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Machine learning, explained
mitsloan.mit.edu
Machine learning is a powerful form of artificial intelligence that is affecting every industry. Here’s what you need to know about its potential and limitations and how it’s being used.
This nifty online guide compares AI/ML tools and platforms — thenextweb.com
AI Weekly: China’s massive multimodal model highlights AI research gap
WuDao 2.0 Natural Language Processing #NLP model, by #AI researchers in China, had 1.75 trillion parameters, topping similar model by Google & OpenAI. It’s being used to simulate conversational speech, write poems, understand pictures & generate recipes.
Certification for 3D-animated online shopping
The Viewer Certification Program enables 3D viewers across the industry to demonstrate that they can accurately and consistently display 3D products, clearing the way for reliable 3D and AR-powered shopping across multiple platforms and devices.
Art app SketchAR to allow artists to list their artworks on NFT marketplaces directly
Interesting: SketchAR allowing artists to create NFTs directly from app.The artwork will have to be created directly in SketchAR app in order to prove the artist is legitimate rights holder. Would @Adobe ever do this? Or too hard to actually prove rights?
Nike now holds patent for blockchain-based sneakers called ‘CryptoKicks’ — thenextweb.com
The US Patent Office has today issued sportswear brand Nike’s patent for its blockchain-compatible sneakers dubbed “CrpytoKicks.”
Square to Invest $5M to Build Solar-Powered Bitcoin Mining Facility With Blockstream
E.l.f. jumps on NFT trend with crypto collectibles that try to offset carbon footprint — www.marketingdive.com
Crypto-crazed Sotheby’s launches first virtual gallery in digital metaverse Decentraland
The auction house has created a digital replica of its London headquarters on New Bond Street #metaverse
NFT Real Estate in Ethereum Metaverse Sold for $913K
www.coinspeaker.com
Decentraland, a virtual land asset typically sold as a non-fungible token (NFT) real estate, has fetched north of $913K.
CNN to sell ‘Moments’ NFTs based on historic events recorded in digital archives
Anheuser Busch InBev is testing NFTs in its marketing — digiday.com
Sir Tim Berners-Lee is selling the first web browser’s code as an NFT
www.theverge.com
The inventor of the World Wide Web is taking advantage of the latest of the internet’s creations by auctioning off his original code and donating the proceeds to charity. The NFT will include the original browser, a letter, and more.
US Space Force Launches Neil Armstrong Satellite NFT with Star Atlas Metaverse
Celebrity Ink Artist Scott Campbell Launches NFT Platform for Tattoos
Chicago’s first physical NFT art gallery
Fox TV Puts $100M Behind Its NFT-Driven Blockchain Experiment
An NFT of Jay-Z’s first album has sparked a record label lawsuit — www.theverge.com
Roc-A-Fella Records, the label co-founded by hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, has sued co-founder Damon Dash for allegedly trying to auction a non-fungible token version of Jay-Z’s 1996 album Reasonable Doubt. #NFTs
Technology
Platforms, bundling and kill zones — www.ben-evans.com
RT @benedictevans What does it mean when Google, Microsoft or Apple turn your whole company into a feature? When do we let a tech giant build and when do we call the anti-trust lawyers? And what does that mean for Spotify, Yelp or printing in landscape?
Well-Behaved Bubbles Often Make History
An interesting take on tech bubbles, and why they’re not all bad — they could be useful indicators
The Magic of API-First Business Models
A deep dive on the API-First Ecosystem with Shopify, Stripe, Twilio, and more.
Spotify Accelerates Podcast Discovery With Acquisition of Podz
MT @SleepwellCap A Discover Weekly of podcasts coming soon? Maybe, or something along those lines. No one else has solved podcast/audio discovery, one of the biggest challenges the industry is currently facing and whoever does will provide and capture a lot of value.
Spotify launches its live audio app and Clubhouse rival, Spotify Greenroom
Sony Music Entertainment has acquired Somethin’ Else, the biggest independent producer of audio programs in the UK
Apple Podcasts’ in-app subscriptions are now live — www.theverge.com
Apple Podcasts’ in-app subscriptions are now live in over 170 countries. The feature allows people to pay for podcast content from within the app.
