Mediagazer: In unusual move, IAB retracts Adblock Plus's invitation to upcoming annual leadership summit, offers no explanation (Sebastian Anthony/Ars Technica UK)

6:25 PM ET, January 21, 2016

Top News:

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.

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

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, BBC, Mashable, ShanghaiDaily.com, Tech Times, The Drum, Fast Company, ZDNet, AndroidHeadlines.com, VentureBeat, BuzzFeed, CCTV America, New York Magazine, Shanghaiist, The Next Web, Digital Spy, Engadget and The Verge

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

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

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.

Discussion: Variety, Hollywood Reporter, CNET, Re/code, Forbes and ZDNet

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 …

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.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, International Business Times, ZDNet, Forbes, Business Insider, Top Digital Journal News and SiliconBeat

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 …

Discussion: The Wrap, Fortune, The Wrap, New York Times, Bloomberg Business, New York Post, International Business Times, Los Angeles Times, Guardian, Reuters, Deadline, Wall Street Journal, Radio & Television … and Variety

Mike Farrell / Multichannel News:
Activist shareholder SpringOwl releases 99-page report calling for Viacom chairman and management team ouster

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable

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 …