Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI TECH SCROLL: Disney+ to increase pricing amid Jimmy Kimmel scandal, 404 Media is suing ICE + Wired's new strategy

Transcript

MINI TECH SCROLL: Disney+ to increase pricing amid Jimmy Kimmel scandal, 404 Media is suing ICE + Wired's new strategy · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  This episode of Mini Tech Scroll is brought to you by Blackbird,
• 0:04
  a venture capital firm investing in Aussie and Kiwi startups.
• 0:07
  From the very beginning, Blackbird invests in all kinds
• 0:11
  of technology. So if you have a big idea but
• 0:13
  need to raise investment to turn it into reality, learn more and
• 0:17
  connect with the Blackbird team through the link in the show
• 0:19
  notes. Hi everyone, welcome to Mini
• 0:23
  Tech Scroll, the daily Internet culture podcast bringing you the
• 0:26
  biggest stories from social media, the creator economy, and
• 0:29
  the digital space. Every Monday through Thursday
• 0:32
  and sometimes Fridays. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
• 0:35
  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
• 0:40
  Welcome to mini tech scroll today, you guys.
• 0:44
  Annabelle is off this week, so you guys get me instead.
• 0:47
  So let's get into it. But before I do, Please remember
• 0:51
  to rate, review and subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US.
• 0:54
  We're trying to get to 1000 by the end of the year.
• 0:57
  OK, so there actually has been some TikTok band news, but that
• 1:02
  has become basically Annabelle's like entire personal brand.
• 1:05
  It's like her entire beat at this company is talking about
• 1:08
  the TikTok ban. So I'm going to leave that story
• 1:10
  for her to report on next week because I think by then we'll
• 1:13
  also have more developments anyways.
• 1:15
  All right, the first story that I have for you guys is that
• 1:18
  Disney Plus is to increase its pricing following the Jimmy
• 1:23
  Kimmel boycott scandal. Last week, the Disney owned
• 1:27
  broadcaster ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel's talk show indefinitely
• 1:32
  after comments that Kimmel made about Charlie Kirk saying,
• 1:35
  quote, many in Magaland are working very hard to capitalize
• 1:39
  on the murder of Charlie Kirk. And that, quote, the Maggie Gang
• 1:42
  is desperately trying to characterize the kid who
• 1:45
  murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.
• 1:48
  After these comments, Trump posted on social media that
• 1:51
  Kimmel's suspension was great news for America and called for
• 1:55
  him to be fired. According to Routers.
• 1:58
  The FCC, which stands for Federal Communications
• 2:01
  Commission, confirmed Monday that, quote, government pressure
• 2:04
  played a role in the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel.
• 2:07
  This led to a huge boycott of Disney where we saw users all
• 2:11
  over social media posting about canceling their Disney Plus
• 2:13
  subscriptions, canceling trips to Disney, even canceling Disney
• 2:18
  weddings that they had booked, canceling Disney cruises.
• 2:22
  You know, there's actually no way to know how much money
• 2:25
  Disney lost in this. I was like really trying to find
• 2:28
  a number. There's $4.4 billion like
• 2:31
  floating around the Internet. But I think that's in relation
• 2:34
  to share price. It's not in relation to, you
• 2:37
  know, cancelling subscriptions and trips and all that kind of
• 2:40
  stuff. But regardless, this was a
• 2:42
  massive deal for a lot of people.
• 2:44
  I'm going to say they've lost at least 10s of thousands of
• 2:46
  dollars, if not probably hundreds of thousands, maybe
• 2:48
  even millions. Like honestly, who knows?
• 2:50
  Jimmy Kimmel has been reinstated.
• 2:52
  I actually think he's probably about to go on air as I'm
• 2:55
  recording this right now. But amid this whole scandal,
• 2:59
  yesterday, Disney announced that they are increasing their
• 3:02
  subscription prices by $2.00 a month starting in October.
• 3:07
  This is from The Verge, quote. Journalist Marissa Cabas
• 3:09
  reported on Monday that Disney's rush to restore Kimmel's show
• 3:13
  may have been motivated by the planned Disney Plus price
• 3:16
  increases. Citing an unnamed Disney source,
• 3:19
  Cabas said that quote with subscriptions hemorrhaging since
• 3:22
  last week, they couldn't risk losing more our users with this
• 3:25
  announcement. I don't understand from APR
• 3:28
  perspective why even if this price increase was planned pre
• 3:32
  Jimmy Kimmel situation, which I believe it was, like that's
• 3:35
  what's being reported, why would they not just wait?
