The move that could make Threads a true threat to Twitter

Finally!

Threads is coming to a desktop near you — maybe even this week.

Back on July 5, Meta launched Threads, which was supposed to be an alternative, and perhaps chief rival, to Twitter. Many users of Twitter had been complaining about all the changes under owner Elon Musk and were looking for a real alternative to the popular social media platform. Along came Mark Zuckerberg and Meta’s Threads. Since users signed up through the already popular Instagram, which has some 2 billion users worldwide, Threads seemed to have a real chance to take on Twitter. It became the fastest app to reach 100 million downloads, doing so in just five days.

But there was one major drawback. Threads was available only on mobile devices through its app. There was no way to get it via a website.

Last Friday, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, said on Instagram that Meta is working on it. He said, “It’s a little bit buggy right now, you don’t want it just yet. As soon as it is ready we will share it with everybody else.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Salvador Rodriguez and Meghan Bobrowsky reported, “People familiar with Meta’s plans said it will launch early this week, although the launch plans aren’t final and could change.”

Threads certainly could use a boost. After the initial buzz following the app launch, the use of Threads has dropped off. For example, CNN’s Clare Duffy reported that two days after its launch, Threads had 49 million active users. But less than two weeks later that daily number was about 23.6 million. And the average usage time fell from 21 minutes to six. Meta admitted at the time that the app launch was, essentially, a bare-bones release. 

Having tens of millions of users is nothing to dismiss, but Twitter’s most recent quarterly earnings report put daily use at around 238 million users, and Musk recently said that number jumped to nearly 260 million.

Will finally getting a web version of Threads be a game-changer? I’m not sold just yet. Social media use is about habits and right now, for all its faults, Twitter remains a strong habit for its users.

To be fair, Threads is still very much in its infancy and it has been more impressive than any other potential rival to Twitter. Most of all, it has the power of Meta behind it.

It’s hard to say where Threads will go, but it’s safe to say that it wasn’t going to go any further without a web version.

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The big Musk story

Speaking of Musk, Ronan Farrow just dropped a major piece in The New Yorker about him. Farrow tweeted he has been working on it “over the past year.” It’s a long one — more than 30 magazine pages.

Like I said, it’s a whopper of a story and you should read it to get the full impact. But among the more eyebrow-raising revelations is Musk’s involvement in the war in Ukraine. Musk’s SpaceX was providing internet access in Ukraine — a valuable tool to help Ukraine plan attacks and defend itself against Russia. But, at one point according to Farrow’s reporting, Musk gave the Pentagon an ultimatum: “If it didn’t assume the cost of providing service in Ukraine, which the company calculated at some four hundred million dollars annually, it would cut off access.”

Musk also reportedly has talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin. LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman told Farrow that Musk "bought what Putin was selling, hook, line, and sinker.” After pushing for peace and seemingly repeating Russia’s talking points, Musk was slammed, leading him to clarify that he supported Ukraine.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Farrow, “Elon desperately wants the world to be saved. But only if he can be the one to save it.”

This is just one slice of the story.

Farrow’s story also talks about Musk's use of ketamine. Farrow wrote, “Associates suggested that Musk’s use has escalated in recent years, and that the drug, alongside his isolation and his increasingly embattled relationship with the press, might contribute to his tendency to make chaotic and impulsive statements and decisions. Amit Anand, a leading ketamine researcher, told me that it can contribute to unpredictable behavior. ‘A little bit of ketamine has an effect similar to alcohol. It can cause disinhibition, where you do and say things you otherwise would not,’ he said.”

Anand told Farrow, “You can feel grandiose and like you have special powers or special talents. People do impulsive things, they could do inadvisable things at work. The impact depends on the kind of work. For a librarian, there’s less risk. If you’re a pilot, it can cause big problems.”

What if you run a powerful social media company?

As I said, it’s nearly impossible to boil Farrow’s story down to a few paragraphs. My suggestion is to read it in its entirety. But you might want to bring a snack. It’ll take a while to get through.

Mark Levin: All over the story

Over the weekend, The New York Times’ Jonathan Swan, Jeremy W. Peters and Maggie Haberman wrote a story about Donald Trump with the headline: “Inside Trump’s Decision to Skip the G.O.P. Debate.” It was published before Trump made his announcement on Truth Social on Sunday that he would, indeed, skip the Republican presidential debates.

The Times story included an anecdote about Trump having dinner and getting a phone call. He held the phone up to his dinner companions to show the call was coming from Fox News’ Bret Baier, who was presumably calling in hopes of convincing Trump to participate in Wednesday’s debate in Milwaukee. Fox News is televising the debate and Baier is one of the moderators.

So Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher wrote a story saying Haberman’s sources told her about the dinner. And that led Fox News host and radio host/podcaster Mark Levin to tweet the story and write: “Somebody in Trump's inner circle is a source for Maggie Haberman at the New York Times.”

To which the Twitterverse responded with a resounding, “Duh!”

As Mediaite’s Ken Meyer wrote, “Haberman has long been considered the most plugged-in reporter on the Trump beat. What’s more, in addition to her famed level of sourcing in Trumpworld, the former president himself has been a source for Haberman. Trump once compared her to his ‘psychiatrist.’ Critics delighted in pointing out the obvious to Levin.”

The responses on X were great. One said, “It took him 8 years to figure this one out.” Another said, “Somebody made water wet.”

On a related note …

Talk about being gullible. Anytime there’s a major hurricane or flood somewhere near saltwater, someone drags out the fake photo of a shark swimming on a highway. This photo has been circulating for years and it has been proven to be photoshopped.

