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Good morning. Today is National Humane Society Day and National Love Your Freckles Day, so go adopt a puppy and share it with your nearest freckled person.

I also wanted to let you know I will be out of town for a week and unable to post until December 9th. I hope you all enjoy today’s edition and I look forward to seeing you next month!

Social Media

20% of adults get their news from online creators

Kudos to the 0.0001% that choose NextGen News instead. According to a new Pew Research Center survey, 21% of adults in the US get their information from news influencers. Surprised? Probably not.

• Almost 40% of adults aged 18-29 get their news from individual creators, according to the same poll.

Turning the page

This comes after both candidates of the 2024 presidential election flocked to podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience, Call Her Daddy, and This Past Weekend, using influencers, well, influence to help win over voters.

• President-elect Trump’s appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience garnered over 80 million views and listens.

• VP Kamala Harris’ Call Her Daddy podcast drew around a million YouTube views.

The broader transition from mainstream news organizations to independent digital creators and alternative media outlets (like podcasts) has ushered in a new wave of media that is leaving the struggling, long-standing news empires behind.

The report

Pew surveyed 10,000 adults and examined 500 news influencers, which it defined as people with over 100,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, or YouTube who frequently post about current affairs.

Here are the most important points:

• X is the most used by a wide margin: The platform is used by 85% of news influencers, whereas 50% of them use Instagram, the second most popular, and 44% have an account on YouTube, which ranks third.

• Political ideology is split pretty even: There are slightly more news influencers who define themselves as conservative (27% of news influencers) than liberal (21%).

  • TikTok is the only outlier, where there are more publicly left-leaning news influencers (28%) than right-leaning ones (25%).

• Creators serve it up differently: 70% of adults say news influencers provide information that is at least somewhat different (or more two-sided) than mainstream sources.

  • A much smaller percentage (31%) claim they feel a personal connection with a news influencer.

Partner up: According to the report, 77% of news influencers are not currently or previously affiliated with any news organizations. As mainstream media gradually loses out to individual creators, they may want to utilize their popularity, so don’t be surprised if you start to see CNN-sponsored influencers pop up.

Aviation

Spirit Airlines flies off into the sunset bankruptcy

Time to take em’ out to the barn. Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy this week, burdened by debt and unable to compete with bigger rivals. After an unsuccessful merger and years of declining sales, it is the first significant bankruptcy of a major US airline in over a decade.

Drowning in debt

Spirit has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which would allow the airline to keep operating normally while it restructures its enormous $3.6 billion long-term debt load.

• Since 2020 the budget airline has accumulated more than $2.5 billion in debt.

• The company hasn’t had a profitable quarter since 2019 and revealed a loss of over $335 million in the first half of this year.

• In addition, Spirit faces two debt payments—totaling more than a billion dollars—in 2025 and 2026.

Year-to-date, the company’s stock has fallen 90%. According to the AP, Spirit even flew 2% more passengers in the first half of 2024 than in the first six months of last year but managed to take 20% less profit per mile.

They might have a lifeline: The filing is supported by current bondholders (who have $350 million in shares) and would alleviate $795 million of debt by converting it into stock. The bondholders also plan to give the airline $300 million in new investments.

Fall from grace

Spirit’s cost-friendly business model worked for decades, but as budget rivals and big airlines lessened the price gap (without throwing away customer amenities and billions in debt) it struggled to recover.

• However, that same business model prohibited the airline from accessing the luxury flight frenzy after the pandemic and alienated customers who flocked to airlines for better amenities.

The pandemic, growing fuel prices, labor problems, heightened competition, and an engine recall that grounded dozens of its aircraft have all put strain on company finances, which escalated its decline.

If you already have a flight booked… don’t worry about the bankruptcy. The airline said it will continue to fly “now and in the future” despite the filing.

Business

Jersey Mike’s is close to becoming the biggest sandwich chain in the US

Even investors know where the best sandwiches are. Blackstone announced on Tuesday that it would be acquiring a majority stake in the fast-expanding sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s Subs, valuing the company at $8 billion.

Jersey Mike’s is second only to Subway in terms of operational units and market value, but the chain is looking to take the top spot and open 10,000 shops internationally.

Humble beginnings

Jersey Mike’s was originally a storefront location called Mike’s Subs in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. In 1974, during his senior year of high school, now-CEO Peter Cancro paid $125,000 for the shop (with the help of his football coach).

• Now, Cancro is worth around $7 billion after the deal, making him one of the 500 richest people in the world, according to Bloomberg.

Over the last 10 years, Jersey Mike’s has exploded in popularity. The chain now has 3,000 sandwich shops, more than tripling its number of locations since 2014.

• Each of Jersey Mike's locations generates over $1.35 million, which is more than twice as much as the typical Subway.

  • Last year the chain generated $3.3 billion in sales, up 25% from 2022.

