stephanie smith

Former news producer, current news junkie. Media strategist. Storyteller. Defender of democracy and journalism. #politics #reputation #newsie #journalism

[Big Cat @BarstoolBigCat]

Lisa Salters somewhere down there

[Dylan Byers @DylanByers]

Nothing but respect for the @axios team (genuinely) but what’s right in here I’ve already reported and what’s wrong in here should be abundantly clear to anyone who knows the players … I’ll have more in my next email on Wednesday.

[stephanie smith @SSmithNYC]

@therecount Jumbotron cut away even faster.

[stephanie smith @SSmithNYC]

@brianstelter They cut away quickly.

[Brian Stelter @brianstelter]

Here's what the booing sounded like inside MSG when Trump was shown on the Jumbotron:

[stephanie smith @SSmithNYC]

Thank you MSG

[Ed O'Keefe @edokeefe]

@nyknicks @SecretaryBurgum @SecDuffy @kaitrump @TheGarden TRUMP indisputably booed loudly at 8:36pm when they put an image of a saluting President Trump on the Jumbotron during the National Anthem.

[Jonathan Lemire @JonLemire]

Very loud boos on the broadcast when President Trump appears on camera at MSG

[Tom Hindle @Tom_Hindle_]

Breaking: there will be a free watch party for the World Cup final on the great lawn for Central Park.

Estimated 50k attendees and a half time show.

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

Some numbers on FIFA World Cup 2026 ticket fiasco:

▫️first year FIFA fully controlled ticket sales

▫️ticket prices are 2x Qatar 2022 and 4x USA 1994 (adj. for inflation)

▫️cheapest group stage is $200 and cheapest final is $2,030

▫️FIFA official ticketing site does dynamic pricing (95 of 104 matches saw price hikes; average hike of 35%) and also takes a 15% cut on resales (from the buyer and the seller)

▫️plans to make $3B from tickets in 2026 vs. $1B in Qatar 2022

▫️$3B on tickets equal to Qatar 2022’s revenue from broadcast rights (these rights are the tournament’s cash cow; $4B expected in 2026)

▫️ from 2022 to 2026, projected ticket revenue is up 3x while broadcast rights only up 1.3x

▫️total revenue for World Cup 2026 projected at $11B vs. $8B for Qatar 2022

▫️ticket-revenue maxxxing plan also benefits from FIFA expanding to 48 teams and 104 matches (Qatar had 32 teams and 64 matches)

In the past, FIFA was fine to underprice ticketing because it only contributed 10-15% of total revenue (rest was broadcast, marketing and licensing).

In 2026, clearly wanted to milk the juicy North American live events market (see: Knicks vs. Spurs Game 3) and ticketing is projected to make up 27% of total revenue (with 75% of 104 games in US).

FIFA says its approach is to fight bots and scalpers. The website is opaque, glitchy AF and sucks, though.

Great strategy to annoy fans. Meanwhile, NY/NJ hit FIFA with subpoena to reveal mechanics behind its ticketing process.

Ton of group stage games with unsold inventory. Unless FIFA wants empty swathes of seats in stadium, forced to dump tix on SeatGeek or StubHub (both deny having a direct relationship with FIFA).

Resale market prices tanking, which is pissing off fans that paid full upfront (a lot already decided not to go due to initial sticker shock and FIFA creating artificial scarcity months ago).

Most expensive team to follow is Brazil: estimated $3,800 to see all 3 group stage games (followed by Portugal, Scotland, USA and Argentina).

***

Charts via The Economist: https://t.co/QdUAmLWiWi

Timeline of FIFA ticketing: https://t.co/RU6QTsQKS8

[Me & Bobby McGee @NathanDeNeptuno]

How many years of vocal training and technique does it take to be lifted by a harness, hook your legs to lift a man weighing over 80kg, and perform such clean vocal belting live?
Are you grasping the magnitude of complexity of those 11 seconds?

[Aaron Levie @levie]

This is what the market got wrong about AI eating enterprise software. Building good software in the past was very hard. Yes, AI has made that a bit easier, though it’s still hard to build something that’s got good taste, differentiated, high quality, secure, and so on.

But nevertheless, that’s only one component of building a platform that enterprises rely on. The plurality of costs in most enterprise software companies is actually on GTM, because at scale most enterprise software categories are tough to break into and need a heavy amount of consultative selling and support for implementation and integration of solutions.

AI hasn’t reduced the need for that, and in many cases requires it even more now, as landscapes get even more busy and complicated for buyers to navigate through. If you make one thing cheaper and more abundant (development of software) then the new problem of discoverability and market differentiation (GTM) becomes the hardest part.

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

“If you think the world is selfish and rotten, go to the cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer overlooking Omaha Beach. See what one group of men did for another on D-Day, June 6th, 1944.” — Andy Rooney

[EMSC @LastQuake]

#Earthquake (#sismo) possibly felt 3 min 14 sec ago in #NewYork. Felt it? Tell us via:
📱https://t.co/QMSpuj6Z2H
🌐https://t.co/AXvOM7I4Th
🖥https://t.co/wPtMW5ND1t
⚠ Automatic crowdsourced detection, not seismically verified yet. More info soon!

[stephanie smith @SSmithNYC]

https://t.co/fxcPq8dZhq

[stephanie smith @SSmithNYC]

Scott Pelley on the Bari Weiss Era and His Last Days at ‘60 Minutes’ https://t.co/fxcPq8dZhq via @NYTimes

[Donny Deutsch @DonnyDeutsch]

Message to Mamdani and Trump from a life long lover of The Knicks and NYC

[Xavier Becerra @XavierBecerra]

California has spoken. Thank you for standing with us. To every volunteer who made a call, sent a text, knocked a door, or showed up when it mattered most — this victory belongs to you.

We're just getting started. On to November.

[Jonathan Richie @JRichieTX]

After posting that a second NWS case had been confirmed in Zavala County, USDA Sec. Brooke Rollins deletes the announcement.

Here is what the original post said:

[Bill Kristol @BillKristol]

“‘If the government decides, very quickly, to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty — nothing can be done?’ the judge asked. ‘I think that’s right, yes,’ [Trump DOJ attorney] Roth responded.”

https://t.co/VpCm7TzrHk