Top News:
Barry Wilner / Associated Press:
Facebook launches Sports Stadium, a hub for American football now, other sports soon, offers real-time chats, stats, media commentary, more — Facebook's Sports Product to Launch During NFL Championships — There's a new stadium in town. Actually, in every town. — It's on Facebook.
Discussion:
Deadspin, Facebook, Re/code, Adweek, Fast Company, TechCrunch, SocialTimes, Mashable, Facebook MediaFacebook Media, @caseynewton, Wired.co.uk, Daily Mail, TIME, Wall Street Journal, @aaronwall, @helensitu, @gaberivera, @wy_yw, The Tech Portal, SlashGear, PCWorld, USA Today, SiliconBeat, The Next Web, The Verge, Engadget, GeekWire, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, @kantrowitz, @flyosity and @mikeisaac
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Peter Roybal / Facebook:
Facebook's new Audience Optimization tool lets publishers tag content to target readers by interest or demographic info — Introducing Audience Optimization for Publishers — Today, we're launching Audience Optimization, an organic targeting tool to help publishers reach and engage …
Discussion:
@quezzymoto, @melwhetstone and The Next Web
He Huifeng / South China Morning Post:
Weibo to expand its 140-Chinese-character limit on messages up to 2K, trial starts January 28, rolling out to all 500M users on February 28 — China's Weibo follows Twitter in controversial move to ditch 140-character limit, says users can soon waffle on for up to 2,000 — Main menu
Alistair Barr / Wall Street Journal:
Google disabled more than 780M ads in 2015 for violating policies including ads for unapproved drugs, misleading weight-loss claims, and “trick to click” ads — Google Disabled 49% More Ads in 2015 — Google disabled 49% more ads in 2015 than the prior year …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Business Insider, @wsjd, The Next Web, Guardian, Official Google Blog, Search Engine Land, Tech Times and 9to5Google
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Kelly Liyakasa / AdExchanger:
Google rolling out “Real-time ads”, pre-planned ads that appear at specific times, first for select brands, then more broadly later this year — Google Debuts ‘Real-Time Ads’ To Drive Live Engagement — Google sounds more and more like Twitter, heralding ways marketers can tap into live events for engagement.
Discussion:
Awful Announcing, Adweek, Ad Age, VentureBeat, YouTube Blog, @joshsternberg, Wired, Broadcasting & Cable, Engadget and mUmBRELLA
Henry Mance / Financial Times:
Pearson unveils £320M restructuring plan that includes 4,000 job cuts, and caps dividend due to weak earnings — Pearson to cut 4,000 jobs as it warns on profits — Pearson has unveiled a £320m restructuring plan that will cut one-tenth of its workforce …
Discussion:
New York Times, Wall Street Journal, International Business Times, Agence France-Presse, International Business Times, Sky News, Bloomberg Business, Financial Times, Editor & Publisher, dailyrecord, London Evening Standard, NASDAQ.com, Scotsman, Reuters, Bookseller News, Fortune, Telegraph, BBC, Guardian and Bloomberg Business
Peter Sterne / Politico:
Judge recommends mediation in Gawker-Hulk Hogan trial — The state court judge overseeing professional wrestler Hulk Hogan's $100 million lawsuit against Gawker Media has recommended that the parties seek mediation rather than a trial, according to court documents.
Discussion:
Tampa Bay Times, Awful Announcing and Fortune
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Associated Press:
Viacom cuts Sumner Redstone's salary by 85% to $2M amid questions about his health and competence — Viacom slashes exec pay amid lawsuit over Redstone's health — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Viacom Inc. on Wednesday pre-released details about executive pay that show an 85 percent drop in compensation …
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Joshua Barone / New York Times:
Welcome to Night Vale creators launch Night Vale Presents podcast platform with new fiction series Alice Isn't Dead — ‘Night Vale’ Creators to Start New Podcast Platform — The world of “Welcome to Night Vale,” the popular fiction podcast made up of dispatches from a surreal Southwestern town, is getting bigger.
Discussion:
ExaroNews, Exaro, The Independent, New York Times, The Daily Dot, Tor.com, Business Insider, Associated Press, Gay Times and Flavorwire
Kurt Wagner / Re/code:
News Corp denies rumors stemming from CNBC segment that it's interested in buying Twitter — Twitter's Stock Surged, Then Slipped on Takeover Speculation — Twitter's stock received a healthy boost Wednesday afternoon thanks to market speculation that the media giant News Corp may be interested …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Media Wire Daily, Reuters, TechCrunch, Sydney Morning Herald, Forbes, New York Times, Vanity Fair, TheStreet.com, Telegraph, StreetWise Journal, Businesstoday.in, GeekWire, @kesslerspcapiq, Variety, Bloomberg Business, Reuters, Guardian, SiliconBeat, The Wrap, Business Insider, International Business Times, @alexbarinka, @edmundlee and @jimkennedy250
Ken Doctor / Politico:
Axel Springer to launch mobile aggregator Upday in mid-March on new Samsung Galaxy S, Note and tablets in Germany, France, UK, and Poland — Upday Ups the Ante on Mobile News Aggregation — BERLIN—Peter Wuertenberger worked as Managing Director of Yahoo Germany back in the late' 90s …
Discussion:
World News Publishing Focus …
Jordan Valinsky / Digiday:
The New York Times launches Modern Love podcast with 48 episodes planned, essays read by celebrities — Why The New York Times finds podcasting to be a ‘natural fit’ for its Modern Love column — The “Modern Love” column, arguably the Internet's favorite New York Times thing to fight …
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, New York Times and Radio Boston
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