Social Media: Who watches the watchers? April 8, 2019 Social media, and especially its archetype, Facebook, has had a difficult run of publicity over the past few years. The 2016 US presidential election and the rise of “fake news” certainly did it no favours, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal which came in its wake made things worse still. Facebook’s origins as a benign thread [...]
Gizmodo and The Onion snapped up by private equity firm Great Hill Partners April 8, 2019 US private equity firm Great Hill Partners has snapped up Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion from Spanish-language media giant Univision for an undisclosed sum. The newly-formed group, which will be renamed G/O Media, will be led by media veteran Jim Spanfeller, who previously served as chief executive of Forbes. Read more: Google hands out [...]
Murdoch waits for verdict on The Times and The Sunday Times merger April 7, 2019 Media mogul Rupert Murdoch will this week receive the government’s verdict on a planned merger of The Times and The Sunday Times. Earlier this year News UK, which controls the two newspapers, filed an application to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to overturn a law that forces the group to keep [...]
Apple Music overtakes Spotify for number of paid subscribers in the US April 6, 2019 Apple Music’s streaming service has overtaken Spotify in terms of paid subscribers in the United States for the first time, according to Reuters. As of the end of February this year, Apple had amassed 28m subscribers for its product, compared with Spotify’s 26m, the report claimed. Read more: Social media giants to be held responsible [...]
Government set to hold social media firms responsible for harmful content April 5, 2019 Bosses of social media giants such as Facebook could be held responsible for rampant harmful content on their platforms, the government is set to warn next week. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will legislate for a new statutory duty of care which will be funded through a levy on media companies, according to a [...]
MPs slam BBC over ‘chaotic’ handling of freelance presenter tax system April 5, 2019 MPs have launched a scathing attack on the BBC over a “muddled and chaotic” approach to freelance workers that left hundreds of presenters liable to tax investigations. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last year launched an inquiry after it emerged the complex employment status of the broadcaster’s freelancers could mean tax laws were being broken. [...]
Conde Nast names media veteran Roger Lynch as new global chief executive April 4, 2019 Publishing giant Conde Nast has named Roger Lynch as its first global chief executive as the company merges its US and international operations. Lynch, the former boss of US streaming service Pandora Radio, will also join the firm’s board when he assumes the role on 22 April. Read more: Vogue publisher Conde Nast's accounts reveal [...]
Snapchat set to shed users to Instagram after controversial 2017 redesign April 4, 2019 Snapchat will see a decline in users from this year as an ill-fated redesign pushes people to rival social media platforms, a new report has stated. This year 14.5m people in the UK will use Snapchat, down 2.3 per cent on last year, according to a forecast published by Emarketer. Read more: Fraudsters use Facebook [...]
Media firm Entertainment One on track as it shifts focus to film production April 4, 2019 Peppa Pig producer Entertainment One today said it is on track to hit its full-year targets, thanks to strong growth in its portfolio of children's TV shows. In a trading update the Canadian firm said it has enjoyed strong underlying earnings performance, growing by more than 25 per cent in its family and brands division. [...]
Facebook hit by major data breach that left millions of user records on Amazon public software April 3, 2019 Millions of Facebook users have been affected in a major data oversight that left a trove of records publicly available on Amazon cloud-computing servers. Researchers at cybersecurity firm Upguard found that in one example, media firm Cultura Colectiva had posted 540m user records in a public database that included information such as account names, Facebook [...]