the technical issues Disney+ experienced last week when it launched</a> were the result of a “technical detail” in the architecture of the app, rather than a broader structural issue. He added that Disney also experienced some “customer service issues” that compounded the situation. </p>
<p id="yft0Cl">In the end, Disney’s technical difficulties didn’t seem to matter that much to customers. The day after Disney+ launched, the company said 10 million people had signed up for the service. </p>
https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/19/20973249/disney-plus-streaming-netflix-data-kevin-mayerEmily Stewart2019-11-19T17:30:00-05:002019-11-19T17:30:00-05:00The Morning Show’s producers say many of its critics are “Apple haters”
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<figcaption>Executive producers Mimi Leder and Kerry Ehrin onstage at Code Media in Los Angeles on November 19, 2019. | Tory Stolper</figcaption>
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<p>Some negative reviewers may have made up their minds before watching the show, executive producers Mimi Leder and Kerry Ehrin said onstage at Code Media in Los Angeles. </p> <p id="8tWgBx">Being the flagship show of <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/9/9/20857658/apple-tv-plus-plans-preview-streaming-susbscription-price">Apple’s new original TV content platform, Apple TV+</a>, comes with a lot of attention — and some serious haters, according to its showrunners.</p>
<p id="8z2u7U"><em>The Morning Show</em>, which debuted on Apple TV+, is a series about a morning news TV show set in the Me Too era. The producers of the show, Mimi Leder and Kerry Ehrin, talked onstage at Recode’s Code Media conference about the challenges of launching a high-profile show on a new service, and some of the <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2019/11/morning-show-jennifer-aniston-apple-tv-bad-taste.html">mixed critical reviews</a> it’s received.</p>
<p id="VHPELb">“When those reviews came in, I didn’t know what show they were watching. And I just kind of thought they were nuts,” said Leder, director and executive producer of the show, who is known for her previous work on shows like <em>ER</em> and <em>The West Wing</em>. “I just felt there were a lot of Apple haters and wanting Apple to fail.” </p>
<p id="Y2uPuX">For <em>The Morning Show</em>, some of the negative press started <a href="https://www.polygon.com/tv/2019/11/1/20937042/the-morning-show-review-apple-jennifer-aniston-reese-witherspoon-steve-carell">before the show even aired</a> as disputed reports came out about the <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2019/10/31/apple-tv-the-morning-show-budget/">reported cost of the show</a> and its <a href="https://www.polygon.com/tv/2019/11/1/20937042/the-morning-show-review-apple-jennifer-aniston-reese-witherspoon-steve-carell">shifting focus</a> in light of real-world sexual harassment allegations against former <em>Today </em>host Matt Lauer.</p>
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<p id="EeOIGJ">The duo also spoke to NBC’s Dylan Byers about the daunting task of feeling like the fate of a tech giant’s brand-new project is in your hands.</p>
<p id="R5WD0W">“There are certain weak moments where I’m like, ‘How did I get responsible for this?’” said Ehren. “It’s slightly intimidating. I try not to think about it too much.”</p>
<p id="zdqVzM">On the positive side, the showrunners said that Apple has given them more creative freedom than they’ve ever had before. Ehren, an award-winning former producer for hit shows like <em>The Wonder Years</em> and <em>Friday Night Lights</em>, said she tries not to worry about the reviews and ratings too much, as it can distract from her craft.</p>
<p id="6FGAya">“We’re focused on the story we’re telling, the characters. We’re inside of it. So when you see reviews that are looking at it from the whole business aspect, like, ‘What is Apple doing?’ and, ‘They spent this much money on it’ — it’s kind of separate from us.”</p>
<p id="bN3lt2">“The good news is that people love the show, and we love the show, and that’s what matters,” said Leder. </p>
<p id="Vj4fPE"><em>Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Dylan Byers’ employer. Byers is a senior media reporter for NBC News.</em></p>
https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/19/20973059/morning-show-apple-tv-plus-mimi-leder-kerry-ehrinShirin Ghaffary2019-11-18T21:50:00-05:002019-11-18T21:50:00-05:00Why Vice’s new CEO thinks Vice’s former, ousted CEO doesn’t get enough credit
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<img alt="Code Media 2019, Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/90ClxU8ra4lK__Em3svY_TxMyWg=/144x0:3131x2240/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65728203/REC_CM19_TSTOLPER-20191118-174440-4930.0.0.jpeg" />
