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☆ Montana’s TikTok ban throws users into new era of uncertainty
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Keri Williams wouldn’t have her business without TikTok. But earlier this week, Montana Gov. Now, Williams, who lives near Montana’s largest city — Billings — is scrambling to figure out the future of her business. The law, set to take effect in January, has already been the subject of a lawsuit by a group of TikTok users who allege it infringes on their First Amendment rights. TikTok said in March that it has 150 million monthly active users in the United States, up from 100 million users in 2020, when the Trump administration first threatened to ban the service.

☆ People are loving BuzzFeed's AI-generated quizzes more than their human-generated ones: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Nidhi Pandurangi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

People spent 40% more time with BuzzFeed's AI quizzes than human-generated ones, per Bloomberg. AI is the new Golden Child, and BuzzFeed's quizzes help prove the point. People spent 40% more time with BuzzFeed's AI quizzes than its traditional, human-generated ones, the company said in an online investor forum, per a May 12 Bloomberg report. Under the "quizzes" tab of its homepage, BuzzFeed now has entire section devoted to AI quizzes. As Futurism reported, BuzzFeed has not made a detailed breakdown of engagement numbers on its quizzes available.

☆ Fact Check-Image is not authentic George Santos mug shot
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A cropped photograph of U.S. Representative George Santos taken in the Capitol in 2021 has been shared with the false claim that it is a mug shot of the newly-indicted Republican. The original image captured in January 2021 by photographer Tom Williams shows Santos walking down a hallway in the U.S. Capitol Building (here). Attorneys' Offices, Eastern District of New York, told Reuters that no mug shot was released, adding that the release of mug shots is against Department of Justice policy “unless there’s some larger public safety need, like an ongoing manhunt” (bit.ly/41DGRqE). A spokesperson for Santos’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The photograph was taken while Santos was walking down a hallway in the U.S. Capitol Building in January 2021.

☆ News startup Messenger launches with Trump 'exclusive' while advertisers expressed skepticism ahead of debut: 'We can't have another Quibi'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Jimmy Finkelstein's startup The Messenger launched today with a Trump interview leading the site. Advertisers said it'll be tough to sell ads on a site without an established audience. The site led with an interview with former President Donald Trump and ads from the American Petroleum Institute. The Messenger said it'll roll out seven other verticals including business, entertainment, and sports later in the year. Image from The Messenger's launch ad campaign.

☆ Opinion | Dooce and Other ‘Mommy Blogs’ Deserve Credit for Shaping the Internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( Jessica Grose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In the past few months, several internet giants have fallen. BuzzFeed News folded. Vice is headed for bankruptcy. And with the recent publication of Ben Smith’s “Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral,” there’s been a resurgence of chatter about Gawker Media, which went kaput in 2016. (I worked at Jezebel, which was under the Gawker Media umbrella, from 2007 to 2008.)

☆ The Messenger, Jimmy Finkelstein's digital news startup, meets advertiser skepticism ahead of May 15 launch: 'We can't have another Quibi'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Jimmy Finkelstein's startup The Messenger will roll out an ad campaign touting its mission to provide unbiased news. An ad campaign by Publicis unit Le Truc will kick off May 22 and is designed to provoke, with copy like "Agendas are for meetings. Image from The Messenger's launch ad campaign. The Messenger said it'll have three to four big advertisers at launch as well as a significant amount of programmatic advertising. The Messenger's ad campaign promotes its ambitions to provide unbiased news.

☆ LeBron James' SpringHill is circling Complex Networks as owner BuzzFeed struggles to regroup after layoffs and a stock price plunge
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

LeBron James and Maverick Carter's SpringHill has had conversations about buying BuzzFeed's Complex Networks, sources said. SpringHill Co., LeBron James and Maverick Carter's media and entertainment venture, has explored buying troubled BuzzFeed's Complex Networks, two sources familiar with the situation said. In addition to Complex Networks, BuzzFeed has HuffPost; food vertical Tasty, which includes licensed cooking products; as well as video series like travel-themed "Bring Me." Complex built long-form, host-driven video series like "Hot Ones" and "Sneaker Shopping" into high-profile brands in their own right. SpringHill Co. is a rollup including SpringHill Entertainment, which Carter founded with LeBron James, his childhood friend.

☆ Opinion | We’re Watching the End of a Digital Media Age. It All Started With Jezebel.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Ben Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Ten years ago, a group of digital media companies thought the future belonged to us. On television, still America’s dominant medium, social media also helped boost a new kind of confrontational, hyperpolitical style, but that seems to be fading, too. Media commentators from CNN to The Financial Times are using the same phrase for this moment: “The end of an era.”But when did this era in media begin? But to understand the period we all lived through, we need to give it a beginning and an end. And when I went back to find the origins of this media moment while researching a book on our recent history, the earliest, brightest sparks I saw came from a particular place.

