Top News:
Sahil Patel / Digiday:
BuzzFeed drove $250M in transactions from affiliate sales and licensing revenue in 2018, says CRO, as it pitches branded commerce posts and a shoppable ad unit — BuzzFeed is ramping up its sales pitch to marketers interested in pairing the publisher's ad capabilities with its growing commerce operation.
Discussion:
@xpangler, @media_evan and @rafat
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Memo: in 2018, BuzzFeed generated $200M from business lines that didn't exist in 2017; Facebook video platform revenue grew from $500K in Q1 to $3M in Q4 2018 — - BuzzFeed CEO Says Company Is Generating Over $200 Million Annually From Businesses That Didn't Exist Two Years Ago
Joe Berkowitz / Fast Company:
Q&A with Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini on Miel Brudow's fight with the site after it posted Brudow's video without credit: “we really botched” the response — On Monday, writer and performer Miel Bredouw took to Twitter to disclose publicly how her content had been misappropriated …
Discussion:
Deadspin, @onlxn, @rezac1 and The Daily Beast
New York Times:
White House Communications Director Bill Shine has resigned to serve as senior adviser on Trump's re-election campaign — Bill Shine, the former Fox News executive who joined the White House staff last summer to manage President Trump's communications operation, has resigned and will move …
The Conversation:
Australian court case puts media outlets on notice that they could face large compensation claims, after The Age was found liable for a reporter's PTSD — A landmark ruling by an Australian court is expected to have international consequences for newsrooms, with media companies on notice …
Discussion:
Nieman Lab and NEWS.com.au
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
Disney CEO Bob Iger says streaming service Disney+ will include the entire Disney film library soon after launch this year, essentially ending Disney's “vault” — Exclusivity and availability is a tremendous advantage — Disney+, the company's upcoming streaming service …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Vulture, Polygon, Engadget, Fast Company, Jezebel, CNBC, @drewmcweeny, @loudmouthjulia, @tasharobinson, MacRumors, @scalzi, @kimscorcher, @heyjonanderson, @jank0, @ceilidhann, Ars Technica and 9to5Mac
Mathew Ingram / Columbia Journalism Review:
Facebook's shift to more private sharing will make misinformation harder to track and raises questions about the company's liability for its diffusion — On Wednesday, in what seemed like a major shift, Mark Zuckerberg wrote that he wants to reorient Facebook around private, encrypted …
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, New York Times, The Guardian, @zeynep, New York Times, MIT Technology Review, New York Times, Stratechery, @alexstamos, The Verge, Parse.ly, Techdirt, Wired, @jayrosen_nyu, @evanselinger, @jason_kint, The Verge, @sivavaid, @sivavaid, @jessefelder, @willoremus, @_maditla, Wired, @jayrosen_nyu, Memex 1.1, ClickZ, WIRED UK, Business Insider and The Week, more at Techmeme »
BuzzFeed News:
DHS' inspector general is probing whether officials violated policies by creating a list of journalists and activists to be questioned at the southern border — WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general is investigating whether immigration officials violated policies …
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NBC 7 San Diego:
Leaked documents show the US government is closely monitoring journalists and immigration advocates tied to the 2018 migrant caravan
Discussion:
Committee to Protect …, SPJ News, @brooklynmarie, @repmikelevin, @senblumenthal, @fightfortheftr, @aclu, American Press Institute, Poynter, @samsanders, NPR, The Week, Broadcasting & Cable, Techdirt, Reporters Without Borders, VICE News, @jamilsmith, @mattdpearce, @mattdpearce, @otraletra, @katierogers, The Reporters Committee …, Fortune, Politico, Mediaite, CNN and New York Post
Jaclyn Peiser / New York Times:
Infinite Dial survey: ~90M people are monthly podcast listeners, up 6% YoY; weekly podcast listeners rose 5% to 62M, 70% of Americans are familiar with podcasts — The number of podcast listeners has increased sharply this year, according to a new report. — More than half the people …
Discussion:
Marketing Land, @awealthofcs, Radio World and Convince and Convert
Variety:
Spotify, Google, Pandora, and Amazon have filed to appeal a copyright ruling that increases payouts to songwriters by 44%; sources: Apple not planning to appeal — Amazon is filing a separate appeal against the ruling, which would increase writer rates by nearly 50%.
Discussion:
RAIN News, @drewberinger, MacRumors, Radio & Television …, 9to5Mac, Engadget, Fortune and Music Ally, more at Techmeme »
Sydney Johnson / EdSurge:
Turnitin, a developer of AI software that checks for plagiarism, will be acquired by media conglomerate Advance Publications, reportedly for nearly $1.75B — A company best known (and sometimes rebuked) for its plagiarism checker has just received one of the biggest checks in the education technology industry.
Facebook:
Facebook will curb vaccine misinformation by reducing the ranking of anti-vaccine Pages and groups, halting recommendations for those pages, rejecting ads, more — We are working to tackle vaccine misinformation on Facebook by reducing its distribution and providing people with authoritative information on the topic.
Discussion:
The Verge, BuzzFeed News, New York Times, @zeynep, East Bay Times, @kevinroose, Recode, TechCrunch, MIT Technology Review, @katienotopoulos, @juliacarriew, @noupside, @cwarzel, Ars Technica, NPR, Facebook, The Next Web, Adweek, Engadget, BloombergQuint, The Hill, Recode, Newsy and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »
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