This might be it. Again, WSJ not paywalled!
I haven’t advertside on twitter in a number of years, but it was set up where you could turn it on or off, or up or down, at any time.
It’s probable that larger companies get a better deal if they commit to ad buys, though.
Paywalled for me. Tried turning off adblocks, anonymous browser window. No dice
I got a pop up about a subscription, but could continue reading after closing it.
Windows desktop, chrome and firefox – I get the subscribe box and it’s uncloseable.
Opened for me in Firefox with adblocker on. Another alternative is using a private window whcih sometimes makes a difference
Misleading headline alert! It should say:
Twitter’s Advertising Exodus Accelerates Even Faster After Outreach From Elon Musk
I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that regardless of what the future holds for Twitter, this period in its history will be a case study in business schools for a long time to come, and none of it will be complementary to Musk.
I’ve mentioned before my boundless admiration for Lou Gerstner and his leadership in turning around IBM. (Disclaimer: I’ve been in the tech industry all my life, though never worked for IBM, which I always regarded as more of a marketing organization than a technology company, notwithstanding the innovators at the labs of IBM Research.) My knowledge of Gerstner comes mainly from news stories and from reading his excellent book about his tenure at IBM, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?
That said, I believe his success was the result of his deep understanding of fundamental business principles and his ability to grasp the strengths of IBM, to listen to knowledgeable veterans, and to build support and employee loyalties. One of the first things he did was reverse his predecessor’s attempt to break up IBM into separate businesses aligned with its product lines, recognizing that IBM had unique capabilities in its broad technological expertise to do something very few other businesses were equipped to do: deliver integrated solutions to its customers.
Now, imagine for a moment that instead of Gerstner, Elon Musk had been parachuted in to save IBM. Imagine for a moment Elmo’s arrogant, autocratic, pathologically narcissistic and, frankly, deranged world-views, delusional misconceptions, and toxic values trying to do the same thing. Imagine him starting out by firing half the employees and threatening the other half. Imagine the outcome.
…this is from an anon source, but nothing in it seems either outlandish or out-of-line with everything else we already know.
I work in advertising; many of my clients spend heavily on social media (though most of them don’t do much on Twitter). What is described in that article makes my skin crawl; if my clients were seeing things like that happening to their ads that we were running/placing for them, they would be screaming at us to pull everything, immediately.
…they added this in the comments:
So they can’t even get accurate metrics any more, and they don’t even have an account manager to help them get it fixed.
Since you already read the article, the place to find it is not in Google but in your browser history (search your history for Twitter). From that you may be able to recognize the title.
Elon says the advertisers aren’t fleeing because of anything he did - it’s because the wokes are blackmailing him, and that’s why he had no choice but to unban Trump.
I’m sure that agreement is just as real as his degree in physics.
If I had Twitter, I’d probably reply something like, “oh my god, Mr. Musk, how awful! Please name names immediately so that we can put pressure on them!”
On the other hand, he’d probably just accuse anyone he wanted to, knowing that his fans would harass them without paying the least attention to denials.
Wow, Musk has completely lost touch with reality. He’s finally gone full-on crazy, apparently experiencing paranoid delusions, and just making things up on the spur of the moment.
I believe he passed that point when he started claiming that some of Twitter’s employees weren’t real people.
“I proved beyond a shadow of a doubt with geometric logic that the activist groups did steal my advertising, and I would have produced the evidence if the engineering crew hadn’t all quit…”
I have so many, many questions for Elmo, it’s hard to even know where to start.
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Who are these “political/social” activist groups? Can you name them?
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When did you meet with them to make this “deal” that no one ever heard of before? Who were the representatives of this awesome “coalition”? Was any of this “deal” put in writing? Can you show us the contract?
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Were you aware that Twitter already had a moderation council responsible for ethical oversight? Why did you feel the need to create one?
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Why was it necessary for this mysterious “coalition of political/social activist groups” to blackmail you into promising to establish a moderation council, one which in fact already existed? Isn’t such an independent oversight body fundamental to ethical governance? Why would you need to be blackmailed into doing something ethical?
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Most importantly, Elmo, I’m fascinated by how this “coalition of political/social activist groups” has such ironclad control over the advertising industry that they can threaten to pull ads from anyone they don’t like. How do they wield this awesome power? Does it involve Jewish space lasers?