What you need to know in advertising today
Millennial startup Mic sold itself to Bustle Digital Group for a reported $5 million, a fraction of the $60 million it raised, after financial problems including the impact of Facebook canceling a video show.
But the Mic situation reveals broader challenges with the Facebook-funded shows, and the ongoing relationships between publishers and the social-media giant.
Mic was one of eight publishers, along with the likes of CNN, ABC News, and Fox News, that Facebook picked to produce its first slate of news shows for its YouTube rival Facebook Watch.
Facebook was reportedly spending $90 million to fund Watch shows to signal it was taking news seriously after coming under fire for letting fake news spread on the platform. The first shows were announced in June and rolled out during the summer.
Click here to read more about what Mic's canceled Facebook Watch show reveals about other Facebook-funded news shows.
In other news:
The holidays are looking like a happy time for digital ads - and for Google, Amazon, and even Facebook. Digital advertising spending appears to be growing at a healthy rate this holiday season, Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Baird Equity Research, said in a new report.
Sheryl Sandberg reportedly wanted to know if George Soros, who publicly criticized Facebook, was shorting the company's stock. The news comes after it was revealed that Facebook had a relationship with the opposition-research firm, Definers Public Affairs.
Facebook is dropping its controversial policy on archiving promoted news, reports Axios. The company is getting rid of a policy that labels publishers' promoted content as political advertising in its ads archive.
We're already getting an indication that Verizon 5G is stealing customers from its competitors. At an analyst event in November, Verizon management said about half of the customers who signed up for 5G Home were new to Verizon.
Twitter keeps a list of everything it thinks you're interested in; here's how to find it. Twitter collects a lot of data on you, including a compiled list of "inferred interests" it uses to personalize your experience.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. and DJ Khaled will each pay more than $100,000 in fines to settle charges that they illegally touted ICOs. The SEC charged Mayweather and Khaled with promoting an initial coin offerings (ICOs) without disclosing that they were paid for them.
500 million Marriott customers have had their data hacked after staying at hotels including W, Sheraton, and Westin. A breach in the Starwood guest-authorization database meant that millions of people had a combination of their name, address, passport number, date of birth, and other information stolen, the company said.
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