Facebook launches podcasts, live audio service
apnews.com
Facebook is launching podcasts and live audio streams in the U.S. on Monday to keep users engaged on its platform and to compete with emerging rivals .
Facebook to update its community standards to clarify what it considers satire
www.theverge.com
Facebook says it will update its community standards to be clearer about how it handles satirical content, following a recommendation from its Oversight Board, which found the platform was wrong to remove a user’s comment.
Amazon advertising rates jumped more than 50% in pandemic-fueled surge
ICYMI HT @BISG #Amazon #advertising
Google to change global advertising practices in landmark antitrust deal
Google to change global advertising practices in landmark antitrust deal, after France’s 220M Euro fine settlement #Google #advertising
Google’s adtech business set to face formal EU probe by year-end -sources
MT @iron_emu To state the obvious, an EU antitrust investigation of Google’s lucrative digital advertising business would be a big deal. Google made $147 billion in revenue from online ads last year, more than any other company in the world.
Google gets physical with first New York store
Instagram explains their algorithm
Instagram’s TikTok rival, Reels, rolls out ads worldwide
Will Apple Mail threaten the newsletter boom?
www.platformer.news
How Mail Protection Privacy will force the email economy to adapt
New iPhone Health app feature gives doctors easier access to data
www.theverge.com
Apple announced a new feature that will let users share the data from their Health app directly with their doctor through the electronic medical record.
Facebook offers ‘extra cash’ for creators who stream more — www.engadget.com
Facebook will offer extra cash to creators who stream more and hit certain bonus targets. Creators can also now earn commissions directly from shopping posts on Instagram #Instagram #CreatorEconomy
Facebook won’t take a cut from creators until 2023, Zuckerberg says in shot at Apple
www.cnbc.com
“When we do introduce a revenue share, it will be less than the 30% that Apple and others take,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote.
Instagram CEO says Facebook will help users get around Apple’s cut of transactions
www.cnbc.com
Facebook is setting its sight on the creator economy, hoping to allow millions of people to make a living off its family of apps.
Messenger adds Venmo-like QR codes for person-to-person payments in the US — techcrunch.com
This spring, Facebook confirmed it was testing Venmo-like QR codes for person-to-person payments inside its app in the U.S. Now it’s launching publicly to all U.S. users, allowing anyone to send or request money through Facebook Pay — even if they’re not Facebook friends.
SurveyMonkey Rebrands As Momentive To Fuel Its Growing Enterprise Business — www.forbes.com
The company announced plans to relaunch under the new name Momentive, which will become both the parent company and the brand for SurveyMonkey’s growing enterprise business.
LinkedIn bets on remote events, investing in $5 billion-plus virtual platform company Hopin
How Complexland 2.0’s gamefied virtual shopping festival increased sponsorship revenue by 60%
Pinterest edges closer to social commerce with new Shopping List feature
digiday.com
Users are seven times more likely to buy a product they saved, according to Pinterest, so they’re launching a new feature to encourage shopping.
Microsoft Teams to integrate Headspace and Focus mode to help meeting anxiety
www.digitaltrends.com
With meeting times and stress levels on the rise, Microsoft is introducing well-being features in Teams, designed to help you cool your mind and relax at work.
Amazon is now on course to become the UK’s largest retailer by 2025— econsultancy.com
Amazon Literary Partnership Expands Grantee List to 80 This Year — publishingperspectives.com
In 2021, the Amazon Literary Partnership is giving 80 grants totaling more than $1 million to literary organizations in the United States.
Inside Amazon’s Employment Machine
RT @ShelfAwareness “Amazon’s founder didn’t want hourly workers to stick around for long, viewing ‘a large, disgruntled’ work force as a threat”…. “Company data showed that most employees became less eager over time and Mr. Bezos believed that people were inherently lazy.”
Amazon blames social media for struggle with fake reviews
House Judiciary Introduces Bills that Would Break Up Amazon’s Vertical Publishing Monopoly
lunch.publishersmarketplace.com
Following on their 16-month investigation into the digital marketplace and the “unregulated power wielded by Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google,” the House Judiciary committee introduced five bills that would break up and significant restrict and constrain those tech giants.