<figcaption>Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc | Tori Stolper for Vox Media</figcaption>
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<p>“No one knows the brand better than he does.”</p> <p id="FHzI6c">Vice’s old CEO, Shane Smith, is a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/23/business/media/vice-sexual-harassment.html">scandal-plagued</a> figure in media circles. But Vice’s new CEO Nancy Dubuc doesn’t think he gets enough respect.</p>
<p id="TgkrNy"><a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/3/12/17110994/nancy-dubuc-vice-media-ceo-shane-smith-viceland">Dubuc took over as CEO in early 2018</a> after <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/3/12/17110994/nancy-dubuc-vice-media-ceo-shane-smith-viceland">reports emerged</a> of a rampant frat-boy culture at the media company that caters to millennials who are turned off by traditional old-guard media fogeys. Smith, the ousted CEO who once called himself a “brand artist,” remains the company’s chairman, so he is still involved in selling ads to possible buyers.</p>
<p id="Xjk9PA">“Shane doesn’t get as much credit as he maybe deserves,” Dubuc told Recode’s Peter Kafka at the Code Media conference in Los Angeles on Monday. “He’s never once interfered with me running the company — and that’s not something that many founders do easily.”</p>
<p id="qCWo9K">Dubuc saluted Smith because he “asked a woman to step in and gave me full charge.” She said she “welcomes” Smith’s involvement in Vice.</p>
<p id="pMtZb3">“A founder’s role to a company is very unique and one that should be respected,” Dubuc said. “No one knows the brand better than he does.”</p>
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<p id="EW117x">But Smith or no Smith, Dubuc, the former head of the media company A&E, has a lot of convincing to do. Years after companies like Vice were being heralded as the future of digital media, one of its biggest investors, Disney, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/8/18537617/disney-vice-write-off-400-million">wrote down its own investment into the company to virtually nothing</a> earlier this year.</p>
<p id="FIn8Er">Vice has recently been trying to achieve scale. <a href="https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/vice-media-250-million-debt-funding-george-soros-1203205076/">After raising $250 million in debt,</a> the company <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/business/vice-media-refinery29.html">acquired Refinery29</a>, a women’s lifestyle publisher, to better compete with the Facebooks and Googles of the world.</p>
<p id="AfcW3J">But while some digital media executives have floated consolidation in order to try and compete for ad dollars against the tech giants, Dubuc isn’t delusional about the impact this acquisition will make.</p>
<p id="9yzj1Z">“I don’t think the logic of this merger makes us more powerful against Facebook and Google,” she said. “They are what they are — and I think there’s a pretty big piece of the pie left for those of us that are going to be big.”</p>
https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/18/20971718/nancy-dubuc-code-media-peter-kafka-vice-media-shane-smithTheodore Schleifer2019-11-18T21:40:00-05:002019-11-18T21:40:00-05:00Sports Illustrated’s new bosses defend why they bought a brand and not a company
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<img alt="Maven Media founder and CEO James Heckman and Sports Illustrated CEO Ross Levinsohn onstage at Code Media 2019." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZjQLg3C4GhIm9aJNoYlteBAvtKg=/9x0:2996x2240/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65728167/REC_CM19_TSTOLPER-20191118-164234-4673.0.0.jpeg" />
<figcaption>James Heckman and Ross Levinsohn have a really hard sell. | Tori Stolper for Vox Media</figcaption>
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<p>Speaking at Code Media, they tried to spin massive layoffs as better business. </p> <p id="fFhPc4">“We bought the brand Sports Illustrated; we didn’t buy the company,” Maven Media founder and CEO James Heckman told the Code Media audience in Los Angeles about the company’s highly controversial purchase and restructuring of the venerated sports publication earlier this year.</p>
<p id="emDUVI">He also didn’t buy Sports Illustrated’s business model, which consisted of paying a large staff of traditional journalists with money made from selling ads. After buying Sports Illustrated, Maven promptly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/10/03/sports-illustrated-shaken-by-major-layoffs-massive-reorganization/">laid off nearly 40 percent of its editorial staff</a>. </p>
