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After the bell Tuesday, Netflix announced its Q3 earnings, beating expectations and adding 2.4 million subscribers, driven largely by growth in Asia. The news marked a reversal from the previous two quarters where Netflix saw stunning declines in subscriber growth. Wall Street reacted approvingly, with the company's stock price spiking more than 14% in after-hours trading. 

But, while Netflix started adding subscriptions again, the company's message to investors strikingly suggested that they pay less attention to those very numbers. The streamer announced it will stop providing guidance for its membership, stating that the company is "increasingly focused on revenue as our primary top line metric." 

"Our competitors are investing heavily to drive subscribers and engagement, but building a large, successful streaming business is hard - we estimate they are all losing money, with combined 2022 operating losses well over $10 billion, vs. Netflix's $5 to $6 billion annual operating profit," Netflix boasted. 

As an executive at a rival streaming company told me Tuesday, the shift in narrative is "a complete 180" for Netflix, which for years has intensely focused on subscriber growth. So what changed? Mostly, Wall Street's view on the streaming business, which has soured considerably. 

The era in which streamers are rewarded for chasing subscriptions at any cost is decidedly over, especially after Netflix's tremendous stumble earlier this year. Now Wall Street is far more interested in hearing about revenue growth and seeing a strong business model. 

So Netflix is aiming to shift its narrative, choosing to stress now that it has the strongest business model among the streamers. In doing so, the company took an overt shot at its competitors. "While it’s early days, we’re starting to see this increased profit focus," it said in its shareholder letter, "with some raising prices for their streaming services, some reigning in content spending, and some retrenching around traditional operating models which may dilute their direct-to-consumer offering." (I should note here that CNN's parent is Warner Bros. Discovery, one of the competitors Netflix is clearly jabbing.)

"In other words," CNBC's Alex Sherman translated in his story, "Netflix is saying it has built a great streaming business, while Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, Comcast’s NBCUniversal, Paramount Global, and others want to build a great streaming business."

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Showing The Receipts: Tuesday brought two fresh examples of victories for news organizations in their bids to use public records to hold government officials accountable:

► WaPo reveals vets working for Saudis: Atop WaPo's homepage Tuesday was a remarkable investigative piece about how "more than 500 retired U.S. military personnel — including scores of generals and admirals — have taken lucrative jobs since 2015 working for foreign governments, mostly in countries known for human rights abuses and political repression." The Post said the US gov't had fought to keep data on the matter a secret, prompting the paper to sue the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and State Department using FOIA. "After a two-year legal battle, The Post obtained more than 4,000 pages of documents," The Post reported. Read the full story from Craig Whitlock and Nate Jones here.

► Tampa Bay Times shows voter arrests: Video obtained by the Tampa Bay Times and widely circulated Tuesday showed unsuspecting Florida residents being arrested at their homes over voter fraud allegations by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new Office of Election Crimes and Security. The footage, the paper said, was obtained through public records request. Carolyn Fox, managing editor of the Tampa Bay Times, told me she believed it was "important to show readers" what the new office is doing. "It’s a new state-funded unit with a particular mission and Florida residents should be aware of how they are enforcing the laws," Fox said, adding that she is "proud when our team is able to give the public transparency on an issue." Read the full story from Lawrence Mower here.

First in Reliable: The Recount Explores Sale: The digital outlet The Recount is exploring a sale, a person with knowledge of the matter told me Tuesday. The three-and-a-half-year-old outlet, founded by John Heilemann and John Battelle, which saturates social media platforms like Twitter with short politics-focused videos, believes a sale to an established entity might help provide it with greater resources and a larger audience, the person said. The company is in talks with potential partners or acquirers, the person added, noting that the conversations are "active and ongoing."

► A spokesperson for The Recount said, "From the start, we've believed we're doing important, path-breaking work at The Recount. and we're committed to doing whatever it takes to continue that mission and take it to the next level."

Semafor Sings: The ambitious new global news outlet from Ben Smith and Justin Smith got off the ground on Tuesday morning. I spoke to a delirious Ben Smith on Tuesday evening, who had been up since 4am, and asked him how the launch went. "It was remarkably smooth," he told me. "I just feel incredibly proud of the work and the team." Ben said he was "really pleased that people seemed to like the format" of the article pages, which he said they had "made a big bet on." Each of Semafor's articles are broken down into sections, separating "the news" from the views of the author and another expert. One notable tweak did, however, occur on launch day. Initially, every paragraph in articles started with several words in bold. After some feedback, Ben said the team decided to listen to the readers and abandon that format. 

Tick Tock for Twitter: Twitter has frozen the equity accounts for employees "in anticipation of the closing of the pending acquisition," Bloomberg's Kurt Wagner and Edward Ludlow reported Tuesday. An update on an employee portal page explained, "This freeze allows Schwab to perform final reconciliation of employee accounts prior to close of the acquisition." The move, after months of legal wrangling, suggests that the takeover saga with Elon Musk could be coming to a close soon. Stay tuned. 

"The Daily Show's" Dilemma: Who will take the reins for Trevor Noah when he signs off from the late-night series? Well, the answer might not lie in a single host. Deadline's Peter White scooped Tuesday that Comedy Central is considering hosting duos and even trios to replace Noah, including one option that would have Roy Wood Jr. and Desi Lydic co-host. A spokesperson for the show didn't deny the report, only saying, "In time, we will turn to the next chapter of The Daily Show and all of our incredible correspondents will be at the top of that list. Until then, we are focused on celebrating Trevor and thanking him for his many contributions."

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