• 3:38
  Like maybe you just work so far ahead in these corporations and,
• 3:42
  you know, projects are well underway.
• 3:43
  There's no way to put a halt on this.
• 3:46
  I just can't imagine that though.
• 3:47
  Like, could you not wait until this blows over a bit and then,
• 3:51
  you know, increase the prices made your XD or even like Q1 or
• 3:55
  something? I'm just like, really shocked by
• 3:57
  this. I also read Bob Iger's book.
• 4:01
  He's like the CEO of Disney. And I read it because it is kind
• 4:05
  of like a how to do business type of book.
• 4:07
  It's like a memoir mixed with like business advice.
• 4:10
  And I don't really remember a ton of it.
• 4:12
  But what I do remember from it is that I felt very confused
• 4:15
  about where he stood on like political and social issues
• 4:19
  because he is absolutely like, I'm a Democrat, you know, I
• 4:23
  believe in XY, I said on the left.
• 4:25
  But then, you know, he talks about how he has these close
• 4:29
  relationships with like Rupert Murdoch.
• 4:31
  And I don't know, it was all very confusing to me.
• 4:35
  But the other thing that I did take away from it, which is
• 4:38
  unrelated to this story and honestly just unrelated to
• 4:41
  Disney in general. But he talks about like some of
• 4:44
  the worst moments in his career, like the hardest days of his
• 4:47
  career. And they are so horrific, the
• 4:49
  stories that he's telling that I'm like, wow, wow.
• 4:53
  Like I think I have it tough running my like a tiny
• 4:57
  independent media brand. Like, I truly have no idea.
• 5:00
  If you ever want to feel better about your career, you actually
• 5:02
  should listen or read books. I always like listen to them as
• 5:05
  audiobooks, but like, read books by people who are like CEO's of
• 5:10
  giant corporations like that or like founders of really big
• 5:13
  multinationals because it will make you feel very good about
• 5:16
  your competency and like the problems that you are facing at
• 5:19
  work. But I'm not promoting this book,
• 5:21
  OK? Because right now we don't like
• 5:22
  Bob Arger. OK.
• 5:23
  So the next three that I have for you guys is Four O 4 Media
• 5:27
  is actually suing ICE in the US. This is really interesting.
• 5:31
  On Monday, tech outlet Four O 4 Media filed A lawsuit against
• 5:35
  ICE in the US, demanding that the agency release details of a
• 5:39
  $2 million contract. It's signed with Paragon.
• 5:43
  Paragon is a company that sells spyware capable of remotely
• 5:46
  breaking into smartphones without users clicking a link.
• 5:50
  The deal between ICE and Paragon alarmed activists and lawmakers,
• 5:54
  who worry that ICE could use the technology to expand its
• 5:57
  controversial mass deportation tactics.
• 6:00
  By suing Four O, 4 Media hopes to uncover what ICE actually
• 6:03
  intends to do with the spyware and make that public.
• 6:06
  This is true journalism, OK? The lawsuit says, Quote Four O 4
• 6:11
  Media has asked ICE to disclose agency records relating to its
• 6:14
  contract with a company known for its powerful spyware tool,
• 6:17
  whose potential to use the agency's ongoing mass
• 6:20
  deportation campaign has prompted lawmakers, civil
• 6:23
  liberties organizations and immigration groups to express
• 6:26
  deep concerns over potential civil rights abuses.
• 6:30
  OK, here's the back story on how we got here.
• 6:33
  Four O 4 Media first filed a Freedom of Information Act
• 6:36
  request back in September 2024, asking for records tied to Ice's
• 6:41
  Paragon purchase. Federal agencies are supposed to
• 6:44
  respond within 20 days, or at least explain why they need more
• 6:48
  time than 20 days, and ICE acknowledged receiving the
• 6:51
  request but never followed up, which led to Four O 4 Media
• 6:54
  suing, According to Wired, ICE signed the contract with
• 6:58
  Paragon's US arm in September 2024, which I guess is what
• 7:01
  prompted Four O 4 Media to file the Freedom of Information Act.
• 7:05
  Shortly afterward, the Biden White House froze the deal to
• 7:09
  review whether it violated an executive order restricting
• 7:12
  government spyware use. But in August 2025, ICE
• 7:16
  reportedly reactivated the contract.