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<p id="KhVtc4">Sports Illustrated has a “great brand, great reporters, unbelievable tradition — but they were in the wrong business model,” said Heckman, who was joined onstage by Sports Illustrated’s new CEO Ross Levinsohn. “They’ve got a 1986 business model. We’re bringing in specialists — team, fantasy, gambling, backpacking. That’s the model of the future,” Heckman said. </p>
<p id="TJg3L3">Sports Illustrated’s new business model includes a pared-down editorial staff as well as an army of “content creators” that Levinsohn said operate like franchises. Those content creators make money through a revenue share in which Sports Illustrated pays them a portion of ad revenue, based on the traffic they attract, rather than a salary. </p>
<p id="stbZfx">Heckman said this <em>could</em> be a lucrative business model, referencing a North Carolina basketball writer who, he said, makes $900,000 a year employing this model at CBS (which <a href="https://variety.com/2017/digital/news/cbs-bankrupt-scout-media-acquisition-1201975820/">bought Heckman’s previous sports media company, Scout</a>). </p>
<p id="v8ZuzJ">Critics have called the system a content mill. <a href="https://deadspin.com/inside-themavens-plan-to-turn-sports-illustrated-into-a-1838756286">As Deadspin put it</a>, Maven “wants to build out a network of SI-branded Maven ‘team communities’ that will drive traffic through a combination of cynical SEO ploys, news aggregation, and low-paid and unpaid labor.”</p>
<p id="S015uc">By the end of next year, Levinsohn said the company would have more than 200 paid journalists and “hundreds if not thousands of content creators.”</p>
<p id="tDGNfb">Whether Sports Illustrated’s new business model will actually work — for the company or its bosses — remains to be seen. </p>
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https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/18/20971100/sports-illustrated-maven-james-heckman-ross-levinsohn-code-mediaRani Molla2019-11-18T20:58:33-05:002019-11-18T20:58:33-05:00Facebook still isn’t clear about why it won’t take down false political ads
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<img alt="Carolyn Everson, vice president of global marketing solutions at Facebook, onstage at the 2019 Code Media conference in Los Angeles." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ivctjCgc-GwyndyHJbovwITBrfE=/105x0:3092x2240/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65727373/REC_CM19_TSTOLPER-20191118-134141-3844.0.0.jpeg" />
<figcaption>Carolyn Everson, vice president of global marketing solutions at Facebook, onstage at the 2019 Code Media conference in Los Angeles. | Tori Stolper for Vox Media</figcaption>
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<p>At Code Media on Monday, a vice president at Facebook said the company can’t legally take down political ads. Soon after, Facebook walked those comments back.</p> <p id="FsLGS0"><a href="https://www.vox.com/facebook">Facebook</a> has come under heavy scrutiny in recent months over its political ads policy that <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2019/09/elections-and-political-speech/">allows politicians to lie in ads</a>. On Monday, one of Facebook’s top marketers again defended the policy and said the company has no plans to change it, insisting that it’s up to voters to decide what messages resonate and are true, even if they’re false.</p>
<p id="HLG32d">“That’s not a role that Facebook should be playing and interfering with democracy,” said said Carolyn Everson, vice president of global marketing solutions at <a href="https://www.vox.com/facebook">Facebook</a>, in an interview with Recode’s Peter Kafka at the <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/18/20971031/code-media-2019-recode-los-angeles-news-update">2019 Code Media</a> conference in Los Angeles on Monday. But critics have argued that Facebook’s policy allows political campaigns to do that very thing. </p>
<p id="yvTnOY">Since the 2016 election, Facebook has been forced to reckon with the ways its platform can be weaponized to spread disinformation, undermine democracy, and influence politics. The company insists it’s trying to do better, largely by promising to be more transparent. (Everson declared that Facebook is “the most transparent ad platform in the world”). </p>
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<p id="UPS93t">But when it comes to substantive changes, the social media giant keeps saying it’s government regulators’ responsibility to figure out what to do. Facebook knows that Washington, DC, moves slowly; it will be a long time, if ever, before US lawmakers pass regulations on issues such as privacy, data collection, and ads for social media platforms. And so in the meantime, Facebook gets to keep calling the shots — and avoiding responsibility when it doesn’t.</p>
