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
RELATED:
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
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 »