• 7:19
  The Paragon ICE deal covers quote a fully configured
• 7:22
  proprietary solution, including license, hardware, warranty,
• 7:25
  maintenance and training, according to a federal
• 7:28
  procurement database. It is unclear whether ICE bought
• 7:31
  a custom system or if it bought Graphite, which is Paragon's
• 7:35
  flagship spyware. Graphite is a spyware capable of
• 7:39
  letting police break into WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger,
• 7:42
  Signal, all of those kinds of apps without taking over the
• 7:46
  full device. Pretty scary.
• 7:49
  So this is what Four O 4 Media wrote about the whole situation.
• 7:52
  Quote Paragon has positioned itself as a more ethical player
• 7:55
  in the scandal and abuse ridden government spyware industry.
• 7:59
  Selling to ICE, an agency that has flaunted due process,
• 8:03
  accountability and transparency, may complicate that stance for
• 8:06
  Paragon. ICE has arrested people who were
• 8:09
  following the steps necessary for legal immigration, waited
• 8:13
  outside courtrooms to immediately detain people after
• 8:15
  their immigration cases were dismissed to rush them out the
• 8:18
  country. Quote D documented people who
• 8:21
  had valid work permits in order to deport them, and continues to
• 8:25
  pick up people around the country while masking their
• 8:27
  faces and declining to provide their names.
• 8:31
  When they posted about this, they I think they tweeted or
• 8:34
  maybe it wasn't Twitter 'cause I'm like never on Twitter
• 8:35
  anymore. Maybe it was threads.
• 8:36
  I saw this on Annabelle the other day was like, you are low
• 8:39
  key like a thread stand. And I'm not, I actually never
• 8:42
  open threads myself, but you know, you always get sucked in
• 8:46
  when you're on Instagram and then it's like a thread you
• 8:48
  might like and I'm always like, yes, I actually do want to click
• 8:51
  into that. I do want to read that thread.
• 8:53
  That's like coming up on my feed.
• 8:55
  So yes, I think it was maybe threads or maybe it was blue
• 8:57
  sky. Anyways, in whenever they posted
• 8:59
  this article about this, they said that, you know, it's really
• 9:03
  tough as they're independent, like four O 4 is I think through
• 9:07
  user subscription. It's independent journalism.
• 9:10
  You know, this is going to be very costly and very risky for
• 9:13
  them to try and sue ice. So it's really honorable and I
• 9:18
  think it's setting a really amazing precedent for
• 9:22
  journalism, especially amid like whatever is going on right now
• 9:25
  in the world and specifically in the US is really brave of them.
• 9:29
  It's really amazing. So yeah, I'll keep you guys
• 9:32
  posted or I guess Annabelle might keep you guys posted if we
• 9:34
  find out anything more about this.
• 9:36
  OK, And the last word that I have for you guys is that this
• 9:39
  is like more tech media news. Can you tell where my interests
• 9:42
  lie in the tech industry? Wired subscriptions have risen
• 9:46
  after the publication positioned journalists as influencers.
• 9:51
  So Wired, which is owned by Conde Nast, has rolled out a
• 9:55
  massive outdoor advertising campaign with billboards and
• 9:59
  murals around various cities across the US to celebrate
• 10:02
  positioning Wired journalists as influencers.
• 10:05
  So there's kind of like two things in this.
• 10:07
  I think it's really cool that they are doing this big media
• 10:10
  like outdoor advertising campaign as a publication.
• 10:13
  And then it's to celebrate this like very specific thing, which
• 10:15
  we'll talk about. So this is from Adweek quote for
• 10:18
  global editorial director Katie Drummond, who joined the
• 10:21
  publisher in September 2023 at the campaign represents more
• 10:25
  than marketing. It encapsulates her strategy of
• 10:28
  turning wires journalists into recognizable figures across
• 10:31
  platforms, from billboards to TikTok, and using their
• 10:34
  credibility to power both audience and revenue growth.