<p id="C466au">In September, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/9/20906612/trump-campaign-ad-joe-biden-ukraine-facebook">Facebook faced strong backlash when it refused to take down an ad</a> run by President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign that made false claims about former Vice President Joe Biden. In the months since, the controversy surrounding this decision has snowballed. High-profile Democrats such as Rep. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/23/20929350/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-mark-zuckerberg-testimony-green-new-deal">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> and Sen. <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/10/7/20903883/elizabeth-warren-mark-zuckerberg-donald-trump-advertisements-meeting-tweets">Elizabeth Warren</a> have pressed Facebook on the matter, and some progressive groups <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/28/tech/facebook-false-ads-california-governor/index.html">have tried to test Facebook’s policy out</a> to make a point about its pitfalls. But Facebook has dug in on the policy, with <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/10/21/20925872/facebook-political-ads-russia-iran-zuckerberg-press-conference">CEO Mark Zuckerberg</a> vocally defending it in public.</p>
<p id="vGv5pd">Everson pointed out that when Warren’s team put out a fake ad claiming that Zuckerberg had endorsed Trump’s reelection bid as a way to exemplify the implications of the policy, Facebook let the ad stay up. “We stuck to the principle,” she said. Of course, the ad acknowledged it was a lie — that was the point. </p>
<p id="oxsd2Y">And Facebook has bent its rules on this one already: When progressive marketer Adriel Hampton <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/28/tech/facebook-false-ads-california-governor/index.html">filed to run for California governor</a> earlier this year so he could run fake ads on Facebook, the company shut him down because they said it was a ploy. </p>
<p id="iOB65K">Some have floated the idea that one potential solution would be for <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/07/facebook-targeted-campaign-ad-limits-067550">Facebook to consider limiting political ad targeting</a>, which Twitter <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/15/20966908/twitter-political-ad-ban-policies-issue-ads-jack-dorsey">recently said</a> it plans to do with regard to issue ads. (At the end of the week, Twitter will ban political ads entirely.) When asked by Kafka for updates on that front, Everson said that’s actually <em>not </em>on the table. “We are not talking about changing the targeting,” she said. </p>
<p id="xMrG9F">Soon after the interview, <a href="https://twitter.com/sarafischer/status/1196599250991210496?s=20">Everson told Axios reporter Sara Fischer</a> that she shouldn’t have been so definitive and that nothing is off the table for Facebook.</p>
<p id="PU987S">When Kafka asked whether Facebook would consider a political ad blackout ahead of elections, Everson responded, yet again, that the company is working on more transparency.</p>
<p id="K0IzTY">At least one of the reasons why Facebook is so reticent to more carefully regulate political content on its platform is that it’s platform is so big that it would struggle to effectively do so. When making this point, Everson reminded the audience of a scandal that unfolded earlier this year around a doctored video that spread online that misleadingly made House Speaker <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/24/18638822/nancy-pelosi-doctored-video-drunk-facebook-trump">Nancy Pelosi</a> appear to be drunk. Despite the video being obviously fake, the company refused to take it down, and it’s been viewed millions of times on Facebook.</p>
<p id="9di5zD">“If you’re going to take the Pelosi video down, then why not take down the millions of videos that have been doctored about Trump, about Bush, about Obama, about celebrities? We haven’t,” Everson told Kafka.</p>
<h3 id="XfCijt">Facebook’s politics problem isn’t going away </h3>
<p id="sUNqLN">Although Everson’s appearance at Code Media touched on many points about the company and its ad business, the audience kept focusing on Facebook’s decisions on politics and news coverage during the question segment of the interview. </p>
<p id="Vg098V">When pressed on Facebook’s refusal to fact-check political ads, Everson tried to defend the company’s stance by referencing the rules that govern how broadcasters must handle political advertisements. In the US, the Federal Communications Commission has <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/public-and-broadcasting#POLITICAL">extensive guidelines for television and radio broadcasters</a> around political advertising that bar broadcasters from censoring ads or from taking down ones that make false claims. Those guidelines don’t apply to online platforms, including Facebook, but the company has consistently tried to hide behind them.</p>