So Dan Katz (aka Big Cat) of Barstool Sports, obviously looking for suckers, tweeted the photo and wrote, “Friend of mine out in LA just took this picture on the 405. And yes, all news and media outlets you have permission to use this. Wild.”

Who fell for the prank? Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. He retweeted the tweet and wrote, “Holy crap.”

Later, Cruz tweeted, “I’m told this is a joke. In LA, you never know… And everyone please stay safe from the storm or otherwise.”

Big Cat had more fun, tweeting another fake photo and writing, “Wait who said it was a joke? It’s a shark on a highway. It’s real as real could be. Look I also have a shark in a mall. #Hurricane #Real #PleaseCredit.”

The real stuff

Sadly, there were actual Tropical Storm Hilary images out of California and Mexico that were depressing and grim. Check out this piece in the Los Angeles Times, which showed flooding and mudslides.

There also were stunning photos and videos that went viral of Dodger Stadium surrounded by flooded parking lots, making the baseball park look like an island.

Shake it up

Michael Bloomberg, the CEO and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P., is overhauling his leadership team, and that has fueled rumors that the 81-year-old is thinking about retirement, or at least stepping back.

Not so fast, Bloomberg said in a memo to staff: “I’m sure these changes raise questions about me, so let me put them to rest: I’m not going anywhere. I’ve never used a title in the company, so I won’t change what I’ll be called — just ‘Mike.’”

Vlad Kliatchko, who was Bloomberg’s chief product officer, has been named CEO. Jean-Paul Zammitt, who was Bloomberg’s chief commercial officer, has been named president. Patti Roskill, Bloomberg L.P.'s chief enterprise officer, was named chief financial officer.

Bloomberg L.P. is a privately held financial, software, data and media company. It employs about 23,000 people, including 2,700 journalists. Zammitt’s responsibilities now include overseeing its news operation, Bloomberg Media.

Michael Bloomberg founded the company in 1981 and today is one of the richest people in the world — worth, by some estimates, about $90 billion, give or take a few billion.

He also has been heavily involved in politics. He was a three-term mayor of New York City (2002-2013) and ran for the Democratic nomination for president in the 2020 election.

Media tidbits

• NPR’s David Folkenflik with “NPR's podcast and programming chief Anya Grundmann to leave after 30 years.”
• As expected, “SportsCenter” anchor Scott Van Pelt officially has been named host of ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown” — the pregame show for “Monday Night Football.” Suzy Kolber, who had hosted the show since 2014, was among the high-profile layoffs ESPN had earlier this summer. The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch previously reported Van Pelt would replace Kolber on “Monday Night Countdown.”
• Bit of a head-scratching move here as NFL reporter Dianna Russini leaves ESPN for The Athletic. From all accounts, Russini wasn’t being forced out at ESPN. She’s very good at her job and this is a good get for The Athletic, but didn’t The Athletic just lay off a bunch of people? And, don’t forget, The Athletic is owned by The New York Times, which is shutting down its sports department and yet still has some really good NFL writers, most notably Jenny Vrentas and Ken Belson. Good for Russini, and The Athletic is getting a good journalist. But the whole move, in the context of everything else, seems odd. But it also shows The Athletic’s attention to national coverage of the major sport in the U.S. Russini put out a classy goodbye tweet to her colleagues at ESPN and wrote the obligatory introductory piece for The Athletic.
• One more ESPN item. OutKick’s Dan Zaksheske reports that senior vice president Lee Fitting is no longer with ESPN. It’s odd timing because we’re coming up fast on football season and Fitting’s main responsibilities include “Monday Night Football,” the College Football Playoff and “College GameDay.” He also oversaw the SEC Network. Zaksheske wrote that ESPN head of event and studio production Norby Williamson informed employees that Fitting is out. Zaksheske wrote that Williamson had already been scheduled to talk to employees next week and there he will talk about Fitting’s departure and how football programming will be structured moving forward.
• The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Cartwright reported that Jezebel editor-in-chief Laura Bassett resigned last week. According to Cartwright, Bassett is just the latest editor-in-chief to quit their post at G/O Media. Bassett is the seventh across 10 sites to quit over the past eight months. Cartwright writes that “staffers say CEO Jim Spanfeller has become unhinged and impossible to work for.” Bassett tweeted that she “reluctantly resigned from Jezebel, because the company that owned us refused to treat my staff with basic human decency.”
• The Hispanic Heritage Foundation announced Monday that Cesar Conde — chairman of the NBCUniversal News Group, which includes NBC News, CNBC, MSNBC and Telemundo Enterprises — will receive the Hispanic Heritage Media Award during the 36th Hispanic Heritage Awards on Sept. 7. The program will be broadcast nationally on most PBS stations on Sept. 29, and will stream on PBS.org.
• Arit John is joining CNN as a reporter covering national politics and will be based in Washington, D.C. John goes to CNN from the Los Angeles Times. John also worked at Bloomberg News, where she covered Congress and Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign. She also worked for The New York Times and The Atlantic.
• Kendall Baker, who wrote a daily sports newsletter for Axios, has moved over to Yahoo Sports and will write a daily sports newsletter there. It will launch next Monday.

Hot type

• This is stunningly good on all counts — reporting, graphics, everything. The New York Times’ Sydney Ember and Emily Steel (with graphics by Leanne Abraham, Eleanor Lutz and Ella Koeze) with “Airline Close Calls Happen Far More Often Than Previously Known.”
• Powerful piece from ProPublica’s Hannah Dreyfus: “In the Child’s Best Interest. As a contentious custody dispute drags on for years, both sides agree on one thing: The child at the center of it is being abused. Is his mother or father to blame?” (Warning: the story contains detailed allegations of child abuse.)

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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].