the haves and have-nots of ad-free streaming

Happy Tuesday, June 30th! FYSA, we will either have no send or a special send this Friday – and I hope you have a restful, lovely holiday weekend!

The best HR advice comes from those in the trenches. That’s what this is: real-world HR insights delivered in a newsletter from Hebba Youssef, a Chief People Officer who’s been there. Practical, real strategies with a dash of humor. Because HR shouldn’t be thankless—and you shouldn’t be alone in it.

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With President Donald Trump’s help, Republicans successfully recruited former Sen. John E. Sununu, R-N.H, a scion of one of the state’s first families. The Senate Leadership Fund super PAC has $17 million in TV reservations this fall, and the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity Action super PAC has already plowed $2 million into the race. (Semafor, 6/29)

After their chat ended, one of the canvassers, who was volunteering with Swing Left, a Democratic political group, recapped what Mr. Bond said into a phone app. That memo was then analyzed by an A.I. tool alongside hundreds of other memos from similar door-knocks happening around the district. The A.I. tool synthesized what voters like Mr. Bond were saying, feeding reports that the campaign could use to tailor its messages and turn persuadable voters like him into supporters. (NYT gift link, 6/29)

While Mars has already come up with all-natural alternatives for the dyes used in the other colors of M&M’s—red, yellow, orange, and green—the McLean, Virginia-based company hasn’t yet figured out the right formulations for blue and brown candies. Finding a natural ingredient to make blue has proven especially difficult, and is key to the brown candies, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month. (Fast Company, 6/29 – free version)

Older Gen Zers who’ve landed “good jobs” struggle with worry, stress and depression, says Blanchflower. The traditional U-shaped curve of happiness has flattened, with young people becoming increasingly unhappy over the course of their lives, according to an August 2025 study he co-led. (CNBC, 6/29)

Researchers surveyed more than 10,000 adults in 26 countries and found that people who identified as more liberal tended to prefer Messi, while people who considered themselves more conservative prefer Ronaldo. Another differentiator? People who frequently consumed short-form video news preferred Ronaldo. The consumption of traditional news media, however, wasn’t a significant predictor of either preference. (Nieman Lab, 6/30)

TikTok, like everyone else, is at Cannes Lions this week, and among its biggest announcements is the reveal of Custom Creator Networks, which it says will “allow advertisers to build a curated pool of creators, employees, partners, or brand advocates to receive campaign briefs or turn their existing brand-relevant videos into high-performing ads.” (Tubefilter, 6/24)

Streaming services often target ad-free tiers with the biggest price increases, with Netflix most recently raising the price of its standard and premium plans by $2, compared to $1 for its ad-supported tier. Now, the price to go ad-free on Netflix is $19.99 / month (or $26.99 if you want 4K HDR) — more than double the original $7.99 / month subscription. (The Verge, 6/28 – free version)

Working from home is mostly for workers with more education. 57% of those with an advanced degree did some work at home in 2025, per the data from the American Time Use Survey. That's compared with 30% for those with some college or an associate degree. (Axios, 6/29)

Across the first quarter of 2026, Luminate data shows that every major streaming platform, with the clear exception of Netflix, keeps viewers hooked with older classics from its catalog, rather than fresh original content; Luminate highlighted the staying power of comfort TV like “Friends” and “Suits” as key retention drivers. (Sherwood, 6/29)

None of this seems to surprise Park Police. “When we get a report of an assault at the National Mall, it’s more often than not vendor-related,” an agency spokesperson says via email. The agency has gotten reports of trucks hitting each other or hitting other operators who are standing in parking spaces to save them. While officers haven’t been directly threatened, vendors have made derogatory comments to them and tried to intimidate the police by congregating around them. (Washingtonian, 6/29)

“We collided with a drone back there in the turn,” the pilot told an air traffic controller, according to ATC.com. “It hit us right above the cockpit.” The airline said all the passengers deplaned normally, and then the plane was removed from service so it could be inspected. (AP, 6/29)

Old Norse, a Scandinavian language, was spoken by Viking raiders and Scandinavian settlers who brought the word to Britain from around AD800 onwards. Happ appears, for example, in the nickname of the Norse explorer Leif Erikson, who was also known as "Leif the Lucky", Leif heppni Erikson. He was a member of an early voyage to North America in the 11th Century, and saved a group of shipwrecked sailors – which may have partly inspired his nickname. (BBC, 6/27 – free version)

Extra Credit 🤓

The hot-or-nots for this week:

HOT

NOT

That’s all for now – I’ll see you next week!