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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Deadspin, Forbes, Ad Age, Mashable, Facebook, Re/code, Adweek, Fortune, mUmBRELLA, Facebook MediaFacebook Media, Fast Company, TechCrunch, SocialTimes, Wall Street Journal, @jigripokri, Android Police, @caseynewton, @aaronwall, @helensitu, @gaberivera, @wy_yw, The Tech Portal, SlashGear, PCWorld, USA Today, SiliconBeat, Engadget, GeekWire, The Next Web, TechCrunch, @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 …
Discussion:
Fast Company, Globe and Mail, Guardian, BetaNews, Business Insider, Official Google Blog, Search Engine Land, The Next Web, @wsjd, Tech Times, 9to5Google, VentureBeat and TechCrunch
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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 rolling out “Real-time ads”, pre-planned ads that appear at specific times, first for select brands, then more broadly later this year
Discussion:
Awful Announcing, @joshsternberg, Adweek, Ad Age, VentureBeat, YouTube Blog, Wired, Broadcasting & Cable, Engadget and mUmBRELLA
Carl Swanson / New York Magazine:
Sources: Leon Wieseltier and Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs teaming up for as-yet-unnamed journal — Leon Wieseltier Is Not Buying The New Republic — But He Is Teaming Up With Steve Jobs's Widow to Start a New Publication — It will be a journal focusing on how technology affects our lives.
Discussion:
@mlcalderone, @noahcrothman, @carloslozadawp, @jonathanchait and @yair_rosenberg
Daniel Frankel / FierceCable:
Verizon's CFO: Custom TV will ‘refresh’ to comply with programming contracts — Verizon (NYSE: VZ) CFO Fran Shammo said his company will make changes to its FiOS Custom TV product, which granularly controls which programming networks customers receive in their video service.
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:
SocialTimes, @quezzymoto, @melwhetstone and The Next Web
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:
Wall Street Journal, New York Times, International Business Times, Financial Times, Editor & Publisher, Talking Biz News, Agence France-Presse, International Business Times, Sky News, Bloomberg Business, London Evening Standard, NASDAQ.com, Scotsman, Reuters, Bookseller News, Fortune, Telegraph, BBC, Guardian and Bloomberg Business
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, Telegraph, The Independent, New York Times, The Daily Dot, Gay Times, Business Insider, Tor.com and Flavorwire
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
IBM Confirms Acquisition Of UStream, Forms New Cloud Video Unit — IBM confirmed that it has acquired video conferencing service UStream this morning. With several cloud video acquisitions in tow, the company also announced it was forming a new cloud video services unit.
Sebastian Anthony / Ars Technica UK:
In unusual move, IAB retracts Adblock Plus's invitation to upcoming annual leadership summit, offers no explanation — Adblock Plus blocked from attending online ad industry's big annual conference — The e-mail conversation between the IAB and Adblock Plus.
Discussion:
Business Insider, Fast Company and Tech Times
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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Ken Doctor / Politico:
Axel Springer to launch mobile news 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:
@mathewi and 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