Hot tip: If you want to run into your favorite TikTok star in the wild, head over to BOA Steakhouse in Los Angeles. According to the New York Times, the eatery is a “hot spot for Gen Z influencers.”

It’s also where you’re likely to find Fletcher Greene — a 38-year-old paparazzo who has landed more exclusives with TikTok stars than Us Weekly could dream of. 

With 1.5m followers, his YouTube channel, The Hollywood Fix, is like TMZ for the TikTok generation.

And it’s part of a wave of new media companies that are out-gossipping the former titans of gossip. 

They’re rewriting the rules of media 

• Famous Birthdays has become TikTok’s Wikipedia, with explainers and deets on all the platform’s up-and-comers.
• The Shade Room (20m+ followers) and TikTok Shaderoom (1.5m) are several of dozens of so-called “tea rooms” — gossip-centric Instagram accounts filled with screenshots of deleted posts and leaked texts from celebs.
• YouTube channels like DramaAlert (5.6m followers) report on juicy “news” like the FBI raid on Jake Paul’s house.
• Comments By Celebs (1.5m+) is an Instagram media company that sleuths out provocative statements left in the comments section. It recently launched a TikTok-specific spinoff, @CommentsByTikTok. 

The gossip world hasn’t seen a shakeup like this since the 1910s

Back then, a flurry of new tabloids — like Broadway Brevities, Town Topics, and the Tattler — made an art form out of urban socialite gossip.

That skewering tabloid voice we know so well? You can trace it to the original scandal kingpin, Stephen G. Clow, who owned Brevities. 

What we’re seeing now is another revamp. These Insta publishers are using influencer drama to build out their own media empires — ones with the followers and personality to rival some big-name newspapers.

The Dow index — which is made up of 30 blue chip US stocks — is getting a makeover as of Monday:

• In: Salesforce, Amgen, Honeywell
• Out: Exxon, Pfizer, Raytheon 

As a price-weighted index, the Dow is affected by the size of its constituents’ stock price — and Apple’s recent 4-for-1 stock split reduced the index’s exposure to tech.

The addition of Salesforce boosts the Dow’s tech bonafides

While giving the index a timely opportunity to boot Exxon.

In a changing of the energy guard, the oil giant has shed >$100B in the past year while electricity superfan No. 1 Tesla has gained >$300B. 

The 124-year-old index is not an exact mirror for corporate America

While the Dow is the most cited market measure in the world, the S&P 500 — which includes, umm, 500 US companies — is the world’s most tracked index (as measured by assets under management).

According to the index’s parent firm (S&P Global), “changes to the Dow are intentionally infrequent, with the goal of providing continuity over time.”

There have only been ~60 changes over the index’s existence, or about 2 a year.

Additions and subtractions have signified turning points

Here are some notable changes over the years:

• June 1979: Chrysler and Esmark replaced by IBM and Merck 
• March 1987: Inco and Owens-Illinois replaced by Boeing and Coca-Cola 
• September 2013: Alcoa, Bank of America, and HP replaced by Goldman Sachs, Nike, and Visa
• March 2015: AT&T replaced by Apple (probably a good call)
• June 2018: GE (which lost nearly $500B in market cap from its 2000 highs) replaced by Walgreens Boot Alliance

As with everyone on r/WallStreetBets, we’re patiently waiting for Tesla’s Dow inclusion.

Scratchy sheets. A lingering smell of cigarettes. The muffled moans of the couple next door.

If you think that’s what motels have to offer… well, sometimes you’re right. But the road-side stay is having a renaissance.

Marriott’s become a MarriNOT

Between 1964 and 2012, the number of US motels shrank from 61k to 12k.

But then the coronavirus checked in. By May 2020, occupancy rates at luxury hotels plunged >15%. Economy class properties, which includes motels, sat pretty at ~40%.

Some are reporting week after week of no vacancies.

What in the Magic Fingers happened?

The summer of the road trip happened. If you’re not camping or living that #vanlife, motels are the easiest way to catch 40 winks and a shower.

And motel layouts are well-suited to social distancing. Most are 1- or 2-story buildings — no crowded elevators — with outdoor access to rooms. Sure, there’s no restaurant, fitness center, or spa, but stays are cheap — ~$40 to $100/night.

Not sure you’d wanna crash somewhere without a Starbucks? 

These roadhouses are worth the trip just for the joy of saying their names.

• The Elephant Butte Inn & Spa: Yes, there’s a lot of elephant-themed décor.
• Morning Wood Hotel: It’s right next to the Happy Endings Saloon. (No, we’re not joking.)

Best Western Plus Intercourse Village: Intercourse, my friends, is a village in Pennsylvania. Get your mind out of the gutter.

Is Slack the new high school cafeteria?

OneZero published an interesting piece on how some companies are regretting the decision to use the instant messaging platform.

Slack was originally meant to get rid of email… but a few aggrieved execs claim that this new, lower-friction dynamic that allows more people to speak their minds is leading to dangerously negative discourse — AKA, “talkin’ sh*t”.

That brings us back to the good ol’ days of junior high lunch, where chicken patties were worth their weight in gold and the gossip mill was unstoppable. 

At The Hustle HQ, we know how volatile Slack-ing can be. 

So, as a public service, we created this handy translator for the most misleading language of all: emojis.

Did we forget an emoji translation worth adding? Hit us up.

The 5G market is on track to hit $17T by 2035

For the people keeping score at home, that’s $17,000,000,000,000. 

That makes this market bigger than… 

• The dot-com boom
• The Bitcoin rush of 2017
• The green gold rush of pot stocks

Now, one California company is positioning itself to dominate the 5G industry thanks to a unique business model and seriously innovative tech. 

Interested in investing? Follow this link for the scoop…