Twitter’s media breakup

Hi all, it’s Sarah Frier in San Francisco. The media are Twitter’s ultimate power users. What happens if they go? But first...Today’s must-r [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi all, it’s Sarah Frier in San Francisco. The media are Twitter’s ultimate power users. What happens if they go? But first... Today’s must-reads: • Intel will [work with Arm on chip outsourcing]( • Crypto VC funding [plunged 80%]( • Leaked secrets [spread faster on Discord and Telegram]( Unfollowed Twitter has an outsized influence on the news cycle in part because the media is there, promoting stories as they happen and getting inspired about what to write next. Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, takes advantage of this dynamic to promote his own products and ideas. But he’s also making changes that push the media away. Musk’s Twitter is facing some of its first major media organization boycotts. NPR will no longer use the site because Twitter labeled its accounts as “state-affiliated media,” a description it also uses for propaganda from Russia and China. (NPR is an editorially independent nonprofit, with a small fraction of its funding coming from federal agencies.) PBS is [pausing tweets]( after getting the same label and “has no plans to resume at this time,” a spokesman said. Unfortunately for Twitter, it’s easy for these organizations to take a stand against unfair treatment because the site generates so little of their traffic – only 2%, in NPR’s case, according to a spokesperson. Investing time and money there makes sense if you like doing it, as reporters and editors historically have. When it becomes more trouble than it’s worth, you can just move on without a major hit to your business. Twitter is having a similar problem with advertisers, which recognize that the audience there is so much smaller than it is on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat. Twitter had to increase its share of advertising dollars and media organization participation over many years through sheer relationship-building. Musk fired almost all of the people that had those key relationships. In a rambling Twitter Spaces interview with the BBC on Tuesday, Musk said there are just 1,500 employees left, down from around 8,000. NPR is one of the organizations that used to have close ties with Twitter’s partnerships team and would beta-test early versions of products. “It genuinely breaks my heart watching news orgs figure out whether to stay on this platform,” tweeted Lara Cohen, who used to run Twitter’s partnerships and marketing. “Newsrooms and journalists have always been the lifeblood of this place.” As an acknowledgement of journalists’ importance, the partnerships team individually verified reporters over many years, adding blue checkmarks to their accounts. Musk plans to get rid of those starting April 20, giving the media another reason to flee. If journalists depart Twitter over the long term, it’ll be a slow bleed. Some stopped coming to Twitter after Musk temporarily banned some reporters in the fall; others are hesitant to abandon a daily habit and a following built over many years. And there’s no other platform that is as deeply connected with what’s happening right now. Though journalists are experimenting with LinkedIn, Instagram and newer players like [Substack Notes](, no alternative has broken away from the pack yet. Musk relies on Twitter’s journalists to promote his musings to their off-Twitter audiences. And every time he does something rash – changing the Twitter logo to a Doge, for instance – it reliably reverberates in a flurry of news stories. After a cycle of Doge [coverage](, he tweeted: “I wish the media would stop flattering me all time.” Much as he likes to troll and alienate journalists, Musk may miss Twitter’s reporters the most. —[Sarah Frier](mailto:sfrier1@bloomberg.net) The big story One of tech’s cleanest companies is making tools for coal mines and oil drills. An activist is sparring with Autodesk to [stop the company from selling its products]( to fossil fuel companies. Get fully charged Apple assembled more than $7 billion of iPhones in India last fiscal year, tripling production there as it [accelerates its move beyond China](. Peloton’s growth appears to be slowing online, which [sent its stock tumbling](. An Apple supplier took a hit after analysts warned of a possible design change in the iPhone 15 that [could hurt the company](. Corporate technology spending slowed as companies [brace for a cooling global economy](. SoftBank sold its early-stage VC arm to a company [owned by Masayoshi Son’s younger brother](. A California bill to address social media addiction is [advancing in a narrower form](. More from Bloomberg Live event: The Bloomberg Green Summit is quickly approaching. Join us in New York on April 26 to hear from leaders in climate solutions. [Register here](. Get Bloomberg Tech weeklies in your inbox: - [Cyber Bulletin]( for coverage of the shadow world of hackers and cyber-espionage - [Game On]( for reporting on the video game business - [Power On]( for Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more - [Screentime]( for a front-row seat to the collision of Hollywood and Silicon Valley - [Soundbite]( for reporting on podcasting, the music industry and audio trends Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. 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