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☆ Advertisers and publishers call on Apple CEO Tim Cook to suspend the iPhone's new Distraction Control feature
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-22 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

French media and ad groups are calling on Apple to suspend its new "Distraction Control" feature, Business Insider is exclusively reporting. AdvertisementA group of French trade associations representing around 800 companies in the advertising and media sectors has sent an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, calling for the tech giant to suspend the rollout of the iPhone's new "Distraction Control" feature. Distraction Control, which became available with iOS 18 this fall, allows users of the iPhone's Safari browser to hide elements on webpages like images, pop-ups, or ads. The letter urges Apple to suspend the rollout of Distraction Control and to provide technical documentation about its functionalities and any planned updates. AdvertisementAppleInsider later reported Apple had changed the name of the feature from Web Eraser to Distraction Control and updated it to include a popup explaining that it would "not permanently remove ads."

Persons: —, Tim Cook, It'll, Apple, doesn't, Pierre Devoize, Alliance Digitale, AppleInsider Organizations: Apple, Service, Business, Europe's, Data, Alliance, de, Presse, Union des Marques, European Commission . Publishers, Safari, News Media Association, Publishers

☆ What the Eric Adams indictment means for New York City's leadership and future
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-27 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . In today's big story, the walls are closing in on New York City Mayor Eric Adams after a federal indictment . New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted on five criminal counts in a corruption probe accusing him of bribery and receiving illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals. In one case, according to the indictment, that meant a Turkish Airlines manager offering to charge Adams $50 for two business-class seats worth $15,000 . AdvertisementMessages obtained by prosecutors also show Adams promising his staffer he "always" deleted texts following a discussion of alleged Turkish bribes.

Persons: —, Eric Adams, Eric Adams Seth Wenig, Alyssa Powell, Adams, Damian Williams, Gary Hershorn, He's, Alex Spiro, Elon Musk's, Kathy Hochul, Jumaane Williams, Ali Jarekji, it's, David Tepper, Sam Altman's, Getty, Olivier Verriest, Andrei Akushevich, Tyler Le, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Jack Sommers, Nathan Rennolds, Amanda Yen, Milan Sehmbi Organizations: Business, Service, New York City, New, Democrat, Brooklyn Borough, Southern, of, Turkish Airlines, FDNY, Reuters, Financial Times, YouTube, Snapchat, Publishers, York Film Locations: New, States, New York, Manhattan, of New York, Turkish, Ali, Saudi Arabia, China, London

Read previewIt could be the end of an era for publishers on Snapchat. A fourth said any time publishers get mixed up with creators, it's bad for publishers, adding that their Snapchat revenue was already in decline so the platform had become less of a focus. A few years later, as user-generated content became dominant on social apps like TikTok, the company shifted focus to individual content creators. Advertisement"The way they're structured now is less built to over cater to traditional publishers," a fifth Snap publisher exec said. ESPN on Snapchat Discover SnapchatSome publishers have shifted resources away from Snapchat during a challenging period for the media business as a whole.

Persons: —, Snapchat Snapchat, it's, Evan Spiegel, Presley Ann, Getty, Snap's, Spiegel, Digiday, influencers, Ben Reininga, Sophie Crowther, There's, Ben Jeffries Organizations: Service, Big Tech, Business, Publishers, Meta, Google, ESPN, The Daily Mail, CNN, Snapchat, Harvard University, Dollar Locations: Snapchat

But the news wasn't greeted warmly in some corners of media, as it raised concerns that Snapchat might become the latest in a line of Big Tech platforms to deprioritize traditional media publishers in favor of creators. A fourth said any time publishers get mixed up with creators, it's bad for publishers, adding that their Snapchat revenue was already in decline so the platform had become less of a focus. A few years later, as user-generated content became dominant on social apps like TikTok, the company shifted focus to individual content creators. Advertisement"The way they're structured now is less built to over cater to traditional publishers," a fifth Snap publisher exec said. ESPN on Snapchat Discover SnapchatSome publishers have shifted resources away from Snapchat during a challenging period for the media business as a whole.

☆ I co-founded a multimillion-dollar company with my twin sister. Our brutal honesty is an advantage in business.
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-13 | by ( Kelly Burch | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Chanda Bell and her twin sister Christa Pitts, co-CEOs of The Lumistella Company. My identical twin Christa and I named our elf Fisbee. Chanda Bell's mom put an elf named Fisbee around the house, which eventually became the Elf on the Shelf. We tell each other whether we're acting as sisters or business partnersWe're business partners, but we're also sisters and best friends. Christa will say, "I just need to talk to my sister right now," or "I'm calling as a business partner."