☆ It might be Jonah Peretti's last chance to turn BuzzFeed around
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Alex Sherman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Jonah Peretti, founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, attends his company's public debut outside the Nasdaq in Times Square in New York City, Dec. 6, 2021. To this point, BuzzFeed 's journey as a public company has been a bottomless pit. Co-founder and Chief Executive Jonah Peretti may be running out of time to alter his company's trajectory. Peretti's plan is to boost shares back over $1 by persuading investors he's prepared to run a more profitable company. It's fair to question Peretti's decision-making in not shutting down BuzzFeed News earlier, he acknowledged.

☆ How ‘Going Viral’ Became a Thing
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Virginia Heffernan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Select a party anthem (“YMCA”), a quality in a dream partner (“ravenous”) and presto: your spiritual home. Too many people got Wyoming — more than actually lived in Wyoming — and this turn of events was so exciting that people stomped over to Facebook to protest. Then, according to Ben Smith in his engrossing and suspenseful book, “Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral,” the team at BuzzFeed noticed something that changed media forev —Well, not forever. This is Ben Smith, after all. Co-founder of Semafor, former New York Times media columnist, onetime editor in chief of BuzzFeed News.

☆ Biden set to address White House Correspondents Dinner
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Maegan Vazquez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

But undoubtedly, a White House official told CNN, his speech will address the issue of wrongfully detained Americans abroad. US President George W. Bush, left, waves with impressionist Steve Bridges at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2006. Roger L. Wollenberg/Pool/Getty Images The White House Correspondents' Dinner is held in 1923. It was started two years earlier by the White House Correspondents' Association, the organization of journalists who cover the president. Roosevelt was congratulating Brandt for winning the first Raymond Clapper Memorial Award, which was given by the White House Correspondents' Association for distinguished reporting.

☆ Bud Light sales reportedly dropped 17% following anti-trans marketing backlash
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bud Light sales took a hit after the brewer partnered with a trans TikTok influencer, WSJ reports. The data showed Bud Light sales dropping 17% in the week of April 15 compared to the same week last year. Bud Light Vice President of Marketing Alissa Heinerscheid took a leave of absence following the backlash. Bud Light owner Anheuser-Busch has also said Heinerscheid will be replaced with with Todd Allen, the global vice president of Budweiser. Bud Light isn't the only brand that's been recently hit with anti-trans backlash.

☆ Tucker Carlson's history of alleged workplace sexism stretches back to 2015, long before Abby Grossberg
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Katherine Long | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Possible rationales include Murdoch's contempt for Carlson's religiosity and Carlson's insistence on hewing to conspiracy theories about the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Internal correspondence unearthed in a defamation lawsuit against Fox News showed Carlson used sexist expletives to refer to a female Fox executive and a guest. The company last week agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. Carlson was one of many Fox News hosts who promoted false election conspiracies, the subject of the defamation suit, on their shows. Fox News is still facing a similar defamation suit from another voting machine manufacturer.

☆ 2023 layoff tracker: The latest on which companies have announced job cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +20 min

New York CNN —BuzzFeed, Lyft, Whole Foods and Deloitte all recently announced layoffs affecting thousands of US workers. With 11,000 job cuts announced in November and the 10,000 announced in March, Meta’s headcount will fall to around 66,000 — a total reduction of about 25%. The company announced in January that it was eliminating some 18,000 positions as part of a major cost-cutting bid at the e-commerce giant. IndeedJob listing website Indeed.com announced cuts of approximately 2,200 employees, representing almost 15% of its total workforce, the company said in March. The cuts come after the company announced several rounds of job cuts throughout the pandemic due to falling demand, followed by rapid hiring last year.

☆ The layoffs are here for those who chose to 'learn to code'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Grace Mayer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

But for those who chose to "learn to code," Vox reported the wave of layoffs in 2023 is challenging that notion. "If we look at 2023 layoffs, it's software engineers who have overtaken recruiters in layoffs," Ayas told Insider. This shift also signals a change in focus for company layoffs, Ayas said. Since then, Revelio's new data suggests that nearly 5% of tech company layoffs impacted recruiters — the position that saw the most layoffs after software engineers. What started as a wave of layoffs in the tech industry has now rippled to the finance and media industries as well.

☆ The demise of BuzzFeed News marks the end of an era for digital media
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

BuzzFeed News, the digital news outlet that harnessed the power of social media to take the internet by storm, is shuttering. Back then, BuzzFeed was the envy of media and its employees the cool kids of the industry. Lists and quizzes saturated social media feeds and dominated the internet. As the dinosaurs of the social media era get their lunch eaten by newcomers such as TikTok, so are the outlets that previously wielded those same platforms as their superpowers. BuzzFeed News gave BuzzFeed writ large prestige that the other content companies of the bygone era (ViralNova, Distractify, etc.)

