Top News:
CNNMoney:
Brands like Nike, Expedia, Acer suspend ads on Infowars' YouTube channels when contacted by CNN; some wonder why YouTube filters failed to block ads on Infowars — Facebook, YouTube fail to blunt conspiracy theories — Some of the biggest brands in the U.S. had ads running on the YouTube channels …
Discussion:
Mediaite, The Hill, @kylegriffin1 and Gizmodo
Ricardo Bilton / Nieman Lab:
BuzzSumo study of 100M articles posted in 2017 shows social sharing halved since 2015 and Google sites drove 2x more referrals to publishers than social media — Publishers may be getting dinged — and in some cases destroyed — by Facebook's move to decrease the amount of publisher content …
Discussion:
BuzzSumo, @skgreen, Search Engine Journal and Social Media Today
Cara Buckley / New York Times:
E! producer Aileen Gram-Moreno says she was fired for allowing a clip that criticized the network over gender pay disparity to air during Golden Globes show — With accusations of sexual harassment dogging its star host, Ryan Seacrest, and celebrities reportedly planning to steer clear …
Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
The Weinstein Company avoids bankruptcy through a $500M takeover led by Maria Contreras-Sweet; deal includes up to $90M in compensation for Weinstein accusers — Weinstein empire unravels amid scandal — The Weinstein Company's bankruptcy talk has been replaced by deal talk.
Discussion:
@heatherwcda, Variety, @dealfatigue, Glamour, The A.V. Club, New York Times, Reuters, The Week, Wall Street Journal, Deadline, /Film, @agschneiderman, New York Business Journal, The Week, New York Post, New York Post, New York Daily News, City A.M., TIME, Billboard, EW.com, BBC, The Daily Caller, Fortune, USA Today, Washington Post, FierceCable, The Daily Beast, Vulture, The Guardian, Fortune, Financial Times, Rolling Stone, ABC News, NPR, Deadline, TVWeek.com, ag.ny.gov, KTLA, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, BloombergQuint and Reuters
Kristopher Tapley / Variety:
Jennifer Lawrence and Jodie Foster to present best actress Oscar, replacing Casey Affleck who withdrew after sexual harassment accusations — Breaking with tradition in the midst of an awards season that has come to colloquially become known as “the year of the woman,” …
Discussion:
Refinery29, The A.V. Club, IndieWire and Mashable
Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed:
Some sites change domain names, a practice known as domain hopping, to avoid ad agency blacklists and losing traffic as a result of Facebook's algorithm changes — Domain hopping is one way publishers are combatting declining traffic from Facebook while also staying one step ahead of advertising blacklists.
Discussion:
@adam22
Paul Mozur / New York Times:
China is prosecuting a citizen who shared a critical message on WhatsApp; message was likely obtained by hacking a phone or via spy in a WhatsApp group — SHANGHAI — Within its digital borders, China has long censored what its people read and say online. Now, it is increasingly going beyond …
Discussion:
@theresaafallon, @paulmozur, @nytimesbusiness, @emilyywu, @niubi, @ehundman, @nytimes, @peterinexile, @dgtam86, @scs_disputes and @politicalshort, more at Techmeme »
Nina Xiang / China Money Network:
Chinese anime-streaming platform Bilibili files for $400M US IPO, says its revenue increased from $80.4M in 2016 to $379.4M in 2017 and it had 72M MAUs in Q4 — Chinese online anime-streaming platform Bilibili Inc. has filed a F-1 form to raise as much as US$400 million via a listing …
Rick Gladstone / New York Times:
World's longest-imprisoned journalist, Yusuf Ruzimuradov, has been freed in Uzbekistan after spending 19 years in jail — Uzbekistan has freed a reporter who was incarcerated for nearly two decades on sedition charges, the longest-known prison term served by a journalist, human rights advocates said Friday.
Discussion:
Human Rights Watch, pulse.ng, The Express Tribune and Committee to Protect …
Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
Gimlet Media expands into voice assistant content with “Chompers”, a sponsored Alexa app that encourages children to brush their teeth with twice-daily episodes — Podcasting company Gimlet Media is launching its first show for Amazon Alexa, part of a broader push into content for voice assistants
Discussion:
RAIN News
Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
Sources detail what some describe as an unhappy work environment at Snap, where CEO Evan Spiegel retains tight control but has been empowering some executives — Employees won't get cash bonuses after missing internal goals — Spiegel said to be working to spread decision-making authority
Discussion:
Cheddar, Slate, BloombergQuint, @sarahfrier, @jank0, @alexeheath, @shiraovide, @sarahfrier and @adamsinger, more at Techmeme »
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
With Smarticles, The Guardian tests a format where algorithms provide new information based on the reader's last visit and the importance of new developments — Like Circa before it, The Guardian aims to atomize a big breaking story into its individual parts — and then be smart about showing you the right ones at the right time.
Discussion:
@bmorrissey