<p id="mUbkQa">“We have no ability, legally, to tell a political candidate that they are not allowed to run their ad,” Everson said. That’s not true. </p>
<p id="G7u6kT">After the interview, a Facebook spokeswoman walked back the comments and said that Everson misspoke when she said Facebook was legally barred from refusing to run political ads. </p>
<p id="aFcSzV">An audience member also asked Everson why Facebook <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/25/20930664/facebook-news-tab-launch-united-states-test">has decided to allow right-wing website Breitbart to be listed in its new News tab</a>, which is ostensibly an indication that Breitbart offers trusted news, despite being a known source of propaganda. “We’re treating them as a news source; I wouldn’t use the term ‘trusted news,’” Everson said, pointing out that Facebook will also include “far-left” publications. That raises questions about Facebook’s standards for determining the “integrity” of the news sources it includes in its tab, which <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2019/10/introducing-facebook-news/">Facebook touted</a> when it launched the feature in October.</p>
<p id="o1o6Im">Although Facebook’s missteps have continued in the aftermath of the 2016 election, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/technology/facebook-hack-data-breach.html">security breaches</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/technology/facebook-disinformation-russia-iran.html">more disinformation campaigns</a>, Everson says she believes the company really has changed and is not the same company it was three years ago. </p>
<p id="QCTaFb">“I wouldn’t have stayed at Facebook” if the company hadn’t changed, Everson insisted. “If I didn’t see those cultural shifts, it would have been really hard for me to look people in the eye and have the confidence to stay at the company.”</p>
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<p id="CEsWPf"><strong>Update: </strong>Updated with clarifications from Facebook after the interview regarding its political ads policies.</p>
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https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/18/20970942/facebook-political-ads-policy-carolyn-everson-code-mediaEmily Stewart2019-11-18T18:10:00-05:002019-11-18T18:10:00-05:00HBO Max wants to be the next cable bundle instead of the next Netflix
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<img alt="Two men having a conversation while facing each other, the shorter man pointing at the taller." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9ap6tpdQgt9HbGUn79e2EmU4pME=/205x0:2872x2000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65727082/eb3f2b9d9380e0c6040b2012807d05cd07d9ec6b15edbeca6d1535df1adc63421c7a4966001b305b5b511b25a387dd13.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Tom and Greg scheme to get rid of incriminating evidence on HBO’s <em>Succession</em>. | HBO</figcaption>
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<p>That’s what John Stankey, CEO of HBO parent company WarnerMedia, said today at Recode’s Code Media conference in Los Angeles.</p> <p id="a0uliT">If the guy leading HBO’s parent company WarnerMedia has his way, the new HBO Max streaming video service won’t just be a Netflix competitor for cord cutters, it’ll be a new kind of cable bundle.</p>
<p id="Y7Sn6G">In an interview at Recode’s Code Media conference on Monday in Los Angeles, California, CEO John Stankey said the vision for <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/10/29/20939039/hbo-max-price-streaming-warner-att">HBO Max</a> is to create a bundle of content that includes movies and shows not owned by WarnerMedia in addition to those it creates and licenses on its own. </p>
<p id="J6D7SF">“We’re basically unbundling to rebundle,” he said of <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/12/20959837/streaming-wars-10-lessons-matthew-ball-alex-kruglov-disney-apple-amazon-netflix">the current streaming wars</a>, where content companies are pulling shows from Netflix and launching streaming services like <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/4/12/18307539/disney-streaming-launch-cost-billions-netflix-strategy-change">Disney+</a> and HBO Max. “At some point there will be platforms that re-aggregate and rebuild. ... We’d like [HBO Max] ultimately to be a place where re-aggregation occurs,” he added.</p>
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<p id="3V3TQk">This is the opposite of the direction the industry has been heading, with Netflix, Disney, HBO, and other media giants splintering off to create their own subscription services. But Stankey alluded to “the frustration” among consumers with this “fragmentation” and said ultimately a winning move will be to create a new version of a TV bundle.</p>
