#digital-media

#digital-media

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Mar tech holding company The Brandtech Group acquired Pencil, a generative AI platform for ads, on Thursday.The Brandtech Group declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal.Pencil marks the 10th company The Brandtech Group acquired since it launched nearly eight years ago as You & Mr. Jones.

A few months ago, I was invited to give a lecture to students in a publishing and editing program.My proposed talk was about digital media: the churn and instability of it and how an editor can steer through those currents.I planned to be realistic but forward looking about the challenges facing contemporary journalism-I wasn't going to stand up there and tell the students they should quit before they even started trying.

THE NEWS Breaking Points Some of the most listened-to podcasts in America are struggling to sell ads as the audio business shifts toward the vast, mostly independent, "mid-tail."The New York Times has shipped episodes of the paper's flagship show The Daily in recent months without a full slate of paid advertisements, opting to air promotions of other Times content or podcasts.

4 When taking an evening stroll in Notting Hill my curiosity pulled me to a record store called Music and Video Exchange.I have seen my parent's collection of countless records dating back to the seventies.To my amazement, the shop was busy with loud music and a great atmosphere.There were people of all ages sifting through the records like in a comic book store.

Adobe's gearing up for the launch of the enterprise version of its generative AI tool, Adobe Firefly.And perhaps the biggest news isn't the technology itself but a bold pledge that it will be the first "commercially safe" AI image generator for companies.In what would be the first promise of its kind, Adobe says it will offer to cover any legal costs that business customers face as a result of using Adobe Firefly.

As the media and marketing industries grapple with economic worries that just won't let up, instinctually marketers and agencies have turned to performance-driven options that deliver a quick and obvious return on investment.Tie in that the pandemic put e-commerce into hyperdrive as people were stuck at home, and the result is an alignment of scenarios has led to the explosion of commerce media in the last two years.

Alibaba Group plans to split its business into six main units covering e-commerce to cloud in the biggest restructuring of its 24-year history.Five of the business units will explore fundraising or initial public offerings, the company said Tuesday.The six units are Cloud Intelligence Group, Taobao Tmall Commerce Group, Local Services Group, Cainiao Smart Logistics Group, Global Digital Commerce Group and Digital Media and Entertainment Group, it said in a statement.

DoubleVerify, a leading software platform for digital media measurement, data, and analytics, today (February 14th, 2023), announced the launch of the industry's first-ever scalable solution to verify viewability on Connected TV (CTV).This expansion of viewability enables advertisers to measure the delivery of the DV Authentic Ad TM - a proprietary, MRC-accredited metric that ensures consistent media quality across environments - on CTV.

We're looking for strong, experienced applicants for a Social Media Manager to work with us on social strategy and content creation.Take a look at the posting below, then email [email protected] with your resume and cover letter.Know someone who might be perfect for the role?Pass it on...
It's a unique time to join our team as we build a new brand (Casa Zuma), grow our media property (Camille Styles), and develop strategic business opportunities.

MiQ, a leading global programmatic media partner, proudly announced the appointment of esteemed media and technology leaders Zillah Byng-Thorne and Rob Norman as non-executive directors to its global statutory board."It's an honour to welcome Zillah and Rob to our statutory board to advise on MiQ's ongoing global initiatives," said Gurman Hundal, co-founder and global chairman, MiQ. "Both possess unique skill sets and leadership experiences that will contribute greatly to MiQ's future growth ambitions in the programmatic arena.

Here's today's AdExchanger.comnews round-up... Want it by email?Sign up Upfront At The Upfront here.NBCUniversal's upfront was quite the affair.Executives had to enter Radio City Music Hall through a side door because the entrance was blocked by Writers Guild of America protesters.(Guess Netflix was onto something.)

3 Students showed off their skills to potential employers competing under pressure against their college classmates.The skills show staged at Barking and Dagenham College was aimed at boosting their employability.Industry experts and employers ran masterclasses, then judged competitions in beauty therapy, hair and makeup, biology, digital media and business management.

Slow Journalism/Features unit wins for story revealing brutality against civilians in Belarus.Against steep competition, Al Jazeera Digital's Slow Journalism/Features unit has won a prestigious Amnesty Media Award recognising outstanding human rights journalism.The winning piece, conferred in the Features category for Walking Reminders of Atrocities, reveals harrowing accounts of state brutality against civilians in Belarus following the controversial 2020 elections.

In today's ExchangeWire news digest: Shopify will cut 20% of its headcount and sell its logistics business; PubMatic launches a DSP-less media buying solution; and Meta close Facebook Online Paid Events.Shopify sheds staff, sells logistics business
Shopify will lay off around 20% of its workforce and sell its logistics unit to Flexport.

