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.
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Facebook, Re/code, Deadspin, Adweek, Fast Company, TechCrunch, SocialTimes, Mashable, Facebook MediaFacebook Media, Wired.co.uk, Daily Mail, TIME, App Advice, @aaronwall, @helensitu, @gaberivera, @wy_yw, The Tech Portal, SlashGear, PCWorld, USA Today, SiliconBeat, Engadget, GeekWire, The Next Web, TechCrunch, @caseynewton, @kantrowitz, @flyosity, @mikeisaac, The Verge and VentureBeat
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 …
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TechCrunch, VentureBeat, @wsjd, Guardian, The Next Web, 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, @joshsternberg, YouTube Blog, 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 …
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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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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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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, Sydney Morning Herald, TechCrunch, Forbes, New York Times, Vanity Fair, TheStreet.com, Telegraph, Reuters, Businesstoday.in, GeekWire, @kesslerspcapiq, StreetWise Journal, Variety, Bloomberg Business, @alexbarinka, Guardian, SiliconBeat, The Wrap, Business Insider, International Business Times, @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
Jasper Jackson / Guardian:
The Sun drops standalone politics site — Sun Nation, launched as a ‘loud and disruptive’ force before the general election, has been absorbed into the main website now the paywall has been axed — The Sun has called time on its standalone politics site, less than a year after it launched as a …
Discussion:
Guido Fawkes
Sky News:
Around 900 jobs are under threat at telecoms firm Virgin Media after it announced plans for a shake-up. — The group, owned by US giant Liberty Global, warned that the redundancies were likely over the next two years as it undergoes a structural shake-up. — Chief executive Tom Mockridge said …
Discussion:
Guardian, Multichannel News, RTÉ, Life Style Extra and dailyrecord