Top News:
Christine Schmidt / Nieman Lab:
Facebook to give 60+ academics around the world access to its data for projects on news polarization, disinformation, and more — Facebook knows it screwed up, is trying to do better, and is spending some of this year actually listening to critiques and suggestions (supposedly).
Discussion:
items.ssrc.org, Facebook, @nanjala1, SOCIAL SCIENCE ONE, CNET, @mshannahmurphy, @kadhimshubber, The Verge, VentureBeat, Adweek, Engadget, The Hill, Poynter and @ssrc_org, more at Techmeme »
Spotify:
Spotify reports Q1 revenue of €1.5B, up 33% YoY, reduces net loss to €142M, says it has 217M MAUs, up 26% YoY, with 100M premium subscribers, up 32% YoY — Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) today reported financial results for the first fiscal quarter of 2019 ending March 31, 2019.
Discussion:
Variety, New York Times, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, USA Today, TechCrunch, Engadget, Business Insider, @pkafka, @richbtig and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Spotify confirms it paid €50M to acquire the podcasting studio Parcast in addition to the €308M spent on Anchor and Gimlet in 2019 — Spotify has confirmed that it paid €50 million ($56 million) to acquire Parcast, the story-based podcasting studio it snapped up last month.
Discussion:
MediaPost, more at Techmeme »
Nic Fildes / Financial Times:
Sources: UK's Telegraph Media Group plans to cut about 50 jobs in its commercial department as it continues its shift to a subscription-first revenue strategy — Telegraph Media Group has launched its latest round of restructuring as it presses ahead with its shift to a premium subscription-based model.
Discussion:
@orskov and @jayrosen_nyu
Bloomberg:
Sources: Walmart plans to create at least 6 original Vudu shows over the next year, which will make money by advertising products, testing “shoppable content” — - Decade-old streaming service plans to tout new ad technology — Walmart Inc. already sells more TVs than anyone.
Discussion:
Streaming Observer, TechCrunch, @lucas_shaw, Gizmodo, The Verge, MacRumors, Forbes and Engadget, Thanks:@lucas_shaw
Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
Royalties from digital services to UK copyright society PRS for Music rose 17% to £145.7M in 2018, the first year of its licensing deal with Facebook — British collecting society PRS for Music saw its collections grow by 4.4% to £746m (around $965.4m) in 2018, setting a new record.
Discussion:
The Guardian, Music Business Worldwide and NME
Daniel Funke / Poynter:
Survey of 1,018 US journalists: only ~15% say they have been trained on how to best report on misinformation, while 80%+ have been duped by false info online — The spread of misinformation has changed the way that social media users interact with news. — A study published in Science Advances …
Discussion:
@poynter
Ginny Marvin / Search Engine Land:
Microsoft rebrands Bing Ads as Microsoft Advertising, says it will introduce more advertising products with built-in AI over the next year — The new name reflects a broader focus on ad inventory, data and targeting capabilities. — First there was Microsoft adCenter. Then there was Bing Ads.
Discussion:
Bing Ads, @carnage4life and The Drum, more at Techmeme »
VICE News:
Fox News dominates Facebook with 80% more engagement than CNN through a mix of traditional news and viral content, despite having 17M followers vs CNN's 31M — By the time Robert Mueller's report on Russian interference landed, the battle to spin it had already begun, with politicians …
Discussion:
Media Matters for America, @jason_koebler, @viacristiano, @caseynewton and Slate
Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab:
Amazon doorbell company Ring searches for an editor to deliver breaking crime alerts; local TV has already led Americans to overestimate crime rates — When news organizations think about competition from tech companies, it's usually in terms of the audience's attention and advertisers' dollars.
Discussion:
@byrosenberg, @byrosenberg, @jbenton, @stephmbuck, @samanthaculp, @vectorpoem, @andrewkragie and @michaelbarthel
Bloomberg:
With PR workers now outnumbering journalists six to one, journalists are bombarded by PR pitches looking to control corporate narratives — - For every reporter there are six PR workers, Census reports — Number of PR specialists to keep rising, Labor Department says
Discussion:
@elisabethmahy, @hamiltonnolan, @erinahennessy and @caseynewton
The Mozilla Blog:
Facebook's Ad Archive API is criticized for lacking info on ad targeting criteria and being limited to keyword searches, preventing a comprehensive look at ads — Facebook's tool meets only two of experts' five minimum standards. That's a failing grade. — Facebook pledged in February …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, The Mac Observer, @profcarroll, Lifehacker, @jmgrygiel, @mozilla and @kevinroose
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