Persons: Chanda Bell, Christa Pitts, Christa, Fisbee, Chanda Bell's, Chanda Bell Christa, we're, you've Organizations: Service, Lumistella, QVC, Publishers

☆ Affiliate-marketing firm Button is launching a retail advertising product to shake up the $140 billion industry
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-19 | by ( Lauren Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewMarketing tech firm Button wants a piece of retail media. AdvertisementAccording to eMarketer, advertisers will spend $140 billion on retail media globally this year. "The intent in those moments is not nearly as high as the retail media intent in a retailer site," Jaconi said. AdvertisementButton claims that its initial tests with its retail ad product increased return on ad spend, a key metric that tracks the effectiveness of each ad dollar, by an average of 34% compared to other offsite retail media products. With the growth in retail media, a cottage industry of adtech firms like Criteo, Epsilon, Pacvue, and Skai are vying for a piece of brands' retail media spend.

Persons: —, Button, Michael Jaconi, NBCU's Peacock, Jaconi, they're Organizations: Service, . Publishers, Publishers, Business, Microsoft

☆ Publishers and advertisers demand that Apple's Tim Cook stop the rollout of an anticipated 'web eraser' tool over fears it'll hobble web advertising
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-29 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. The French group of trade associations fears that Apple's web eraser could represent another example of Big Tech implementing disruptive changes over which media and advertising companies have no control. Apple generates advertising and subscription revenue from its Apple News service, though it makes the majority of its ad revenue from search ads within the Apple App Store. A spokesperson for the NMA said the organization hadn't heard back from Apple since it sent the letter on May 10.

Persons: —, Tim Cook, Apple's Cook, Thierry Breton, Apple, NMA, hadn't Organizations: Service, Apple, Business, Safari, Alliance, SRI, Union des Marques, Big Tech, Google, Facebook, Publishers, Apple News, French Competition Authority, Europe's, UK's News Media Association, Daily Mail, Guardian Locations: France, Europe, Germany

☆ Check out the pitch deck that helped adtech identity company ID5 raise $20 million from investors including TransUnion and Martin Sorrell's S4S
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-09 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Adtech company ID5 said Tuesday it had raised $20 million in Series B investment. The ID5 identifier has been deployed by more than 66,000 publishers, per the metadata company Sincera. ID5 has now raised just over $27 million in funding to date, though the company declined to disclose its post-money valuation. New investors in this round included the credit reporting and data agency TransUnion and advertising veteran Martin Sorrell's venture capital firm S4S Ventures. Check out key slides from the pitch deck that helped ID5 raise $20 million in Series B funding.

Persons: ID5, Mathieu Roche, Martin Sorrell's, Sorrell, Matt Spiegel, Spiegel, Matt, Roche Organizations: Business, Data Protection, Publishers, Trade, S4S Ventures, Progress Ventures, Seventure Partners, Capital Partners, Aperiam Ventures

☆ A 'server anomaly' that made it look like some advertisers were bidding billions of dollars sent the adtech industry into chaos
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. AdvertisementBusiness Insider confirmed that the cause of the error was a brief "server anomaly" at PubMatic, an adtech company. A PubMatic spokesperson said the anomaly, at one of its US data centers, caused "abnormally high CPMs being passed to the publisher ad server on a limited number of impressions." The PubMatic error occurred in the communication that happened between the SSP and PubMatic's ad server, according to the company. The actual financial impact for individual publishers and adtech companies is likely to be minimal.

Persons: —, Nicolas Schueller, Adomik, Friday's snafu, Kargo, aren't, PubMatic, Scott Messer Organizations: Service, Business, Publishers, CNN, AMC Networks, Fox, The New York Times, Delta Airlines, Comcast Locations: PubMatic, Friday's

☆ Inside the rise of Sarah J. Maas, the best-selling author who's taking the 'romantasy' genre to the next level
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-03 | by ( Samantha Grindell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Sarah J. Maas' latest book, "House of Flame and Shadow," was published on Tuesday. Publishers are prioritizing romantasy, with Entangled creating Red Tower, an imprint focused on sci-fi and fantasy romance books in 2022. But an organic community of Maas readers formed on social media recently, making her even more widely loved. The pair, who are good friends thanks to BookTok, post videos breaking down the smallest details of Maas' works. Studios founder Molly Werts, 26, runs her shop full-time and met her roommate because they connected over one of Maas' books.

