Tiktok sets up $2bn fund to poach creators from rivals July 30, 2020 Tiktok has today revealed it will be putting more than $2bn aside over the next three years to pay creators on its platform, in a bid to attract more influencers from rivals Instagram and Youtube. Around $300m of that fund will go to creators in the UK and Europe, while $1bn will be set aside [...]
Tories turn to Linkedin to recruit £100k host of White House-style briefings July 29, 2020 Boris Johnson has launched a search for a new £100,000-a-year spokesperson to front Downing Street’s press briefings, as the Prime Minister looks to step back from the limelight. The Conservatives posted the vacancy on their Linkedin page this morning, describing it as a “unique opportunity” to work at the heart of the political circuit. The [...]
Turkey passes controversial law to regulate social media content July 29, 2020 Turkey today passed a law which allows the government to control social media platforms, despite strong criticism that it will increase censorship in the country. The law requires foreign social media sites to appoint representatives based in Turkey to address authorities’ concerns over content. Officials can set deadlines for removal of material they take exception [...]
Rising demand boosts Spotify to 138m paid users July 29, 2020 Spotify said today it had recovered from a coronavirus-related damp start to the second quarter, beating Wall Street expectations to report 138m in paid users. Subscribers to its Premium service, which accounts for most of the company’s revenue, were up 27 per cent from a year earlier. Analyst had on average forecast the company to [...]
Amber Heard slams Johnny Depp trial as ‘incredibly painful’ July 28, 2020 Amber Heard has described ex-husband Johnny Depp’s libel trial at the High Court as “incredibly painful”, adding that it has been “traumatic” to broadcast intimate details of her life to the public over the past few weeks. Depp is suing the Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) and the Sun’s executive editor Dan Wootton over [...]
Johnny Depp trial: ‘Deep misogyny’ at the root of actor’s violence, court told July 27, 2020 The High Court today heard that “deep misogyny” underpinned Johnny Depp’s alleged violence against ex-wife Amber Heard, as lawyers for the Sun newspaper today made their closing submissions to round off the three-week trial. Depp is suing the Sun’s publisher News Group Newspapers (NGN) and the Sun’s executive editor Dan Wootton over an article from [...]
Wall Street Journal editors hit back at ‘misinformation’ and ‘racism’ claims July 24, 2020 The Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) editorial staff have launched a scathing rebuttal of allegations that their articles propel misinformation surrounding issues such as coronavirus and racism, saying the paper vows not to “wilt under cancel culture pressure”. Almost 300 journalists at the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper on Tuesday sent a letter to WSJ’s publisher accusing the [...]
Pearson swings to a loss as pandemic forces schools to close July 24, 2020 Education publisher Pearson swung to a first-half loss as the coronavirus pandemic closed schools and test centres, but said it is on track to recover in the second half of the year. Pearson, which has withdrawn guidance for the year, said underlying sales had fallen 17 per cent in the first half of the year [...]
Daily Mail owner DMGT reports plunge in profit as coronavirus hammers publishing sector July 23, 2020 The publisher of the Daily Mail newspaper has reported a 44 per cent plunge in operating profit for the nine months to June after growth in the first five months of the year was wiped out by the Covid-19 pandemic. Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) reported adjusted operating profit of £63m for the nine [...]
High-profile Twitter users’ private messages hacked in cyber attack July 23, 2020 Twitter has admitted that at least 36 users have had their private messages hacked in a cyber attack connected to last week’s high-profile bitcoin-related hack, raising concerns that well-known victims could be extorted. Hackers last week took over the official Twitter accounts of more than 130 blue-ticked users, including politicians such as Joe Biden and [...]