Tech and media companies are ditching user totals from their growth reports. Why now?

Jul 23, 2024
Instead, companies are opting to report other metrics of growth.
Some experts believe media companies are no longer reporting user totals to avoid potential doubt for future company growth.
Anna Barclay/Getty Images

Paramount hopes merger with Skydance will bolster its streaming operations

Jul 8, 2024
The challenge for streaming companies is not just getting subscribers, but also keeping them.
What can Skydance do to make Paramount a competitor in the age of heavyweight streaming services like Netflix?
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Why are media mergers so tough to pull off?

Apr 8, 2024
Corporate marriages are hard. And corporate marriages in the always-in-flux media business can be even harder.
A successful marriage of entertainment companies in the internet age is difficult — but not impossible.
Phil Walter/Getty Images

For some small businesses, creating content is big business

Nov 8, 2023
Many small business owners rely on content creation to boost sales, promote their brands and even generate additional revenue.
Video production on social media is a mainstay of content for small businesses. Sometimes it's meant to promote their offerings, but sometimes the content itself generates revenue.
demaerre/Getty Images

What does the future of the streaming economy look like?

Jan 24, 2023
"This battle that the big streamers are undertaking ... it could turn into a bloody battle, and there could be victims of it," said NYU professor Luis Cabral.
"If you look at Netflix, I mean, they spent billions of dollars, they've created a lot of good content. But it's an iffy proposition. What if it doesn't pan out?" said NYU professor Luis Cabral.
Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images

On their first date, this now-married couple decided to open a business

Dec 30, 2022
Aryn Henning Nichols and Benji Nichols run Inspire(d) magazine from Decorah, Iowa.
Benji Nichols and Aryn Henning Nichols of Decorah, Iowa.
Courtesy Aryn Henning Nichols/Silver Moon Photography

The big business of true crime 

Oct 31, 2022
The genre, cheaper than its scripted kin, has taken on a life of its own, with seemingly endless sub-genres on multiple platforms.
Police tape hangs across the street in front of the house that Dennis Rader lived in. Rader, known as the serial killer BTK, pleaded guilty to 10 murders over the span of nearly two decades.
Larry W. Smith/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

There's a new spate of working-class sitcoms, and they're not sold on the American dream

Jul 25, 2022
"They're sort of poking fun at the idea of upward mobility, of the American dream being something that's attainable," said Vulture's Roxana Hadadi.
Craig Robinson, left, and Rell Battle star in the new working-class comedy "Killing It."
Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Is this what the “metaverse” looks like?

Jun 1, 2022
“Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal takes a guided tour of a virtual world.
Kai Ryssdal explores a simulated conference room using a virtual reality headset.
Screenshot/Marketplace

BBC's funding system under fire amid viewership changes, Conservatives' hostility

Feb 1, 2022
Boris Johnson's government may scrap the national license fee that's funded the UK broadcaster for generations.
The BBC's primary revenue source, a compulsory annual fee paid by the British people, is  stirring vigorous opposition.
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images