Amazon Sidewalk Will Share Your Internet With Strangers
MT @wirecutter Amazon’s new free service, Sidewalk, will be automatically enabled on many Echo smart speakers, smart displays, and some Ring devices today. If you’re concerned about your privacy and security, you can turn Sidewalk off. Here’s what you need to know.
Researchers find Google serves nearly half of all ad traffic on fake news sites — techpolicy.press
MT @justinhendrix Researchers find Google serves nearly half of all ad traffic on fake news sites — and Amazon is the top retailer advertising on low credibility sites.
Publishing & Media
Google, Facebook pledged millions for local news. Was it enough?
www.reuters.com
Facing regulatory and political pressure, Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google in recent years committed a combined $600 million to support news outlets globally — many of them local or regional enterprises foundering in a digital age.
70% of podcast listeners fast forward through ads
#podcast #advertising #marketing #consumerbehavior
Kanopy is a digital streaming platform for libraries and Overdrive bought them — goodereader.com
Overdrive has announced that they are going to acquire Kanopy, which is a streaming media company that provides educational content to libraries. Kanopy has 30,000 videos of highly curated films and are used by millions of students and library patrons and is available on all major web, mobile and TV platforms.
New York Legislature Passes Library E-book Bill
New York is now the second state to pass a bill that would ensure public libraries the right to license and lend e-books that are available to consumers in the state.
Walmart is now taking pre-orders for the Kobo Elipsa
via @goodereader
I’m Selling Books on TikTok, No Dancing (or Crying) Required
MT @JaneFriedman After reading @ashleigh_renard’s post today, I finally have a grasp on what viable and meaningful book marketing means on TikTok for the average author (and thankfully it doesn’t require singing, dancing, or crying) #bookmarketing
Hachette unveils free event series for publishing hopefuls — www.thebookseller.com
Hachette UK is launching a series of free virtual events, “Opening the Book”, later this month, aiming to demystify publishing.
In Bologna Panel, Publishers Discuss History, Future of Diverse Books
lunch.publishersmarketplace.com
New Tattered Cover Store Opening
Oxford University Press to end centuries of tradition by closing its printing arm
amp.theguardian.com
Falling sales blamed as 20 jobs axed in final chapter for history of printing in the city, which stretches back to the earliest days of book publishing
Sick of Netflix? May I Suggest a Good Book Instead — www.bloomberg.com
ICYMI Reading has picked up thanks to lockdowns and isolation. Publishers and parents are hoping the habit sticks.
Read Well, Live Well: 5 Ways Reading Benefits Your Brain — www.mindbodygreen.com
Reading is like jogging for the brain #ReadWellLiveWell #teamPRH
Binc’s Survive to Thrive Donating $1.1 Million to 115 Bookstores, Comic Shops
McGraw-Hill to be Sold to Platinum Equity for 4.5B, including $2.23B in debt
lunch.publishersmarketplace.com
Getting Word: Black Literature for Black Liberation Fundraiser
From Juneteenth until Independence Day, Getting Word: Black Literature for Black Liberation is running a collective fundraiser to benefit a group of Black literary and arts organizations.
Lupin vs. Herlock Sholmès: The French Sherlock Holmes rip-off is real, spectacular. — slate.com
That book in Lupin Part 2? It’s real, and it’s spectacular. A tale of copyright law, public domain, and capers.
LSC Communications Renames Book Division Lakeside Book Company
BookClub checks out a shiny new $20 million Series A
PubWest Boot Camp Survey
MT @BISG Do you work in publishing & have less than 5 yrs of experience? @PubWest would appreciate your input to help craft programming for their “Back to School” Fall Digital Boot Camp. Please take this short 5-question survey! #publishing #earlycareer
Media Ad Revenue To Surge 22% In 2021, GroupM Predicts, As Digital Revival Exceeds Prior Forecasts — deadline.com
Excluding political spending, top media firm GroupM says it expects 22% growth in media ad revenue in 2021 compared with 2019 levels.
Andreessen Horowitz goes into publishing with Future
Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz is launching its media property, called Future.