As Jersey Mike’s continues its rise to the top, taking market share from competitors, Subway has found itself in a lull. The “Eat Fresh” establishment has dealt with drooping sales and aging stores thanks to a lack of demand.

Super-rival: Roark Capital, a restaurant management-focused private equity firm, purchased Subway last year. Two more Jersey Mike's competitors, Jimmy John's and Arby's, operate under Roark's Inspire Brands as well.

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Grab Bag

Walmart made a lot of money from rich customers

I’m sensing a change in clientele here. While the big box retailer may have started out as the place to be for cost-conscious consumers, its customer base has continued to expand, thanks to more well-off shoppers.

After reporting another strong earnings call earlier this week, Walmart said the surge in sales was mainly led by upper-income households that make over $100,000 a year. It’s a trend the company has noticed for several quarters now, and CEO Douglas McMillon says it’s more than just an arbitrary statistic.

Walmart is winning

The retailer outperformed expectations in Q3 revenue and beat Wall Street estimates, reporting $4.58 billion in profit in the latest quarter.

• Walmart also raised its end-of-year estimates after The National Retail Federation predicted a modest increase in holiday spending from 2023.

• The company’s stock was trading at an all-time high on Thursday morning, at $88.45.

While higher-income earners can take on price increases more easily than lower-income groups, everyone is looking for a deal… and Walmart was happy to dish them out.

Expensive tastes

But the company has also beefed up its more expensive offerings, boosting its electronics and home goods products to entice the spendy side of higher-income shoppers, especially with the holiday season coming:

• Toys and electronics, like Apple AirPods, were among its most popular sellers.

• Walmart said its premium membership and delivery options have been the main drivers of profit among wealthier customers.

  • The company has put more resources into its e-commerce products, offering quick delivery options paired with low delivery costs.

In addition, Walmart's food sales increased at the quickest rate in four years, with sales of organic vegetables, grass-fed beef, and gluten-free products all on the rise.

A tale of two retailers: As Walmart knocks it out of the park with wealthier customers, Target has struggled to keep up. It reported meager sales and decreasing profits in the latest quarter as customers looked for cheaper options… like Walmart.

Jaguar rebranded amid poor sales

This will be a case study on how not to soft launch a new line of vehicles. As it prepares to launch a new fleet of EVs in 2026, Jaguar announced a massive design change that deviates from its established vintage branding... people are not happy.

The public has ravaged Jaguar’s new rebrand (the video currently has 122 million views on X), and no one even knows what the new lineup of cars looks like. But that’s part of the problem. Critics called the announcement “disastrous” and said it seemed more like a techno-industrial-focused art project than a brand overhaul.

But at least sales are good… right?

Unfortunately not. Jaguar is driving on a residential road while other premium brands are coasting on the Autobahn.

• Sales in the US have decreased by 80% since 2017, and the luxury carmaker only sold about 8,000 vehicles last year.

  • Comparatively, Mercedes and BMW each moved 350,000 units.

To stop the carmaker from redlining, Jaguar is attempting to become an ultra-luxury, bespoke automaker, like Rolls-Royce and Bentley. The British car manufacturer thinks that by relaunching as a high-end, luxury EV brand, it won’t have to keep competing losing to other premium brands.

Whether this works or not remains to be seen. While the contemporary take with new emblems and font has left fans, well, no longer fans, its success ultimately depends on the vehicle itself:

• At the end of this year, Jaguar will discontinue production of its lone model, the F-Pace SUV, and transition to three electric vehicles.

• The latest generation of vehicles will cost around twice as much as the old models, according to the company.

Stay tuned: Jaguar plans to unveil its concept car on December 2nd in Miami, Florida.

Fast Facts

Plane Patty: Delta will serve Shake Shack burgers on select flights starting in December, although you have to order ahead of time... and be on a flight traveling over 900 miles. Ugh.

Spitting Image: The "Hauk Tuah" girl, Hailey Welch, released an app. Great times we're living in. The app uses AI to give dating tips, scour date options, and rate your texts 1-100 based on how seductive they are.

AI Affleck: Ben Affleck recently offered his thoughts on how AI will affect the entertainment industry and… it’s actually pretty good. He did seem a little jittery but I’ll leave the reasoning for that up for speculation.

Roller Retirement: Six Flags in New Jersey is retiring a couple of its most iconic roller coasters, the Kingda Ka and Green Lantern, and sending them off by loading them with TNT and a few dozen passengers (I wish).

Animal Alcohol: According to a new study, a large number of species like to get drunk off of high-ethanol food. To name a few, spider monkeys in Panama like yellow mombin fruit with 1% to 2.5% ABV, chimpanzees in Guinea consume alcoholic sap, and male fruit flies that got rejected by a mate were seen eating fruit with high amounts of ethanol.