Amazonlikes to call itself "the everything store," but it's also on it's way to being the everywhere store, launching its 12th global marketplace Tuesday in Australia. But the retail reckoning that many observers had predicted when Amazon finally unveiled its Australian website didn't materialize, as customers shopping on Amazon.au found selection to be lacking and prices high, Reuters reports.
Why it matters: Stocks of Australian retailers like Myer Holdings department store rose on the news of Amazon's lackluster debut, but Australian retailers shouldn't get too comfortable. As the Australian Financial Review warned earlier this year, "While other companies dread making colossal mistakes, [Jeff] Bezos seems just not to care," arguing that Amazon's deep pockets and long-term outlook allow it to profit from the lessons learned through initial failure.
Netflix has dropped actor Danny Masterson from their show "The Ranch" after several women accused him of drugging and violently raping them in the early 2000s. The streaming service told HuffPost in a statement Tuesday that yesterday was Masterson's last day.
Timing: The news comes a day after Netflix confirmed that an executive told one of the accusers that the company doesn't believe the allegations, describing them as "careless" and "uninformed." Masterson's ouster also comes roughly a month after Netflix suspended "House of Cards" after the show's star, Kevin Spacey, was accused of sexual misconduct.
News Corp is taking aim at the digital-ad dominance of Google and Facebook with a new platform to let advertisers reach audiences across all of its online properties. The new platform, called News IQ, will pull audience data from sites like The Wall Street Journal, New York Post and Barron's and give advertisers a way to reach specific audiences around safe content.
Why it matters: News Corp is the latest publishing company to launch a data-based advertising network to win back digital ad dollars from Google and Facebook. Disney, NBC and Vox Media, and Verizon and Oath have all similar steps.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley didn't take on-the-record questions from reporters traveling with President Trump to Utah today, instead reading prepared statements and then offering to speak with reporters off-the-record, which reporters declined. As reported by the press pool:
"Gidley then made a motion with his hand at his neck to have the audio cut and said 'That being said all I have to offer you on the record is that I can go off the record to address a couple of issues but I can't give you anything on.'"
Why this matters: It's rare for a presidential spokesman to not take questions from the traveling press during a trip when no regular briefing was conducted in Washington.
Buyers of real Christmas trees paid on average $75 for their Christmas trees last year, up from $35 in 2013, according a survey commissioned by the National Christmas Tree Association, and spokesperson Doug Hundley says that wholesalers are reporting prices $80 or higher this season.
HBO 90-minute documentary on Ben Bradlee airs tonight at 8 p.m. Told primarily in his own words,The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee traces the ascent of the Watergate-era Washington Post executive editor from a young Boston boy stricken with polio to the one of the 20th century's most consequential journalists. Bradlee's son, Quinn Bradlee, is a co-producer.
HBO says: The Newspaperman features previously unseen home movies, photos, archival footage and interviews with a who's who of American journalism, Washington insiders, and family and friends: Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Quinn Bradlee, Courtland Milloy, David Maraniss, David Remnick, Don Graham, George Vaillant, Henry Kissinger, Ben Bradlee Jr., Jim Hoagland, Jim Lehrer, John Dean, Norman Lear, Richard Cohen, Robert Kaiser, Robert Redford, Sally Bedell Smith, Sally Quinn, Tina Brown and Tom Brokaw. See the trailer.