Persons: Sarah J, Maas, —, Samantha Grindell, Harry Potter, it's, Feyre, she's, fae Bryce Quinlan, Stephanie Meyer's, Cassandra Clare's, Tor, Rebecca Yarros, Bramble, Jennifer L, BookTok, TikTok, superfans, Rosie Dent, Dent, Lili, BookTokers, Jaclyn Wooten, Wooten, Molly Werts, romantasy, they've Organizations: Service, Bloomsbury, Marvel, New York Times, Reuters, Publishers, Wings, Studios, Jupiter's, Publisher's, Writers of America Locations: Brooklyn , New York, New York, Connecticut, Florida, Maas, Bloomsbury, Crescent, BookTok

☆ Google might have to delay its plan to kill tracking cookies until 2025, ad industry experts believe
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

There are growing rumblings within the ad industry that Google won't be able to get rid of third-party tracking cookies until 2025 at the earliest. It has since delayed that plan twice to give the ad industry more time to prepare, but has repeatedly said it's on track for a fourth-quarter, 2024 cookie expiry date. "It's a mess," said one ad industry executive speaking on condition of anonymity in order to talk freely about the process. The CMA's latest Privacy Sandbox update listed various concerns from various constituents about the proposals. Despite some skepticism that Google can hit its 2024 deadline, many in the ad industry just want to move past third-party cookies after almost four years in limbo.

Persons: James Rosewell, Rosewell, Achim Schlosser, there's, —, Paul Bannister, Bannister, Mathieu Roche Organizations: Google, UK's, Markets Authority, CMA, Movement, European netID Foundation, Publishers, Yahoo

NEW YORK (AP) — Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is being sued by his publisher for contradicting his book's claim about the the 2020 election. In a breach of contract lawsuit filed Friday in Florida, All Seasons cited media reports from last month alleging that Meadows knew Trump had lost to Democrat Joe Biden. “Meadows’ reported statements to the Special Prosecutor and/or his staff and his reported grand jury testimony squarely contradict the statements” in “The Chief's Chief,” according to the lawsuit, filed in Sarasota, Florida. “If such media reports are accurate, Meadows testified under oath that his book contains known falsehoods,” All Seasons alleged in its breach of contract suit. The All Seasons case is unusual both because it's based on media reports, not direct knowledge of Meadows' testimony, and because it's based on alleged factual errors.

Persons: —, Mark Meadows, Meadows, Donald Trump, Trump, Democrat Joe Biden, “ Meadows, ’, George Terwilliger, ”, Jack Smith, Smith, Trump hadn't Organizations: White House, Seasons Press, Democrat, Special, U.S, Capitol, Trump, ABC News Locations: “, Florida, Sarasota , Florida, Meadows, Georgia

The head of Instagram’s Threads app, an X competitor, reiterated that his social network would not amplify news. The company has laid off news employees in two recent team reorganizations, and some publishers say traffic from Google has tapered off. If it wasn’t clear before, it’s clear now: The major online platforms are breaking up with news. Publishers seem resigned to the idea that traffic from the big tech companies will not return to what it once was. Even in the long-fractious relationship between publishers and tech platforms, the latest rift stands out — and the consequences for the news industry are stark.

Persons: Campbell Brown, —, Adam Mosseri, Elon Musk Organizations: Twitter, Google, Publishers Locations: Instagram

☆ Disney, The New York Times and CNN are among a dozen major media companies blocking access to ChatGPT as they wage a cold war on A.I.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The Guardian’s Ariel Bogle reported last week that CNN, The New York Times, and Reuters had blocked GPTBot. Publishers such as Condé Nast, Hearst, and Vox Media, which all house several prominent publications, have also taken the defensive measure. The deep archives and intellectual property rights of these news organizations are immensely valuable — arguably crucial — to training A.I. “I see a heightened sense of urgency when it comes to addressing the use, and misuse, of our content,” Coffey said. News organizations might feel they’re on solid legal ground, as Coffey told me, but there has yet to be any serious action taken against the OpenAI.

