November 3rd
It’s time once again for the Trippant Takeaways – stories that put the spotlight on trends, best practice and provocative ideas in communications across sport, entertainment, technology and culture.
The Verge and Fortune, on Elon’s Twitter takeover
The world’s richest man is the new owner of Twitter.
Months after agreeing a $44 billion deal with the company’s board, Elon Musk has finally completed his takeover of the media’s favourite social media company. Opinions vary – albeit not by much – on the wisdom of the move, which has partly been motivated by opportunity, partly by ego, and partly by the fact that Delaware courts stopped Musk backing out when he thought better of it.
Twitter could yet soar to new heights as a revived internet powerhouse, but the early reviews of plans like reforming content moderation and charging for blue-tick verification have not been great.
Internet culture expert Ryan Broderick – whose Garbage Day newsletter is a reliably insightful read – does a great job of interrogating Musk’s strategy in a changing social media ecosystem, while The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel metes out an even more brutal dose of reality.
The New York Times explores investment in Indian cricket
The eyes of the cricket world are focused right now on Australia, where the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is nearing its closing stages, but the sport’s centre of gravity has for some time been India.
As the New York Times reports, the sheer commercial power of the IPL is now interesting heavyweight American investors – and that could have implications for all of global sport.
Tech Crunch reports on Disney’s merch shop
Disney’s brand is about stories but also about experiences and merchandise – theme parks, toys and cruises as well as movies and cartoons – so it was probably only a matter of time before it looked at adding ecommerce to the IP-rich Disney+ platform.
The Financial Times covers Zuckerberg’s Metaverse spending binge
Meta’s well-documented financial and strategic issues may have dampened the hype around the metaverse but technology is going to deliver more immersive media experiences.
Warner Bros Discovery on the Cube
Warner Bros Discovery-owned broadcaster Eurosport has often been ahead of the curve in AR with on-screen innovations like the Cube and its new partnership with Infinite Reality should be worth watching, so to speak.
The Financial Times and the Independent on the future of English club rugby
Rugby union is facing considerable difficulties in Europe at the moment and it has become clear that there may be fundamental changes ahead for its commercial models.
Whatever decisions are made, star players are sure to be more central to its identity than ever before – and England players will be easier to spot in their upcoming autumn internationals…
The Atlantic on why analytics have ruined baseball
The MLB season has reached its World Series climax and that means it’s time for American commentators to return to one of their favourite 21st century pastimes: asking why people don’t watch as much baseball as they used to.
One theory among many is that the successful use of analytics has created an improved, yet more predictable game. The modern application of data, of course, goes far beyond the ballpark, and the Atlantic asks if understanding what works is working out well for everybody.
Fast Company on Helveticas’ evil twin
When it comes to fonts, most people are no experts but they know what they hate. Nobody ever really hated Helvetica… until now:
The Wall Street Journal uncovers the dirty underbelly of professional cornhole
Cheating scandals have been hitting everywhere from chess to Irish dancing in the past few weeks. And the corruption keeps spreading from niche to niche, with the American sport of professional cornhole the latest to feel the reputational sting…
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