Netflix to sell $2bn worth of bonds amid competition with streaming rivals April 23, 2019 Netflix will issue $2bn (£1.5bn) worth of bonds, denominated in both dollars and euros, to raise money as the battle over TV and film streaming intensifies. Read more: Netflix predicts slowed subscriber growth as price hikes begin to hurt The online media giant said the interest rate, maturity date, and other terms of the bonds [...]
All a-Twitter April 23, 2019 Anyone who knows about social media would recognise Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter: unruly beard, black knitted hat, dark clothes. He’s a distinctive figure in a way that Mark Zuckerberg isn’t, though it’s also true that there’s yet to be a film made about Dorsey’s rise to prominence. The Twitter boss recently took part [...]
Digital publishing revenues rise as video and display formats drive growth April 23, 2019 Digital publishing revenues rose almost seven per cent last year as publishers shift their focus towards video formats. Figures from the Association for Online Publishing (AOP) and Deloitte reveal UK revenues rose 6.8 per cent to £511.5m in 2018. Read more: Google hands out €500,000 for local publishers’ project The growth was driven largely by [...]
Twitter profits triple as it reaps rewards of crackdown on harmful content April 23, 2019 Shares in Twitter rose more than 16 per cent today after the social media platform posted a threefold increase in first-quarter profits. Read more: Twitter boss Jack Dorsey was paid just $1.40 in 2018 The figures Revenue grew 18 per cent year-on-year to $787m (£605m) in the three months to the end of March. Net [...]
National Enquirer sold to US magazine distributor April 19, 2019 US tabloid newspaper The National Enquirer, which admitted paying hush money to get President Donald Trump elected, has been sold to James Cohen, the chief executive of Hudson Media. The weekly tabloid, which was also accused of allegedly trying to blackmail Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has been sold by American Media Inc (AMI) for a reported [...]
Elon Musk channels a sheep as he and English Rural Life museum swap pictures April 18, 2019 The Museum of English Rural Life has adopted Elon Musk's Twitter display picture, after the Tesla CEO decided to take their sheep image and start answering tweets about Tesla cars with sheep puns. Now visitors to the page of the Museum of English Rural Life will be greeted with Musk's face in a joke that continues [...]
Netflix predicts slowed subscriber growth as price hikes begin to hurt April 17, 2019 Netflix expects its subscriber growth rate to weaken in the coming months, as upcoming US price rises for its TV streaming site dampen the attraction of new users. The firm said it had gained a record number of 9.6m paid subscribers in the three months to March, taking its total up to 148.9m and ahead of [...]
Watchdog plans crackdown over children’s online safety April 15, 2019 Social media giants must limit their collection of personal data from children or face fines of up to £17m, the UK data watchdog has warned. The Information Commissioner’s Office will today open consultation on a code of practice which online platforms such as Facebook and Snap must meet in order to better protect children’s privacy. [...]
Nothing but the truth: Inside Facebook’s UK fact-checking war room April 15, 2019 The war against fake news on social media has been raging since 2016, though it wasn’t until January this year that Facebook decided to take its fight to the British shores. “If this is a war room, I don’t know who the generalissimo would be,” jokes Will Moy, director of the fact-checking charity Full Fact [...]
Boris Johnson breached press rules over inaccurate no-deal Brexit support claim, Ipso finds April 12, 2019 Boris Johnson breached standards guidelines when he claimed that a no-deal Brexit was “by some margin preferred by the British public” to other options, the press regulator today ruled. Read more: CBI expresses 'deep concern' at prospect of Prime Minister Boris Johnson The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) condemned Johnson’s statement in his weekly column [...]