“Tony from Conshohocken, you’re on the podcast.”

A new, Philly-centric sports outlet is leaning on podcasting to balm the city’s ravenous fans on Broad Street. Phly (pronounced Philly, not fly) is the Philadelphia outlet for the AllCity Network, a streaming-first media company that started in Denver and has since expanded to Chicago and Phoenix.

In Philadelphia, AllCity has deployed a strategy The Athletic employed not too long ago: Pulling big names from local papers, radio stations, (and in Phly’s case, The Athletic itself), with the hope that those audiences will follow them to Phly.

AllCity is venture-backed—like The Athletic, which was never profitable before it was acquired by The New York Times—with growth and scale as the primary goal, according to AllCity co-founder and CEO Brandon Spano.

AllCity is largely focused on podcasts and video—and a ton of it. A month into its Philly tenure, the 19-person team is pumping out one podcast for each of the five professional sports franchises in the city, with the goal of publishing episodes roughly five times a week per team.

Across the four cities where it has a presence, AllCity releases a total of over 100 hours of sports podcasting per week. The tonnage play is almost reminiscent of sports talk radio—have a constant stream of sports content and let audiences tune in.

“We created what we think is the future of local sports media,” Spano told us.

Read the full story here.—RB

You’re already reading the newsletter, but did you know you can also listen to and/or watch the wittiest and smartest takes on business news?

Morning Brew Daily hosts Neal Freyman and Toby Howell have you covered on everything you need to know before your morning cup of coffee, from the latest headlines on the economy to explanations of viral TikTok trends.

You’ll look so smart in front of your friends.

New episodes are released every weekday at 7am ET. Check ’em out on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Elon’s Musk acquisition of X, formerly known as Twitter, hasn’t been great for its bottom line.

X’s monthly revenue has tanked an average of 55% year over year in each of the past 12 months, according to data firm Guideline. Revenue has fallen every month in that period, per Guideline’s research. Musk took over the company at the end of October last year.

The platform’s revenue fell an average of 61% between May and August this year compared to the same time period in 2022. It fell 78% year over year in December, the sharpest drop over the last 12 months. The last time the company reported earnings, in June of last year, it said it had made $1.2 billion in revenue during Q2.

X did not respond to a request for comment. Guideline’s figures are in line with stats Musk shared recently. Last month, he tweeted that “US advertising revenue is still down 60%”, though he didn’t provide a timeframe and claimed without evidence that it was “primarily due to pressure on advertisers by [the Anti-Defamation League] (that’s what advertisers tell us).”

Guideline’s research stands in contrast with the rosy outlook X CEO Linda Yaccarino tried to present at Vox Media’s Code Conference last week. During an onstage interview, she said that 90% of its top 100 advertisers have come back to the platform recently, and that X has 540 million monthly active users.

Keep reading here.—JS

Each week, Marketing Brew recaps what people are talking about on social media, the trends that took over our feeds, and how marketers are responding.

Traylor snark: Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift took over our timelines for the second week in a row after her appearance at Sunday’s Chiefs-Jets game. Also present in the Kelce family box was Ryan Reynolds, whose ad agency coordinated a stunt that involved Jake from State Farm sitting next to Donna Kelce during the Eagles-Commanders game. The responses were some parts confused, some parts impressed, some parts unimpressed.

The NFL’s Swift-centric social strategy also seems to be getting mixed reviews. Some have called the league’s use of Swift lyrics and photos in its social bios and headers “ridiculous,” “uncool,” and “a little strange.” Even Kelce commented on his podcast this week that the league may be “overdoing it a little bit.”

One positive PR spin from this week’s game? Swift may no longer have to worry about her private jet’s carbon emissions being the first Google result when searching “Taylor Swift jets.”

October 3, in pieces: To commemorate the “October 3” meme and capitalize on a growing trend, Paramount uploaded Mean Girls in 23 parts on TikTok this week. Given TikTok’s new “picture-in-picture” feature, the future of scrolling on your phone while watching TV might be scrolling on your phone while watching TV…on your phone.

Tour de creator: To promote his new album, Ed Sheeran has appeared in videos with creators ranging from Wishbone Kitchen to Jake Shane. Makes us wonder if this is the new late-night interview format for younger audiences.

Mother of fall: Caitlin Covington is delivering on her seasonal duties. If Starbucks isn’t already working with her, it’s a missed PSL marketing opp (though she seems plenty busy with her recent sponsors, which include Walmart, Nordstrom, and Abercrombie & Fitch).—KH

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Stories we’re jealous of.

1. The Hollywood Reporter wrote about how Ryan Reynolds and Maximum Effort orchestrated Jake from State Farm’s mid-game cameo with Travis Kelce’s mom.
2. The New York Times looked at how influencers led a small Vermont town to close its roads in an effort to evade traffic from leaf peepers (and posters).
3. Gizmodo examined the era of paid social media and how it compares to the airline industry’s profit-squeezing tactics.