international flight: last quarter, netflix disappointed investors when it reported subscriber additions that fell short of its forecast. for the september quarter, the reverse happened: international user additions blasted through the company<u+2019>s estimate , wowing investors and powering a 20% rise in the stock in after-hours trading, the wall street journal reports. it goes to show, the story notes, that the company<u+2019>s rapid global rollout is creating a foggy outlook -- for itself and investors -- and leading to a volatile expectations game on wall street. netflix added 3.2 million international subscribers in the quarter, compared with its guidance of 2 million. in the u.s., the streaming market is showing signs of saturation: netflix added 370,000 domestic subscribers in the period, down from the year-ago quarter<u+2019>s 880,000 additions. meanwhile, instead of banging its head against chinese regulatory barriers, netflix said it will forego trying to enter the market as a standalone business for now and license its shows to other online players as a means to build its brand. trump stream: we<u+2019>ve been hearing a lot of speculation about a coming <u+201c>trump tv<u+201d> network as donald trump barrels toward election day with appeals to his core base. but the preliminary conversations associates of mr. trump have had with media types in recent months and weeks have actually focused more on the idea of creating a subscription streaming-media venture along the lines of what glenn beck and others have done, wsj reports. this could always prove to be a launching pad for cable tv later. jared kushner, mr. trump<u+2019>s son-in-law, didn<u+2019>t get investment banker aryeh bourkoff to bite on the idea. separately, other campaign officials reached out to a streaming video provider to discuss the concept, according to the story. there<u+2019>s no evidence of this idea advancing beyond these preliminary conversations, and mr. trump recently gave wsj a hard denial that he was running for president to further any media ambitions. still, it<u+2019>s something to keep an eye on in the campaign<u+2019>s closing weeks. cash flow: people identified in federal campaign finance filings as journalists, reporters, news editors or television anchors<u+2014>as well as other donors known to be working in journalism<u+2014>have combined to give more than $396,000 to the presidential campaigns of hillary clinton and donald trump, according to a report by the center for public integrity. more than 96% of that money has gone to mrs. clinton. while journalists are often asked not to donate to political campaigns to avoid any potential bias in their coverage, some of the journalists mentioned in the report don<u+2019>t agree that they should be categorized as journalists, or banned from donating. former abc world news tonight anchor carole simpson describes herself as an <u+201c>academic<u+201d> and <u+201c>former journalist<u+201d> and said she<u+2019>s <u+201c>free to do many things i was prohibited from doing as a working journalist,<u+201d> while les waldron, editor of tv station kfmb, believes journalists who vote should be allowed to make small-dollar political donations. traffic facade: publishers are continuing to grumble about the challenge of monetizing audience growth on apple news, especially after changes to the platform in ios 10 , digiday reports. recall that apple tweaked its spotlight feature , a separate left-of-home screen that displays articles from publishing partners. it used to load those articles on publishers<u+2019> mobile sites, and provided a major traffic boost, but now it displays them in the apple news app. why does that matter? because generating revenue on apple news is a headache. on apple news, publishers who sell ads must use apple<u+2019>s ad server (a hassle) and don<u+2019>t have access to comscore tracking data, among other issues. so as publishers like the atlantic and guardian tell digiday they<u+2019>re seeing major increases in their apple news audiences, it isn<u+2019>t necessarily translating to commensurate revenue. <u+201c>many publishers aren<u+2019>t benefiting from the mobile web traffic the way in which they had prior to ios 10,<u+201d> said anthony demaio, vice president of global advertising for the washington post. billy bush is officially out at nbc after appearing in a video in which he and donald trump are making inappropriate comments about women. [ wsj ] in an effort to boost its image, wal-mart has cast its ceo doug mcmillon in its latest pr and ad campaign, which touts the company<u+2019>s commitment to employees, not the latest deals. [ wsj ] translation named bbh<u+2019>s patrick lafferty president as ceo, founder and music industry veteran steve stoute diverts his attention to expanding the shop beyond traditional advertising. [ cmo today ] in ad agency anomaly<u+2019>s first spot for beats by dre., dubbed <u+201c>got no strings,<u+201d> celebs like michael phelps, nicki minaj and rebel wilson promote the apple-owned brand<u+2019>s cordless headphones. [ creativity ] is twitter a media company? wsj<u+2019>s christopher mims says yes, and it should be structured, led and valued as such. [ wsj ] mcdonald<u+2019>s hired more than 200 people to bolster its social media efforts in an effort to win back millennials. [ wsj ] football ratings are down this season, but that hasn<u+2019>t stopped cbs and nbc from raising the cost of 30-second ads that run during the games. the price of a <u+201c>thursday night football<u+201d> ad rose nearly 15%, while the price of a <u+201c>sunday night football<u+201d> spot increased nearly 2%. [ variety ] free streaming service pluto tv has raised $30 million from german media company prosieben and lifestyle media company scripps networks interactive, bumping its value to $140 million as it plans for expansion in europe. [ techcrunch ] follow us on twitter: @wsjcmo , @digitalshields , @vranicawsj , @jackmarshall , @perlberg , @alexbruell , @srabil , @asharma subscribe to our morning newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox, at http://on.wsj.com/cmotodaysignup . write to alexandra bruell at alexandra.bruell@wsj.com
cmo today: netflix wins the global expectations game - wsj
alexandra bruell