Persons: Ariel Bogle, Condé Nast, GPTBot, Danielle Coffey, Coffey, newsrooms “, ” Coffey, Barry Diller, OpenAI, “, ”, they’re Organizations: CNN —, CNN, The New York Times, Reuters, Disney, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, ABC News, ESPN, Hearst, Vox Media, News Media Alliance, Associated Press Locations: The, …

☆ Death by LLM: Stack Overflow's decline, and its plan to survive, shows the future of free online data in an AI world
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Alistair Barr | Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Some AI models that compete against Stack Overflow were partly trained on the company's data. Online communities, like Stack Overflow and Wikipedia, thrived as hubs for experts and curious browsers to come together and share information freely. In 2021, Prosus, a major backer of Chinese tech giant Tencent, bought Stack Overflow for $1.8 billion. However, Nat Friedman, the CEO of Github through 2021, expects tech companies to pay for training data in the future. Stack Overflow is also working on new ways to measure the impact of a human's answer on the platform.

Persons: Prashanth Chandrasekar, OpenAI, Chandrasekar, coders, OpenAI's GPT, Stack, Elon Musk, Andreessen Horowitz, Sam Altman, JASON REDMOND, Jaap Arriens, GitHub, it's, chatGPT, Nasim Uddin, we're, Nat Friedman, Nat Friedman GitHub Friedman, Friedman, Axel Springer, Semafor, Prashanth Organizations: Union Square Ventures, Getty, Twitter, Publishers, Microsoft, Associated Press Locations: GPT, Prosus, AFP

☆ Llama copyright drama: Meta stops disclosing what data it uses to train the company's giant AI models
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The company didn't disclose what training data was used to train Llama 2. The AI industry typically shares many details of AI training data sets. One way to avoid the issue is to just not tell anyone what data you used to train your AI model. Until now, the AI industry has been open about the training data used for models. That last data set made up more than two-thirds of the information Meta used to train LLaMA.

Persons: Meta, Rupert Murdoch, Sarah Silverman's, OpenAI, Halimah DeLaine Prado, Meta's, Sharon Zhou Organizations: Publishers, Wall Street Journal, Big Tech, Microsoft, SEC, European Union, Google, Meta Locations: EU

☆ Fact Check-German sex education book is not recommended as a textbook for use in schools
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A German book featuring sexual positions is not recommended by education ministries or authorities producing frameworks for sex education in the country, contrary to online posts claiming it is a textbook used in schools. Publishers say it is an educational book for parents who want to teach their children about sex. An EMF Verlag spokesperson said: “It is not a textbook specifically for children in Germany used in schools or education settings. Federal German states regularly exchange information on sex education content and concepts, but they decide independently whether to implement the KMK’s recommendations, Heil added. The sex education book “Von wegen Bienchen und Blümchen!” is not recommended in school curricula in Germany or considered a textbook.

Persons: Von wegen Bienchen, ” Torsten Heil, Heil, Read Organizations: Publishers, EMF, Reuters, Education, Cultural Affairs, Federal Locations: Germany, Federal Republic of Germany, Bremen, Niedersachsen

☆ A.I. human-voice clones are coming for the Amazon, Apple, Google audiobook
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Trevor Laurence Jockims | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +14 min

"For many publishers, audiobook production can be a major investment," said Judy Chang, director of product management for Google Play Books. Even with AI voice, there is nominally a voice actor somewhere in the process. What voice actors sayFor some voice actors, the choice is being made to stay away. Kinsella noted that AI voice played a foundational role in the integration of AI into daily life at an earlier point. But he added, "I've yet to find a client who tells me they've chosen an AI voice over hiring me.

Persons: Ciccarell, Ciccarelli, David Ciccarelli, Alexa, Judy Chang, It's, it's, Bret Kinsella, Brad Ziffer, Michele Cobb, Cobb, Siri, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Kinsella, … Siri, ChatGPT, Ziffer, Andrea Collins, Collins, John Kubin, I've, Kubin Organizations: Google, Apple, Audio Publishers Association, Alexa Locations: U.S

Digital Content Next shared the principles with its board and relevant committees Monday. Digital Content Next's "Principles for Development and Governance of Generative AI": Developers and deployers of GAI must respect creators' rights to their content. The urgency behind building a system of rules and standards for generative AI is intense, said Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next. How generative AI will unfold in the coming months and years is dominating media conversation, said Axios CEO Jim VandeHei. "Even with AI tools or generative AI models that work in text like ChatGPT, it doesn't change the fact we're already doing this work," said Looft.

