|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TikTok Tells Advertisers It’s ‘Confident in the Future’; Zuckerberg Sees a World Filled With AI Friends; Public TV and Radio Stations Raise Money, Plan Cuts
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good morning. Today, TikTok paints a picture of stability for marketers; Meta’s CEO makes the rounds for his company’s latest investment thesis; and PBS and NPR stations try to plug the funding gap promised by an executive order.
|
|
|
|
|
|
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and Vivian Kao attended the Met Gala on Monday in New York City. PHOTO: DIA DIPASUPIL/GETTY IMAGES
|
|
|
|
|
|
TikTok on Tuesday evening tried to give advertisers faith that it’s in the U.S. to stay, Megan Graham writes for CMO Today.
“We are absolutely confident in our platform and confident in the future of this platform, so we’re going to continue to invest in it,” Khartoon Weiss, vice president of global business solutions at TikTok, said during a sales presentation to marketers in New York City.
President Trump last month extended the latest deadline for the app to find U.S. buyers or face a ban. He told NBC’s “Meet the Press” over the weekend that he would do it again if necessary, expressing a “warm spot” in his heart for TikTok. “It’ll be very strongly protected,” he said.
TikTok’s presentation comes as part of the annual upfronts sales season, when TV networks and digital platforms host glitzy events around New York ahead of negotiations for ad inventory in the coming year.
|
|
|
|
|
Content from our sponsor: Deloitte
|
|
|
Agentic AI Systems: Design Considerations
|
|
Multiagent AI systems can help transform traditional, rules-based processes into adaptive, cognitive ones. A systematic approach can help drive enterprise transformation. Read More
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Your AI Friends and Neighbors
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg at an AI developer conference last month. PHOTO: JEFF CHIU/ASSOCIATED PRESS
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mark Zuckerberg has been on a rare media blitz to sell his latest vision of the future, Meghan Bobrowsky reports.
AI will give people friends, the Meta CEO argued on a podcast last week. “The average American I think has, it’s fewer than three friends, three people they’d consider friends, and the average person has demand for meaningfully more, I think it’s like 15 friends,” he told Dwarkesh Patel.
On a separate podcast, Zuckerberg continued: “For people who don’t have a person who’s a therapist, I think everyone will have an AI.”
“I think people are going to want a system that knows them well and that kind of understands them in the way that their feed algorithms do,” he said yesterday during an onstage interview at Stripe’s annual conference.
Zuckerberg has had mixed success predicting the future, striking gold with social media but striking out so far on virtual worlds. The recent surge of appearances come as Meta is now throwing resources at AI chatbots.
The future is now: NBC will use AI to resurrect the voice of Jim Fagan, who narrated promos for the network’s old basketball coverage but died in 2017, when it gets the NBA back this fall. [THR]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$340,000
|
|
Starting price for the Cadillac Celestiq, a new luxury model designed to help reinvigorate Cadillac brand with unusual proportions and “very American” style. Leather floors and eucalyptus fiber mats cost extra.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Mother of All Pledge Drives
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Leaders of public television and radio stations are scrambling to figure out how to trim their budgets and plan for potentially dramatic future funding cuts. PHOTO: KATIE OYAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
|
|
|
|
|
|
Public TV and radio stations from Alabama to Idaho are launching donor drives, urging calls to Congress and rethinking new shows after President Trump issued an executive order calling for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cancel all possible funding, Joe Flint writes.
CPB is the umbrella organization that oversees government funding for Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio.
Public-media leaders say Trump is exceeding his authority and are expected to fight back in court. In the meantime, stations are planning for the worst.
“We now face the funding crisis we have been anticipating,” Nashville Public Radio CEO Steve Swenson said in a fundraising email to listeners Friday.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
‘Moana 2’ began streaming on Disney+ in March. PHOTO: WALT DISNEY STUDIOS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
|
|
|
|
|
|
Disney’s streaming profits increased to $336 million in its latest quarter, up from $47 million in the period a year earlier, as Disney+ subscribers unexpectedly grew. [WSJ]
Rockstar Games and Take-Two released a new trailer for “Grand Theft Auto VI,” just days after its expected release date into next spring. [VentureBeat]
Nike’s new signature shoe with WNBA star A’ja Wilson sold out online within one minute—partly by design. [Front Office Sports]
Footwear brand Keen said it won’t raise prices as a result of tariffs in 2025. [Footwear News]
The X Games named former Nike and Apple executive Kevin O’Connor its new chief marketing officer as it prepares to adopt a team-based league format. [Sportico]
CNN hired Choire Sicha, a veteran of New York, The New York Times and Gawker, to be its senior vice president of features editorial as the network continues its reinvention project. [Deadline]
X is looking to hire a communications leader to improve its standing with reporters. [BI]
Chuck Porter, former chairman of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, is making ads again, now as an advisor to tequila brand Suerte. [Ad Age]
Correction: Brawny is introducing a 3-ply version of its paper towels. I incorrectly called the brand Bounty in a Keep Reading item yesterday.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
