Managing Director at Upland Workshop. Former marketing director, startup exec, Bloomberg
@technology
reporter, deals reporter. Texan. Tar Heel. Thoughts mine.
✨Personal news✨ I’ve joined the incredible team at Upland Workshop to work with leaders and orgs to rethink how and where they tell their stories. Every move can be a potential anecdote in a killer narrative – psyched to combine my experience in journalism and marketing/comms
Elon Musk fired half Twitter's staff (and then, irreverently, some more) and asked employees to pledge for a new "hardcore" work life. Now, he's changed his tone to get people to stay.
Imagine that.
from
@KurtWagner8
@daveyalba
Meta confirms it’s firing 13% of its workforce — 11,000 people.
With the Twitter layoff, almost 15,000 people in the social media industry have lost their jobs in one week.
~Personal news~
Woo!! Back again! In two short weeks, I’m (re)starting with Bloomberg
@technology
to cover social media.
After some wild years helping found a social-commerce co and new social-first marketing teams, I'm bringing all that perspective back to reporting. Let's GO
“Determined bullshit detectors” has never been as good a compliment as when Meryl Streep spoke to the journalist crowd at the CPJ International Press Freedom Awards (IRL!!) honoring some truly amazing truth seekers.
I’m so pumped to say I’m joining Imran Khan’s new e-commerce company as Head of External Affairs. The team is fabulous, and I can’t wait to help build something new that I’m so excited about. Watch this space, y’all.
She's TikTok's Baba Yaga -- a warrior for women online -- turning misogynist trolls' tactics against them.
I chatted with ~the~
@DrewAfualo
in my first story back for
@BW
:
The US thinks TikTok is a major national security risk. TikTok is running out of ways to avoid a ban.
@annaedge4
and I break down the whole saga for
@BW
Magazine. The politics, the cultural impact, and how the company is dealing.
TikTok's leadership is discussing the possibility of a separation from ByteDance if the national security deal with the US falls through, sources tell me and
@livcarville
.
Scoop out now:
TikTok’s brought a group of creators to the Capitol ahead of the CEO’s testimony here tomorrow. They’re sharing how they depend on the app for their businesses, jobs as creators and community. But is it enough to sway lawmakers not to ban TikTok?
I'm psyched to say that I'll be covering technology M&A for my stellar
@BloombergDeals
team. I'll be moving to San Francisco early next year to work closely with the
@business
tech team.
Standby for some personal news tweets... It’s been 7.5 years since I started my first internship at Bloomberg
@business
, and now it’s time for something new.
Meta CEO Zuckerberg says he was “wrong” to think users would spend as much time on the internet and shopping online as they did during the pandemic.
Firing 11,000 people was a “last resort” that they’ve now arrived at, he said.
Is campaigning on TikTok worth it? I took a dive into TikTok star Katie Porter’s US Senate run in California.
It was supposed to show the political benefits of the app, but it may have illustrated its shortcomings instead.
I’m so freakin proud to have worked with the best in the industry:
@BloombergDeals
,
@technology
,
@BloombergTV
and countless others. I’ll miss the chase of breaking news and IPO-day interviews, but it’s the people at Bloomberg I’ll miss most of all (y’all know who you are).
Even if TikTok had a new owner, the dangers of online data sharing remain.
“If you think of the internet ecosystem as a colander with a million holes in it, I don’t know why they think plugging one of those tiny holes is going to fix these problems”…
On TikTok, people killed by Hamas are being reanimated in deepfake videos that can get millions of views. They're against the app's rules but TikTok isn't catching them, even when they go viral or have gruesome descriptions of how they died.
My latest:
@annaedge4
@BW
TikTok has struggled to hire seasoned, public-facing executives willing to thrust themselves in front of anti-China politicians and defend TikTok’s scruples, sources tell me.
One of many scoopy bits in our big take on TikTok's fight to exist in the US.
Remember, Dropbox has already said it's profitable (ex-ITDA) and reached $1B in annualized sales.
Very different financial profile than Snap at its IPO (never profitable, $404M in annual revenue).
Coming up on Bloomberg
@technology
: Me, in the anchor chair!
We’ll talk our IBM-Red Hat deal scoop, how social media changed the Brazilian election, new Apple gadgets and more...
Watch on
@BloombergTV
5p ET/ 2p PT!
TikTok divest-or-ban bill passed the House with a 360 to 58 vote. It's on a fast-track, tied to aid for Ukraine and Israel that could see it become law within days.
$SNAP at an all-time low, trading at less than half IPO price. Valuation: $10.4 billion, but still more richly valued than peers at 9x 2018 sales estimates.
Twitter: $21.2 billion (7.3x)
Facebook: $459.6 billion (8.3x)
Wearing head to toe lulu and a pink Apple Watch after my equinox spin class, I just walked smack into the glass door at Blue Barn bc I was distracted by my music+insta feed.
A doggone wake up call that I gone turned into a dang Marina chick. ~*represses self loathing*~
The digital ad duopoly of Meta and Alphabet will see its biggest threats in 2023 from some of the most formidable rivals.
New for
@BW
’s Year Ahead issue:
Y’all! I’m back in the interview game with the 1st shoppable podcast: "Finding Inspo with Alex Barinka."
On
@InspoPodcast
, I'll chat with moguls in fashion, beauty and decor about their careers, lives and style. We’ll curate a special shop
@Verishop_news
.
Custom chips, AI coding tools, supercomputers: The quest for AI leadership is expensive, and Meta's spending at record levels.
Here's what Meta's been working on behind the scenes and how it'll change its business today and in the future:
Late breaking from
@JenniferJJacobs
and me… Personnel shuffle at TikTok and it’s parent company amidst US government scrutiny:
ByteDance’s general counsel is no longer overseeing US government relations for TikTok, per sources.
The best part? Working alongside literal powerhouses like
@sarahfrier
,
@KurtWagner8
and the phenom Bloomberg
@business
team I grew up as a tech and deals reporter with.
See y'all June 27!
Here's my obligatory First Day of School Selfie. I figured day lilies were a good choice. They signify joy and new beginnings. Incredibly grateful and fired up for this one at
@stitchfix
!