The Most Important Story of the Week

Are you still here? I only ask because we’re getting awful close to the holidays, a time when internet traffic in the Western world tends to plummet. Coincidentally, it’s weird that news websites and social media use plummets during the holiday season, isn’t it? That would imply that, instead of

Let’s talk about “the wisdom of crowds”. Traditionally, this is the idea that if you independently ask a bunch of people for their opinion on something, as individuals, most of them are wrong, but collectively, their estimates are right. The go-to example is the “count the jellybeans” classroom experiment. A

Here’s some things that analysts, pundits, politicians, economists and journalists have predicted over the last couple of years: – At the start of Covid-19 pandemic, car manufacturers knew/predicted that a recession was coming and cut back on orders for parts, anticipating lower car sales. – Last summer, everyone assumed/predicted that

Before Sunday, my plan for this week’s “most important story” was to figure out whether or not America is entering a recession. For real this time, not like in Q3 when everyone was worried that we were in a recession, but then the economy actually grew more than inflation.  (In

This is probably a bit of a rarity for me, but the most important story of the week isn’t even a full story, but two paragraphs in one article on one small story. And that story is MoviePass, specifically a new lawsuit filed by federal prosecutors alleging that the heads

Later today—depending when this actually gets published!—Netflix will kick off “entertainment” earnings season with their Q3 results.  It feels a pinch anticlimactic, doesn’t it? They announced the details to their ad-supported tier last week, which got a lot of press, and unlike their earnings call in July, we’re not waiting

Disney CEO Bob Chapek is everywhere lately, isn’t he? He did sit downs with THR, Variety and Deadline during D23, gave an interview to CNBC after that, and spoke at Goldman Sachs “Communacopia & Tech Conference”, an entertainment conference.  (I should say, “another” entertainment conference. By my count, there are

Often, the “buzziest” stories aren’t the most important stories for the entertainment industry, even if they get a lot of clicks. But since my last “most important story of the week” column, one story was both the most talked about and probably the most important: HBO Max removed even more

Mid-way through last week, big news started dropping about Warner Bros. Discovery.  First, Warner Bros. killed The Batgirl a $75-$100 million dollar picture to, allegedly, get a tax write-off worth more than the costs of finishing the special effects. Then Reddit sleuths realized that HBO Max had already removed a

Sometimes, you really need to make sure your perspective is in order. As you’ll see below, when I looked for the “most important story” for July, I had a few fun options to choose from—thank you to all the great suggestions on Twitter!— but I risked missing the forest for