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WSJ, Spotify launch 'Journal.'

🎙️ Market exclusive: The Wall Street Journal and Spotify's Gimlet will today announce the launch of The Journal., a new daily podcast about "money, business and power" hosted by veteran Wall Street Journal reporters Kate Linebaugh and Ryan Knutson.

• The Journal., which soft-launched over the summer, will be WSJ's flagship podcast and marks the paper's most focused push yet into the rapidly expanding world of news and analysis podcasts.

• Like American Public Media's Marketplace, The Journal. will offer listeners a window into the day's financial news. Like NYT's "The Daily," it will lean heavily on the resources and reporters of the WSJ newsroom.

• New episodes will publish daily at 4 p.m. ET with the closing bell.

"We set out to create a podcast that would make business news relatable and would help people understand how it’s relevant to their daily lives," Nazanin Rafsanjani, Gimlet's head of new show development, tells me.

• "We couldn’t think of a better partner than the Wall Street Journal and it’s been so exciting to combine their incredible reporting with Gimlet's audio storytelling background to create The Journal."

The big picture: Spotify is making an aggressive play to be the premiere podcast platform. It acquired both Gimlet and Anchor earlier this year for a combined $340 million, and has announced plans to spend as much as $500 million on its podcast business this year.

• The play: In an industry where every service offers more or less the same music, Spotify chief Daniel Ek believes podcasts can give his company a way to further differentiate itself from competitors.

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Obamas, Netflix take China

Big in Beijing: Barack and Michelle Obama's first Netflix film, a documentary about a Chinese-owned factory in Ohio, is making waves with Chinese audiences despite the fact that Netflix isn’t available in the Middle Kingdom, Bloomberg reports.

• "The documentary, backed by [the] Obamas new production company, follows along as a shuttered General Motors plant outside Dayton is bought and converted into a factory run by China’s Fuyao Glass."

• The film "was widely discussed on Chinese social networks and spawned dozens of reviews by influential bloggers and state media, prompting discussions on globalization, cultural differences, automation and workers’ rights."

• "Netflix isn’t available in China, and a company spokesperson said there’s no legitimate way to watch it there." But Chinese internet users watched the film "on streaming sites and through... virtual private networks."

How China is playing it: "Government-owned media framed the documentary squarely within China’s protracted trade spat with America, using it to bolster arguments that the U.S. needs Chinese investment to generate jobs and that an economic decoupling is untenable."

🇺🇸 Talk of the Trail 🇺🇸

Iowa Social: Joe Biden's campaign is releasing new digital ads that will target Iowans on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Hulu, complimenting his high-six-figure TV ad buy across the Hawkeye State, my colleague Marianna Sotomayor reports.

• The big question, via NYT's Mark Leibovich: Does Biden actually want to be running for president?

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Bob Kraft holds on to power

Big in the League: As the NFL season approaches, Bob Kraft remains "one of the most powerful men in football" despite the infamous prostitution solicitation charge that "raised broad questions about his standing within the league," WSJ's Andrew Beaton reports.

• Kraft "has remained one of the leading figures involved in ongoing talks with the NFL Players Association for a new collective bargaining agreement."

• "He was also the driving force behind the NFL’s wide-ranging partnership with Jay-Z, which effectively makes the rap icon the face of the league’s social-justice efforts and includes entertainment offerings."

• Kraft's close friend Meek Mill will perform at Thursday’s season-opening game between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears.

The big picture: "As the case against him has crumbled... Kraft’s influence appears undiminished. ... By scoring big wins in court, he maintained his public standing before it ever eroded."

Bonus: WSJ's Katherine Sayre checks in on the growth of legal sports betting, and finds mobile betting is the main driver.

• Meanwhile, Reuters' Hillary Russ reports that Rupert Murdoch's FOX Bet is up and running New Jersey.

Market Links

• Larry Page settles FTC YouTube investigation (Politico)

• Tim Cook plans a sleep-tracking Watch feature (9to5Mac)

• Sen. Josh Hawley wages war on Section 230 (NBC News)

• Rupert Murdoch explores sale of video ad platform (Sky)

• Nancy Dubuc grows video ad revenue by 120% (Digiday)

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Taylor Swift's stream lesson

State of the Stream: "Sales of Taylor Swift ’s first album to hit streaming services and retail outlets simultaneously fell short of the pop singer’s last four albums," WSJ's Anne Steele reports.

• Swift's embrace of Spotify, Apple Music, etc., helped her "rake in millions of listens. ... But more of her fans chose only to stream her music rather than purchase physical or digital copies."

The big picture: "Streaming services... have changed how music is consumed. The format makes up 80% of total music consumption in the U.S., according to Nielsen."

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Big trouble at the box office

Talk of Tinseltown: With the summer blockbuster season coming to an end, "the film business finds itself lagging last year’s surge and facing questions about why," NYT's Brooks Barnes reports.

• Summer box office revenue in the U.S. and Canada "is expected to total about $4.32 billion, a 2 percent decline from the same period last year."

• Total box office revenue for 2019 "is down 6.3 percent, which roughly translates to a 5 percent decline in attendance."

• Specialty box office revenue (for the 20 largest art film distributors) "fell 45 percent from the same period last year."

The big picture: "The movie business ebbs and flows depending on factors that vary from reviews to the weather. ... But box office experts say the theatrical landscape has shifted, possibly permanently."

• "Streaming services ... have proliferated, offering huge catalogs of movies and shows for a comparatively low price. At this point, many living rooms are equipped with large flat-screen televisions."

What's next: NYT's Gabe Cohn looks at everything we know about the upcoming Star Wars movie.

See you tomorrow from New York. 🤞