YouTube’s double standards in banning PewDiePie February 20, 2017 If you've ever wondered what on earth a PewDiePie is, you’re not alone. He’s a man, Felix Kjellberg, who reviews video games online. In the YouTube world, he’s as famous as James Corden, as influential as Nick Robinson, and as we found out last week, as funny as Jim Davidson. “Very rich Swedish man pays [...]
Search engines team up with film, TV and music industries to combat piracy February 20, 2017 Google and Bing are teaming up with the UK’s £87bn creative industries to combat piracy. The search engines will adhere to a voluntary code of practice, so that websites infringing on copyrighted content appear lower in search results. Improvements will also be made to autocomplete suggestions so that they are less likely to lead users [...]
Activist investor takes swipe at Johnston Press chief executive after building up 21 per cent stake February 17, 2017 The activist investor building up a stake in Johnston Press has taken a first public swipe at the newspaper group’s chief executive since becoming its biggest shareholder. Richard Bernstein, who leads the Crystal Amber fund, has told City PM he lacks “confidence” in Johnston Press boss Ashley Highfield to lead the company out of trouble. [...]
How can brands avoid social media crises? February 16, 2017 The London Dungeon apologised this week after its “dark Valentine campaign” on social media drew widespread criticism. This incident got me revisiting a familiar issue: how can brands avoid social media crises? With policies, practice runs and neutral second opinions. There are often just a few origins for social media crises: Misjudgement: Brands can [...]
Jack Dorsey gave Twitter a really expensive Valentine’s Day present February 15, 2017 Twitter founder Jack Dorsey celebrated Valentine's Day with a big confidence boost for the social network. Dorsey bought just over $7m (£5.6m) worth of Twitter stock – and of course, tweeted about it, using the romantic hashtag #LoveTwitter. #LoveTwitter https://t.co/fELbw0ska7 — jack (@jack) February 14, 2017 The Twitter boss, who also founded (and is, controversially, chief executive of) payments company [...]
Make the Thames Estuary a hub for creativity, says Khan February 13, 2017 London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has unveiled his vision for turning the Thames Estuary into a world-class hub for the arts. Included within the mayor’s “vision document” is a theatre complex in Bexley, an experiential arts centre in Woolwich, and a new production facility in Dagenham East that would be the capital’s largest film studios if completed. [...]
Hedge funds bank on Sky takeover bid success February 12, 2017 Two US hedge funds have banked on the Murdoch family succeeding in taking over the UK-based communications giant, Sky plc. According to reports in the Sunday Telegraph, the two funds, HBK and Pentwater, each disclosed they have amassed positions worth £310m and £300m respectively. In December last year, 21st Century Fox announced that it would be [...]
British film and TV industries storm ahead with £1.6bn investment February 12, 2017 Spend on British film and TV production jumped 13 per cent in 2016 to 1.6bn, in a stellar year for the UK’s creative industries. Figures from the BFI showed that 48 major UK-based films accounted for 1.35bn of total investment. Last year’s top three grossing films at the UK box office were all filmed on [...]
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp posts second loss in a row amid print advertising headwinds February 9, 2017 Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the owner of Dow Jones Newswires, The Wall Street Journal and The Times, has posted its second quarterly loss in a row. Read more: Rupert Murdoch pleads with newspaper to stop using "fake news" quote The figures The company has had difficulty offsetting the decline in advertising income in its newspaper business. [...]
Fake news and echo chambers help BBC Radio 4’s Today hit record listeners February 9, 2017 An "era of fake news" has helped the BBC's flagship radio news programme clock its biggest audience to date, new figures reveal. Radio 4's Today programme boasted 7.45m weekly listeners in the last four months of 2016. Listener numbers grew from 7.1m in the previous quarter and 7.03m in same quarter in 2015, according to the [...]
