Buzzfeed set to slash half its UK editorial roles in restructuring plan January 28, 2019 Buzzfeed will cut its UK editorial team by almost 50 per cent as part of a cost-cutting strategy amid falling advertising revenues. The online publisher is set to reduce its London-based team from 37 to 20 employees as it looks to reduce its global headcount by 15 per cent. Read more: Buzzfeed and Verizon plan to slash [...]
Social media firms could face ban if they fail to remove harmful online content, warns Matt Hancock January 27, 2019 Social media firms face being banned if they fail to remove harmful content, health secretary Matt Hancock has suggested. "We are a nation state, parliament is sovereign – as we are discovering in the Brexit process – and we can legislate if we need to. It would be far better to do this in concert with the [...]
Facebook is set to merge messaging services across Instagram, Whatsapp and Messenger January 25, 2019 Facebook is planning to streamline its messaging services by integrating Whatsapp, Instagram and Facebook messenger. All three will remain separate apps, but underneath the surface they will all be inter-linked, allowing messages to travel between services, according to a report in the New York Times. The paper claims it is the personal project of the [...]
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism secures £800,000 to fund growth January 25, 2019 The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has secured a new round of fundraising, bucking the trend after a torrid week of job cuts among digital media outlets. The not-for-profit news organisation said it has received £800,000 over two years from global charity Luminate, which was set up by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Read more: Buzzfeed and Verizon [...]
Buzzfeed and Verizon plan to slash hundreds of jobs in grim day for digital media January 24, 2019 Online publishers Buzzfeed and Verizon Media have announced plans to cut hundreds of staff members as digital media faces a squeeze on advertising revenues. Buzzfeed said it plans to reduce its global headcount by 15 per cent, believed to amount to roughly 200 members of staff, as it looks to cut costs. Read more: Murdoch eyes [...]
Big tech firms like Google, Amazon and Facebook spent a record amount on political lobbying last year January 24, 2019 Google, Amazon and Facebook's bill for lobbying the US government hit record highs last year, as life under the Trump administration put big tech firms in the spotlight. Google parent firm Alphabet said it spent $21.2m (£16.3m) on political lobbying costs in the US last year, topping its previous all-time high of $18.2m achieved in 2012. It [...]
Facebook to invest £3m in targeting spam ads in the UK as Martin Lewis drops lawsuit January 23, 2019 Facebook has said it will invest £3m into targeting fraudulent adverts on its UK platform, after reaching a settlement with Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis. Lewis first launched proceedings against Facebook last year over a series of ads appearing on the website which claimed he had backed several investment schemes. Those schemes later turned out [...]
This is the year for businesses to find their purpose in life January 22, 2019 One year ago, BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink called on businesses to define their societal purpose, sending a message to the corporate world that working towards profit alone was no longer good enough. Last week, Fink’s push towards purpose was in the papers again, when a hacker concocted an elaborate hoax in the form of [...]
Whatsapp to fight fake news by limiting forwarded text messages January 21, 2019 Facebook's Whatsapp has said it will roll out curbs on the amount of times a user can forward the same message on its platform, in a bid to fight the spread of global "misinformation and rumours". Whatsapp's vice president for policy and communications Victoria Grand said the app would impose a limit of five messages [...]
EU digital tax could be agreed by March, says French finance minister Bruno Le Maire January 20, 2019 The European Union could reach an agreement on details of a digital tax by the end of March, the French finance minister has said. Talks among EU ministers aimed at aligning the taxation of online businesses broke down in December. A number of smaller member states, including Ireland, Sweden and Denmark, opposed the plan and [...]