<p id="aDfevG">Today, HBO Max is a $15-a-month streaming video service that offers HBO’s library of content, plus a selection of older hits like <em>Friends</em> and <em>South Park.</em> At some point in the future, Stankey hopes that it can secure content from other media companies, too, because his company is never “going to have a lock or monopoly on creativity,” he said.</p>
<p id="hrkf5i">Beyond his WarnerMedia role, Stankey is also the president of AT&T, the phone giant that purchased HBO parent Time Warner for $85 billion. Stankey said he won’t hold both roles indefinitely and will hire a new WarnerMedia CEO when the company gets through the current transition period. But he would not put a timetable on that.</p>
<p id="TfXmYD">To jumpstart HBO Max, AT&T is going to spend $4 billion on the service, the company previously said. It is giving it away to its phone subscribers and it’s trying to convince current HBO subscribers to switch to the streaming service instead.</p>
<p id="5KWUuo">But cable distributors, who are the current retailers of HBO subscriptions, could stand in the way, and WarnerMedia hasn’t yet cut deals with any of the big cable companies to promote the service.</p>
<p id="tOsqHS">Still, AT&T and WarnerMedia are projecting HBO Max will turn a $1 billion profit by 2025 and will hit 50 million subscribers. It will likely need to beef up its content library so it more closely resembles a cable bundle to get there by then. </p>
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https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/18/20970066/hbo-max-netflix-streaming-cable-bundle-john-stankey-warnermedia-cord-cuttingJason Del Rey2019-11-18T13:28:34-05:002019-11-18T13:28:34-05:00How to follow (and listen to) Recode’s Code Media conference in Los Angeles
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<figcaption>Adam Tow</figcaption>
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<p>Leaders at Facebook, Verizon Media, Condé Nast, and more join us this week. </p> <p id="41CL4X">Recode’s annual Code Media conference kicks off on Monday, November 18, in Los Angeles. Senior Media Correspondent Peter Kafka will be hosting two days of hard-hitting, unscripted interviews with:</p>
<ul>
<li id="1H5XPA">Carolyn Everson, Vice President of Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook</li>
<li id="bMOF9K">Guru Gowrappan, CEO of Verizon Media</li>
<li id="vmFMM1">Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast</li>
<li id="iMAPhB">Jason Robins, CEO and co-founder of DraftKings</li>
<li id="qbHPiR">Tig Notaro, comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director</li>
<li id="7Bms9d">Erika Nardini, CEO of Barstool Sports</li>
</ul>
<p id="tQ7Fn2">That’s just part of our jam-packed schedule.</p>
<p id="An8oEo">If you aren’t able to join us in person, here’s how to follow everything happening on the Code Media 2019 stage:</p>
<h3 id="JtJMuq"><strong>Watch the full interviews</strong></h3>
<p id="IuUUFn">Every onstage interview will be available to stream on demand on Recode’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMDxbhGcsE7EnknxPEzC_Iw?view_as=subscriber">YouTube channel</a> after each session. Take a minute to subscribe to our channel and get updates as highlights and full-interview videos are made available.</p>
<h3 id="lEAWXF"><strong>Get live updates and breaking news</strong></h3>
<p id="rdPV3a">Follow Recode on <a href="http://twitter.com/recode">Twitter</a>. We’ll be live tweeting our onstage interviews using the #CodeMedia hashtag. We’ll also feature some exclusive behind-the-scenes highlights from the conference on <a href="http://instagram.com/recode">Instagram</a>.</p>
<h3 id="Vt2fT4"><strong>Looking for a daily recap?</strong></h3>
<p id="D9vCJc">We’re packing in a ton of interviews and presentations this year, plus all the up-to-the-minute coverage you know and love from Recode. <a href="https://events.recode.net/newsletters/subscribe/?utm_campaign=recode.social&utm_content=recode&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=apple-news">Subscribe to the Recode Daily</a> to get a daily digest of the biggest moments from the conference each morning.</p>
<h3 id="pz80dU"><strong>Hear all of this year’s interviews</strong></h3>
<p id="HTGjmv">Recode’s <a href="http://applepodcasts.com/recodemedia">Peter Kafka</a> hosts <em>Recode Media</em>, a podcast where he interviews leaders in tech, media, retail, e-commerce, and everything in between. Subscribe to hear all the interviews from Code Media.</p>
https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/18/20969675/code-media-conference-los-angeles-recode-tech-kara-swisher-peter-kafkaKat Borgerding