☆ BuzzFeed News Is Shutting Down as BuzzFeed Lays Off 15% of Staff
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Alexandra Bruell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The company will no longer invest in BuzzFeed News as a stand-alone entity. Photo: Tiffany Hagler-Geard/Bloomberg NewsBuzzFeed Inc. is laying off 15% of its staff and making plans to end BuzzFeed News, as it contends with ongoing business challenges, Chief Executive Jonah Peretti said in a note to employees on Thursday. The company is laying off about 180 people of its total base of 1,200 employees. Chief Revenue Officer Edgar Hernandez and Chief Operating Officer Christian Baesler are departing, BuzzFeed said.

☆ BuzzFeed Moves to Close BuzzFeed News, Lays Off 15% of Staff
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Alexandra Bruell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ BuzzFeed News Is Shutting Down, and Vice World News Could Be Next
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Alexandra Bruell | Jessica Toonkel | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ BuzzFeed News will shut down
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —BuzzFeed News, the Pulitzer Prize-winning digital news website that that took the internet by storm roughly a decade ago and inspired jealousy from legacy media organizations, will shutter, BuzzFeed chief executive Jonah Peretti announced Thursday. “While layoffs are occurring across nearly every division, we’ve determined that the company can no longer continue to fund BuzzFeed News as a standalone organization,” Peretti told staffers. BuzzFeed has “begun discussions with the News Guild,” the union which represents staffers at the company, about the actions. “HuffPost and BuzzFeed Dot Com have signaled that they will open a number of select roles for members of BuzzFeed News,” Peretti told employees. The news that BuzzFeed News will shutter prompted an outpouring of messages posted online from former BuzzFeed News staffers who expressed sadness and dismay.

BuzzFeed wasn't the only digital media company to announce layoffs Thursday. Miller added that going public is probably not the best strategy for digital media companies like Buzzfeed. The news comes during a tough period for digital media companies as publishers are cutting staff as advertisers reduce spending. BuzzFeed will lay off 15% of staff and shut down its news unit, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti wrote in an email to staff Thursday. The digital media company scaled back its news operation in an attempt to make BuzzFeed News profitable, resulting in the departure of several editors.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Tesla, IBM, American Express, AT&T and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

American Express posted earnings per share of $2.40 for the first quarter, below an estimate of $2.66, per Refinitiv. On Wednesday, the casino and resort company posted a beat on first-quarter earnings. The decline comes a day after Zions missed earnings expectations in the first quarter. The company posted earnings of $2.73 per share on revenue of $7.97 billion. The downgrade comes ahead of the defense firm's first quarter earnings report, which is set to release April 25.

☆ BuzzFeed is shutting down its news arm and parting with 2 top executives
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

BuzzFeed News is shutting down as part of broader cuts at BuzzFeed that sent its stock price tumbling. The digital media company has struggled financially since its 2021 IPO. BuzzFeed is shutting down BuzzFeed News along with making layoffs of 15% in divisions across the organization, according to a memo shared with Insider. Two top BuzzFeed execs, Christian Baesler, COO, and Edgar Hernandez, CRO, are leaving the company as well. A handful of top execs from BuzzFeed's Complex Networks left as part of that round, including Complex's president, Justin Killion.

☆ BuzzFeed Shuts Down Its Namesake News Division
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Benjamin Mullin | Katie Robertson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

BuzzFeed is shutting down its namesake news division, which won acclaim for its journalism but fell prey to the punishing economics of digital publishing that has laid low many of its peers. Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed’s chief executive, said in an email to employees on Thursday that he was closing BuzzFeed News as part of a broader round of cuts at the company. About 60 people will be affected by the shuttering of the news division, some of whom will be offered jobs at other parts of the company. BuzzFeed’s decision is the latest in a series of financial setbacks faced by digital media companies. The media industry writ large has pivoted to focus on streaming, and digital advertising — a mainstay for digital publishing companies — is increasingly going to tech platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.

☆ Right-wingers are so pissed about Bud Light's LGBTQ marketing that they keep buying the beer just to film themselves destroying it
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Aditi Bharade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Trans TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney posted a video that was sponsored by Bud Light. Angry with the beer brand's LGBTQ marketing, right-wingers have filmed themselves destroying cans. Now conservatives, angry with the brand's association with Mulvaney, started taking out their rage on beer cans. Meanwhile, others — like TikTok user ramrebel1500 — are calling for peace and for people to stop destroying beer cans just to make a point. The Bud Light boycott, however, is linked to a deeper, more sinister anti-trans sentiment brewing on the right.

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