Mediagazer: A profile of Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis, who stepped down in July 2024 after accusations of mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and accounting issues (Devin Leonard/Bloomberg)

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Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Similarweb: total desktop social referral traffic from Facebook grew 75% YoY for 68 top English-language news sites due to algorithm changes in January 2025 — Facebook traffic appears to be a growing part of the social pie again at three-quarters of the world's biggest news websites.

Discussion: @2xaught7.bsky.social

Devin Leonard / Bloomberg:

A profile of Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis, who stepped down in July 2024 after accusations of mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and accounting issues — Merck Mercuriadis convinced everyone from pop stars to Blackstone that music was the next hot asset class. It worked out for everyone—but him.

Discussion: @devinleonard and @bw

Reuters:

MoffettNathanson: a US recession may result in $45B in lost ad spend in 2025 and ad budgets shifting from traditional TV to alternatives like streaming services — Wall Street analysts offered a gloomy view of the first quarter for much of Hollywood, warning that economic uncertainty caused …

Discussion: The Register

Tiffany Hsu / New York Times:
IAB: 60% of US ad executives expect tariffs to result in a 6% to 10% cut in 2025 ad budgets; industry insiders say advertisers are “paralyzed” and “somber”

Discussion: The Daily Upside and @scottbrodbeck

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:

Smashing, an AI-powered news and social media posts aggregation app by Goodreads co-founder Otis Chandler, shuts down, citing its inability to grow quickly — Building an app dedicated to helping people aggregate and read news, articles and social media posts in one place is apparently a tough proposition these days.

Discussion: Smashing Team's Substack, Smashing and @otown

Julian Sancton / The Hollywood Reporter:

Breakthrough Prize Foundation cut Seth Rogen's criticism of Silicon Valley's Trump support from a “full” YouTube video; a spokesperson blamed the event's length — While presenting an award at the event known as the Oscars of Science, ‘The Studio’ star pointed out the irony …

Discussion: New York Times, @franklinleonard, @ddiamond.bsky.social, @rmac.bsky.social, @frydawolff.bsky.social, SFist, The Guardian, GoldDerby, Boing Boing, Decider, San Francisco Chronicle, Breitbart, kottke.org, The Verge, Variety, The Wrap, Deadline and The Hill

Melanie Goodfellow / Deadline:

Palestinian photojournalist and artist Fatima Hassouna has been killed in an Israeli airstrike on her family's home in Gaza City — A Palestinian artist and photojournalist who is the protagonist of a documentary due to premiere in Cannes in May has been killed in an Israeli air strike.

Discussion: The Hollywood Reporter and Le Monde

Bloomberg:

The FTC challenges ex-Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg over past emails; she called Google+ a “real” competitor in 2011 and discussed blocking its Facebook ads in 2012 — Sandberg, who left Meta in 2022 after more than 14 years as Mark Zuckerberg's No. 2, was Meta's senior-most business leader …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Fox Business, Washington Examiner, Washington Post, Benzinga and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

Washington Post:

President Trump's DC US attorney pick, Ed Martin, has been on Russian state-funded RT and Sputnik as a commentator over 150 times from August 2016 to April 2024 — Nominee Ed Martin did not initially disclose his RT and Sputnik appearances from 2016 to 2024 to the Senate.

Discussion: New York Times, CNN, The Kyiv Independent, MSNBC, Patterico's Pontifications, The Independent, Mediaite, Bloomberg, @justinbaragona.bsky.social, @simiansilverback.bsky.social, @briankrebs@infosec.exchange, @kevinrothrock@infosec …, Raw Story, Political Wire, @bgrueskin.bsky.social, Washington City Paper and The Hill

Jennifer Maas / Variety:

Q&A with Phil Spencer on A Minecraft Movie, potential IP for future movies, Microsoft's Hollywood goals, Fallout Season 2 and the Minecraft TV series, and more — The execs at Microsoft, Warner Bros. and Legendary can now breathe a collective sigh of relief as “A Minecraft Movie” …

Discussion: TechRadar, Metro.co.uk, Business Insider, The Verge, XboxEra, GamesRadar and National Review

Max Goldbart / Deadline:

Study: in South Korea, active YouTube users spent 210 minutes per day on the service in Q4, while Netflix subscribers spent 96 minutes per day on the streamer — Koreans who subscribe to Netflix spent less than half that time (96 minutes) watching the streamer, which airs Korean hits like Squid Game, Love Next Door and Queen of Tears.

Discussion: The Streamable, Digital i and The Korea Herald, more at Techmeme »

Catherine Perloff / The Information:

Source: in January 2025, Pinterest considered buying an ad tech firm to boost its ad sales, and is working to allow ad sales through independent ad tech firms — Pinterest in January considered spending hundreds of millions on an acquisition to supercharge its ad sales …

Mark Stenberg / Adweek:

Henry Blodget launches Regenerator on Substack, to provide a “rolling analysis” of broad, timely subjects, with plans to add staff and debut a freemium model — The Substack-based brand plans to adopt a freemium model as it scales — Business Insider founder Henry Blodget launched …

Discussion: Henry Blodget on LinkedIn and Talking Biz News