“The announcement of a paid newsletter program marks an important new milestone for Mel, which does not run advertisements, sell subscriptions, or generate revenue outside of merchandise sales. The publication largely relies on the men’s grooming brand Dollar Shave Club for its financial support. It launched Mel in 2015 as a diffuse marketing arm for its line of products.”

“Every year, the Rivalry Challenge raises more money than the year before. It has been successful when the basketball teams are evenly matched, when one of them is significantly better than the other, and when they’re both terrible. It has been successful in and out of the pandemic.”

“…Other times [the trending summaries are] a vector for misinformation, spreading false or misleading memes to a much wider audience than would have otherwise encountered them. Paradoxically, attempts by Twitter users to debunk a false meme can result in it trending more widely because the algorithm takes the debunkings as a further signal of the meme’s popularity as a discussion topic.”

“Netflix customers were less likely than other streaming subscribers to pay for anything else — which presumably has something to do with the fact that (almost) everyone has Netflix. It’s the streaming starter package: You get it first and then maybe think about adding something else.”

“We’re definitely not the first to highlight the work being done by AAPI activists and elected officials. Groundbreaking publications like AsianWeek have been around for decades, but they’ve struggled to survive, and we just haven’t found a similar project that exists today. The reality is that there isn’t a well-funded AAPI media ecosystem, and many AAPIs lack access to the critical information and resources necessary to participate in our democracy.”

“Google helped create and grow the digital ad ecosystem that relied on tracking and targeting ads to people across the web. Now, up against pressure from regulators around data privacy and antitrust, Google will stop enabling cross-site tracking and targeting of individuals in all its web-based ad products, such as its Google AdX exchange or ads in YouTube.”

“You are putting manacles on the media and that is going to be one of the issues from this going forward. What you have is a situation where any letter that is leaked to a journalist cannot be published under the terms of this judgment. And it is unclear when public interest comes in to allow you to publish.”

“Brooks, who is listed as Weave’s chair on its site, didn’t hesitate to drop mentions of the organization in his columns. But he was less forthcoming about the financial status of his second job and its connection to Facebook. In 2019, as Weave pursued a project with Facebook funding, Brooks peppered columns with mentions of Zuckerberg, Instagram, and Facebook, but didn’t disclose that the company was actively funding Weave — and, by extension, his own salary.”

The announced 5% reduction in staff means that about 460 people will lose their jobs. Sinclair operates 186 television stations across 87 markets in the U.S. and reported a 7% drop in total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020, compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, last month.

“Live accumulated the longest thread of continual pandemic coverage found anywhere online.” The new role has left Lacey feeling like an air traffic controller. “There’s all this incoming chatter,” he said.