Top News:
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Spotify announces a hateful content and conduct policy to distance itself from controversial artists and introduces AudioWatch tool to scan its back catalog — Spotify has announced a new hate content and hateful conduct policy as it looks to distance itself from controversial music artists …
Discussion:
Billboard, newsroom.spotify.com, Bloomberg, Ad Age, The Hill, @buzzfeedben, @danrys, @pitchfork, The Muse, Associated Press, @mtfiii and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:
Medium abruptly ends feature that let publishers use the platform to collect revenue from their own subscriptions, affecting 21 publishers — “Could we have a better metaphor for the way Silicon Valley considers local journalism?" fumed the owner of one of these remaining publications.
Bloomberg:
House Democrats release 3,519 Facebook ads from Russia-linked accounts, spanning 2015 to 2017, showing a coordinated campaign to sow distrust in US politics — - House Intelligence Committee Democrats publish 3,519 ads — Posts targeted specific groups to inflame civil discord
Discussion:
NBC News, Facebook, Adweek, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Wrap, Associated Press, Wired, @firstdraftnews, @facebook, @sarahfrier, @nbcnews, USA Today and @oneunderscore__, more at Techmeme »
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
IAB report: online advertising exceeded total spent on broadcast and cable TV in 2017, reaching $88B, a 21% increase from 2016; mobile rose 36% YoY to $49.9B — Online advertising reached $88 billion last year, a 21 percent increase from 2016 and a new high, according to the latest IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report.
Brianne O'Brien / BuzzFeed:
BuzzFeed to launch a new Saturday podcast, The News, where BuzzFeed staffers add context to news — Don't get lost in the chaos. Join BuzzFeed News reporters and editors every Saturday for news that's smart, not stuffy. — We get it. — With the news alerts constantly blowing up our phones …
Discussion:
@janelytv
Simon Dumenco / Ad Age:
The Onion's Clickhole launches Resistancehole to parody the Trump “resistance” the same way Patriothole, started last year, parodies the conservative right — Do you oppose President Trump? And do you have a sense of humor about your opposition? (Or do you not have a sense of humor about it but don't realize it?)
Discussion:
ResistanceHole and @jenniferm_q
Sahil Patel / Digiday:
Sources: Facebook Watch is proposing annual budgets from $5M to $10M for daily news programming and $1M to $2M for weekly shows, based on per-episode costs — As Facebook looks to recruit news publishers for daily and weekly shows for Facebook Watch, the company is proposing a wide range …
Jeff Baumgartner / Broadcasting & Cable:
The rate of decline in pay TV subscriptions slowed in Q1, analyst Craig Moffett says, with cable operators losing 323K subscriptions and satellite losing 418K — ‘Conversion rate’ from traditional pay TV to OTT TV a particularly good trend for major programmers, analyst says
Discussion:
MediaPost and FierceCable
New York Times:
Broadway's version of To Kill a Mockingbird is back on after two lawsuits over the Aaron Sorkin adaptation were settled Thursday — Atticus Finch is coming to Broadway. — A blistering pair of federal lawsuits over a $7 million stage adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” were settled on Thursday …
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter and BroadwayWorld.com
Matt Yoder / Awful Announcing:
A look at the declining relevance of ESPN's public editor job, which it has ended, saying it “outlived its usefulness” and citing similar moves by NYT and WaPo — ESPNBy Matt Yoder on 05/10/201805/10/2018 — Once upon a time, the regular ESPN ombudsman column was a must-read for anyone passionate about sports media.
Discussion:
Poynter, @poynter, Deadspin, HuffPost, iMediaEthics and ESPN Front Row
David Shepardson / Reuters:
FCC says that the Obama-era net neutrality rules from 2015 will end on June 11; Senate to vote as early as next week on whether to reject the FCC repeal — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission said in a notice Thursday that landmark 2015 U.S. open-internet rules will cease on June 11.
Discussion:
MediaPost, Techdirt, 9to5Mac and Fortune, more at Techmeme »
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Gannett reaches deal to buy search marketing company WordStream for $130M in cash plus up to $20M in earnout through 2020 if revenue goals are met — WordStream, the paid search software company that helps advertisers manage their PPC campaigns, has been acquired by the Gannett Company for $150 million.
Discussion:
MediaPost, Business Wire, WordStream, @adammedros and Editor & Publisher, more at Techmeme »