• 10:37
  She said we want to flood the zone in a very physical way with
• 10:40
  this cover. The idea is to take all the
• 10:43
  amazing journalism we've done this year and make a moment out
• 10:45
  of it. She's talking about the
• 10:47
  billboards and stuff there. So yeah, this is interesting for
• 10:49
  two reasons. Like I said, the fact that a
• 10:51
  publisher is engaging in like this kind of brand positioning
• 10:55
  play, this big brand awareness play, especially across outdoor
• 10:58
  advertising, is quite unique. That's not to say that media
• 11:02
  brands don't do their own, you know, advertising like that, but
• 11:05
  I think for a publisher, especially a technology focused
• 11:09
  digital publisher to be using other mediums as promotion is
• 11:14
  very interesting. And then second, this campaign
• 11:17
  celebrates for Wired an increase in subscriptions since
• 11:20
  transitioning to more personality driven media, like I
• 11:23
  said. So this is from the same ad week
• 11:26
  article quote. That connection between talent
• 11:28
  and business is most visible in Wired subscription metrics.
• 11:32
  The brand relaunched its offering in July, raising prices
• 11:36
  two to three times higher than before instead of deterring
• 11:39
  readers. Subscriptions rose 31% month
• 11:42
  over month, according to the publisher.
• 11:44
  Year to date, new subscription starts from January to September
• 11:47
  2025, or up 94% compared to the same period a year earlier,
• 11:53
  although the publisher declined to share specific subscription
• 11:56
  or financial figures. So yeah, there is definitely I'm
• 11:58
  sure some vanity metrics going on here.
• 12:00
  But regardless, I think this story really drives home what I
• 12:05
  have been trying to do with Centennial and like what I talk
• 12:08
  about all the time when I do different like media panels and
• 12:11
  even just like consulting and stuff.
• 12:12
  It's like in the age of AI, what is actually going to be
• 12:16
  successful for media brands and how we will regain audience
• 12:20
  trust and relevancy is being personality first, having a host
• 12:24
  of figures that front the brand. And that was a strategy that I
• 12:28
  went all in on at the end of 2023 when we decided to
• 12:32
  completely de prioritize our website.
• 12:34
  We no longer really publish on our.com.
• 12:36
  Well, especially now, I redesigned our entire website
• 12:39
  myself like a couple months ago and it's basically now just like
• 12:42
  a portfolio instead of a publication.
• 12:44
  But yeah, like no matter how much traffic we got on our.com,
• 12:47
  it didn't really make any difference to our actual like
• 12:50
  audience growth. You know, traffic is obviously
• 12:53
  not an audience. So we weren't building
• 12:56
  notoriety. We weren't building an audience
• 12:57
  that cared about us through our.com.
• 13:00
  And it really didn't make a difference to our bottom line
• 13:02
  from a revenue perspective. Brands did not want to work with
• 13:05
  us, especially because we are like, you know, an Internet
• 13:07
  culture like youth brand. They really didn't
• 13:10
  careaboutour.com, so it just made no sense anyways.
• 13:13
  But I could see, especially with AI coming, the direction of
• 13:16
  where media was going, it didn't make sense to focus on a.com
• 13:19
  anymore. What made sense was having
• 13:21
  personalities that can kind of front the brand.
• 13:24
  And that also makes sense for me as the founder who is mostly the
• 13:27
  face of the brand. You know, I cannot be the face
• 13:30
  of the brand forever if I want this to scale.
• 13:32
  So I need to start bringing in other personalities that you
• 13:36
  guys can like recognize and become fans of as well that will
• 13:40
  host some of our different podcasts and maybe eventually
• 13:42
  start creating content on TikTok for us and all of that so that I
• 13:45
  can eventually as well step back and like scale this from the
• 13:50
  top, if that makes sense. And it wasn't until we went
• 13:53
  podcast first, which is obviously at the end of the day,
• 13:55
  like personality first, right, that we really started to take
• 14:00
  off audience wise. But also we were able to tap
• 14:03
  into other revenue streams because now a lot of brands can
• 14:06
  put us in like the influencer category as well.
• 14:09
  So when a brand wants to work with us, even if they don't have
• 14:12
  media budget, which is typically where we sat before, they're
• 14:15
  like, OK, well, we can actually like fit you in to like our
• 14:18
  influencer budgets here because of the podcast, because I talk
• 14:21
  about the brand so publicly on my socials.
• 14:23
  Like there's all these ways around it now, which has been
• 14:25
  really interesting to figure out and try and make work.
• 14:28
  When you're trying to build a media brand in 2025, you have to
• 14:32
  be creative. All right, guys, well, that's it
• 14:34
  for mini tech scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
• 14:38
  I love you guys. Please rate review, unsubscribe
• 14:40
  please Spotify * Vedas and I will talk to you guys tomorrow
• 14:44
  for a regular mini scroll bye.