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Freddie Liversidge will be speaking at AdExchanger's Programmatic IO conference on May 16-17 in Las Vegas.Click here to register.In 2016, a scandal rocked the advertising industry.A damning Association of National Advertisers (ANA) report revealed US ad agencies were pocketing profits through opaque practices like taking kickbacks from media companies and reselling media to clients at a markup.

Announcement comes after BuzzFeed last week said it was closing its news division.Vice Media has announced painful cuts including the cancellation of its flagship news show in the latest round of cutbacks to hit the struggling news business.The youth-focused media group said on Thursday it will cancel popular TV program Vice News Tonight as part of a restructuring that will result in layoffs.

In today's ExchangeWire news digest: UK regulators block Microsoft's USD$68.7bn(~£55.1bn)purchase of Activision Blizzard; the latest IAB report indicates steady growth in UK digital ad spend; and Alphabet reports lower advertising revenue in Q1 2023.CMA blocks Microsoft-Activison deal
Tech giant Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard for USD$68.7bn

Alibaba Group is planning to split into six units, the company told Reuters.The different entities will seek fundraisings and market listings as China eases its crackdown on private enterprises.The big restructuring will see the company split into six organizations - Cloud Intelligence Group (cloud solutions), Taobao Tmall Commerce Group (local online commerce services), Local Services Group (delivery services), Cainiao Smart Logistics Group (logistics), Global Digital Commerce Group (AliExpress) and Digital Media and Entertainment Group (gaming, motion pictures and web services).

This roundup from Alex Sherman suggests that the wave of consolidation that swept over digital media is finally breaking.Instead of trying to scale up, Sherman suggests that companies like BuzzFeed and Vox are instead paring back their ambitions to refocus on their 'core brand strengths' and differentiate themselves.

A popular fantasy fiction series went viral this week after Twitter and Reddit posts showed the copyright page which tries to ban people from sharing the book with anyone, telling them to buy more copies instead, a clause that one expert said would be laughed out of court.Zodiac Academy: The Awakening was self-published by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti in 2019 and has since garnered more than 28,000 ratings on Amazon and is the bestseller under the category Werewolves and Shifters Suspense.

Calls to ban TikTok in the US or compel it to sell the platform to a non-Chinese owner have placed TikTok's data collection practices under increased scrutiny.One ancillary result is government agencies taking a crash course on tracking pixels.An investigation by cybersecurity firm Feroot Security found TikTok tracking pixels on more than two dozen state government websites, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Today, TransUnion announced the expansion of their TruAudience line of marketing solutions.These solutions now combine the consumer data, identity resolution, audience building and targeting capabilities of TransUnion and Neustar, which TransUnion acquired in 2021.TruAudience offers a suite of privacy-first identity resolution, data enrichment, audience targeting and advanced analytics solutions.

The recently released World Press Trends Outlook released by WAN-IFRA (World Association of Newspapers), shows that print still remains a key element of news publishers operations.Moreover, print advertising remains the most important income source.Significantly, the transition to digital has stalled.

Adludio, the global AI-powered platform delivering attention-led and data-driven mobile advertising, today (February 14th, 2023) announces the appointment of Laura Holmes as head of sales UK.Laura will be responsible for the expansion of UK sales and revenue, developing new partnerships and business opportunities, as well as strengthening Adludio's existing customer relationships.

Your chance to be recognised as the best in the business is back - The Wires 2023 is now open for entries.The Wires recognises the very best use of digital media, marketing and commerce, with a focus on ad tech and martech, across all aspects of media sales and media buying, celebrating use of technology, expertise, and innovation within the industry.

Between cookie deprecation, browser changes that limit attribution, new data laws and the potential loss of addressable open exchange inventory, it's clear that data and identity are the most important topics in the ad industry today.We're talking about some of the most disruptive changes to digital media in the past 15 years - changes that will permanently alter media operations and data activation.

The work of Chinese-born and New York-based designer and animator Yiting Nan has impressed us with her deceptively simple pieces of work.The young artist was first introduced to motion graphics while studying at the esteemed School of Visual Arts in New York City, where she quickly realised that her abilities in design, illustration and animation could all be combined in to the exciting field of animation.

The stock market was brutal last year, especially in the tech sector.The S&P 500 market index fell 18% last year, while the more technology-oriented and volatile Nasdaq Composite lost 33%.The tables have turned since the inflation-fighting efforts started to make a difference in 2023, and many tech tickers have posted strong returns in the last two months.