Media Business

Twitter Outage Wednesday Follows Recent Layoffs

“When serious things break, the people who knew the systems aren’t there anymore.”

Published

1 year ago

March 1, 2023

Maddy Troy

Wikipedia

On Wednesday morning, Twitter experienced a widespread crash, with thousands of users reporting outages. According to Down Detector, the issues affecting Twitter started just after 5:15 AM ET and affected users worldwide.

The issue was resolved within approximately two hours. The crash appeared to impact user timelines, “Welcome to Twitter!” messages were in place of users usual feeds.

“It used to be that you’d see smaller things fail, but now Twitter is going down completely for certain regions of the world,” Saagar Jha, a Twitter engineer who left in May told The New York Times, “When serious things break, the people who knew the systems aren’t there anymore.”

In February, Twitter experienced four widespread outages, compared with a total of nine during the entire year in 2022, according to NetBlocks, an internet tracking organization.

The issues follow Musk’s intense staff cuts. Dozens of employees across sales and engineering teams were laid off last month, following the first round of layoffs in November.

Now, Twitter has less than 2,000 employees, down from 7,500 when Musk took over in October. The latest layoffs cut dozens of engineers responsible for keeping the site online, according to Deadline.

Maddy Troy

Maddy Troy serves as a writer and editor for Barrett News Media, with a specific focus on media business, advertising, and podcasting. You can find her on Twitter @Troy_Maddy.

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Media Business

Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Baltimore See Largest Political Ad Spends in Recent Weeks

President Joe Biden’s campaign has been the biggest spender, dropping $7.2 million.

Published

7 hours ago

April 19, 2024

BNM Staff

While much of the focus of political advertising is focused on the 2024 presidential election, there are important Congressional races, too. Metros like Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and Baltimore are the beneficiaries of those races.

According to information from AdImpact, $70.8 million has been spent in the political sector in the past two weeks. $3.7 million was spent in Indianapolis, while the Philadelphia market garnered $3.4 million and Baltimore saw $3.2 million in spending.

President Joe Biden’s campaign has been the biggest spender, dropping $7.2 million, according to Inside Radio. $1.7 million was spent in digital ads, while a PAC supporting Biden spent another $649,000.

Projections on the expected spending have fluctuated in recent months as ad spending has slowed after lackluster primary season saw former President Donald Trump effectively lock up the Republican nomination much earlier in the process than had been previously seen.

AdImpact forecasts $10.2 billion in the election cycle, which would be a new record.

BNM Staff

Media Business

Broadcasters Foundation of America Honors Six with Leadership Awards

The honors were bestowed at the Foundation’s annual breakfast at the NAB Show in Las Vegas.

Published

1 day ago

April 18, 2024

BNM Staff

A photo of the 2024 Broadcasters Foundation of America Leadership Award Winners

(Photo: Broadcasters Foundation of America)

The 2024 NAB Show in Las Vegas has wrapped up, and the Broadcasters Foundation of America honored six industry veterans with their Leadership Award.

At the foundation’s annual breakfast at the NAB Show, it honored several leaders.

Erica Farber — who stepped down as CEO of the Radio Advertising Bureau at the beginning of the month — was bestowed with the Lowry Mays Excellence in Broadcasting Award. The honor is named after Clear Channel founder Lowry Mays, who died in September 2022.

Six other individuals were honored with the Leadership Award. Those included:

Mike McVay, President of McVay Media
Kathleen Kirby, Partner at Wiley
Don Bouloukos, CBS and ABC Radio Executive
Frank Comerford, Chief Revenue Officer and President of Commercial Operations for NBCU Local
John Rouse, Executive Vice President ABC Affiliate Relations
Traug Keller, President of ABC Radio Networks and Senior Vice President of ESPN Radio

BNM Staff

Media Business

Fox News Digital Marks 3 Straight Years Leading Multiplatform Minutes

On average, the network featured 111 million unique visitors per month to its digital platforms, including 5.8 million unique visitors to its mobile app.

Published

2 days ago

April 18, 2024

BNM Staff

Fox News Digital finished the first quarter leading news brands in multiplatform minutes, marking the 12th consecutive quarter leading the category.

The network saw double-digit year-over-year growth in the sector with 9.8 billion multiplatform minutes, according to Comscore.

Additionally, Fox News led the first quarter in multiplatform views with 4.9 billion. On average, the network featured 111 million unique visitors per month to its digital platforms, including 5.8 million unique visitors to its mobile app in the first quarter.

Fox Business also saw victories in the business media sector. The YouTube channel for the network garnered 182 million views in the quarter, up 20% compared to the same time frame in 2023.

Also, FoxBusiness.com averaged 28.7 million unique visitors per month in the quarter, up 21% in year-over-year growth.

BNM Staff