Persons: Andrew Burton, Robert Frost, Vincent Van Gogh, Google's Bard, GAI, Jason Kint, I've, Kint, We've, Jim VandeHei, VandeHei, Barry Diller, Robert Thomson, Thomson, Diller, Chris Berend, Pope Francis, Chris Looft, Berend Organizations: New York Times, Getty, NBC, The Washington Post, Street, News Corp, Development, ., A.I, Digital, Facebook, Nasdaq, Market, Big Tech, International News Media, News Media, NBC News Group, Pentagon, Bloomberg, Axios Technology, Google, Disney, ABC, NBC News, CNBC Locations: New York City, New York, Washington ,

☆ California Gov. Gavin Newsom demands records from textbook companies to see which are caving to Florida's 'extremist' demands
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Kenneth Niemeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Gavin Newsom wants to know which textbook publishers caved to Florida's demands. Newsom said his office sent a public records request to the Florida Department of Education to see which publishers it asked to change their books. Gavin Newsom is demanding textbook publishers hand over records to show if any companies making reading materials for the state had caved to Florida's demands to remove some topics about race and other historical subjects. Ron DeSantis and the DOE asking for all communication between them and textbook publishers that show all the revisions they requested in order to get a textbook approved by the state. One of the books rejected by the Florida Department of Education, "Social Studies Alive!

☆ A new PR tech company just launched that uses ChatGPT to write press releases and lets companies distribute them at very low cost
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Ryan Joe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The company uses ChatGPT and its own algorithm to automatically write press releases. PR tech startup EZ Newswire launched in beta on Wednesday to remove these challenges and give smaller businesses the ability to cheaply write and distribute press releases. ChatGPT alone isn't good enough to write press releases in its own yet, said Klein. At launch, EZ Newswire hosts the press releases on its own site, and has a partnership with the Associated Press to distribute them. In making press release generation and distribution accessible to both big and small businesses, EZ Newswire hopes to blow wide the market around press release distribution.

☆ A new PR tech company just launched that uses OpenAI to write press releases and lets companies distribute them at very low cost
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Ryan Joe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

EZ Newswire hopes to disrupt press release distribution, dominated by PR Newswire and Business Wire. The company uses OpenAI and its own algorithm to automatically write press releases. ChatGPT alone isn't good enough to write press releases in its own yet, said Klein. At launch, EZ Newswire hosts the press releases on its own site, and has a partnership with the Associated Press to distribute them. In making press release generation and distribution accessible to both big and small businesses, EZ Newswire hopes to blow wide the market around press release distribution.

☆ Google's new A.I. search could hurt traffic to websites, publishers worry
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Instead of "ten blue links," the phrase that describes Google's usual search results, Google will show some users paragraphs of AI-generated text and a handful of links at the top of the results page. But website publishers are already worried if it becomes Google's default way of presenting search results, it could hurt them by sending fewer visitors to their sites and keeping them on Google.com. Rutledge Daugette, CEO of TechRaptor, a site focusing on gaming news and reviews, said Google's move was made without considering the interests of publishers and Google's AI amounts to lifting content. According to Search Engine Land, a news website that closely tracks changes to Google's search engine, the AI-generated results are displayed above the organic search results in testing so far. CNBC previously reported Google's plans to redesign its results page to promote generated AI content.

☆ A former Google researcher behind a seminal AI paper describes how the company lost a top chatbot visionary
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Character.ai CEO Noam Shazeer, a former Googler who worked in AI, spoke to the "No Priors" podcast. He says Google was afraid to launch a chatbot, fearing consequences of it saying something wrong. Like the chatbot ChatGPT, Character.ai's technology leans on a vast amount of text-based information scraped from the web for its knowledge. Shazeer was a lead author on Google's Transformer paper, which has been widely cited as key to today's chatbots. Google had also received pushback internally from AI researchers like Timnit Gebru who cautioned against releasing anything that might cause harm.

☆ Check out the pitch deck identity management startup Lockr used to raise $2.5 million in pre-seed funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Identity and email management company Lockr raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding this week. Check out the pitch deck that convinced investors like Mozilla Ventures to join the funding round. Lockr, a digital identity management startup, said this week it had raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding, investment it plans to use to grow its team, scale its userbase, and add more features to its consumer product. For publishers and marketers, the company provides Lockr Identity. Investors in Lockr's pre-seed funding round included Mozilla Ventures, Junction Venture Partners, and Grit Capital Partners, as well as individual investors.

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