Inside Jonah Peretti’s Rollup Playbook
In 2018, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti issued a cri de coeur to the digital media industry, telling his fellow moguls that all of them, BuzzFeed included, needed to start merging so they could more effectively stand up to Google and Facebook, the internet’s advertising powerhouses.
BuzzFeed Joins Publishers Linking Up with Shopify
Shopify is rolling out a service that will let publishers link to network merchants in exchange for a cut of transaction revenue
BuzzFeed Will Pay for User-Contributed Content This Summer for the First Time — Up to $10,000 per Post
variety.com
BuzzFeed this summer will pay up to $10,000 per post for user-contributed quizzes, lists or other content — if it’s clicky enough.
‘Forbes’ Launches Subscription Service For Marketing Partners
Forbes starting a LinkedIn-like service.
The newly redesigned Money magazine now employs 120 people, with an editorial staff of 40, and they’re hiring.
www.adweek.com
The 50-year-old publisher generated $9 million in revenue in 2020.
End of an era: American Airlines is retiring its in-flight magazine, joining Delta and Southwest
www.usatoday.com
United Airlines is the last airline among the big four U.S. airlines to publish an in-flight magazine for passengers.
A Hearst UK study found that 73% of respondents saw their happiness levels uplift after engaging with company content
Estée Lauder reimagines love with audio-first stories — www.marketingdive.com
Everything to Know About Media’s Beauty Business Play — wwd.com
Allure magazine is preparing to unveil its first physical retail store in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood this summer.
Authentic Brands, which manages the Sports Illustrated brand, announced it is teaming up with Venmo to launch SI Tix to sell tickets to sporting events w a $10 fee
New Yorker Union Reaches Deal With Condé Nast After Threatening to Strike
Condé Nast agreed to a minimum salary of $60,000 by April 2023, the union said. The deal also covers workers at Ars Technica and Pitchfork.
Meredith’s MNI Extends Cover Wrap Format To B2B
New Crowdfunder Offers Fundraising Plus Support
www.publishersweekly.com
Zoop is a new crowdfunding platform designed to fund comics and other pop culture projects and offers a suite of support services to help organizers run and fulfill their campaigns.
Substack just made a major new hire as it goes after comic-book writers and expands its fiction efforts
RT @perlberg Substack has also made Pro offers to fiction writers, although those efforts are nascent. But authors are experimenting — @mstiefvaterpublishes short stories behind her paywall, and @novelleist will soon serialize a novel
TV Operators Team Up to Simplify Fragmented Ad Market
Eight companies, including Comcast, Charter, Altice, and Dish, have created Go Addressable, a consortium to simplify and scale the fragmented TV ad market.
Netflix Opens an Online Shop to Hawk Items From Popular Shows — www.bloomberg.com
Netflix Inc. is branching into toys, games and clothing based on its popular shows, looking to mine popular characters for added revenue much like Walt Disney Co.
The Wall Street Journal apparently wants its reporters to pay to use their own reporting in books
www.niemanlab.org
And to get permission before even talking to a book agent.
New York Post and Page Six launch merch in new ‘Official NY Post Store’
Gray, Meredith, Hearst Try Streaming Local TV News
Despite all the hype, nobody has quite figured out how to hook the next generation of viewers on local streaming content.
HoH: Building The Next Great Sports Franchise — huddleup.substack.com
RT @zoescaman Super smart. ‘House of Highlights believes the answer to winning Gen-Z & Millennial appointment viewing is through live, action-dense, high-stake competitions with creators & influencers serving as athletes.’
Sinclair raising $250M for new sports streaming service, sources say
MT @TVGrimReaper Interesting info on the potential economics of direct to consumer regional sports. Sinclair hopes to charge $23/mo to local subscribers for their RSNs.
Trump Allies Acquire Cable Networks in Family-Friendly TV Push
news.bloomberglaw.com
An investor group led by Hicks Equity Partners, a firm with links to the Republican National Committee and the Trumps, is snapping up cable channels in a bid to create a family-friendly TV empire.
The New York Times and The Athletic End Acquisition Talks
Resources & Opportunities
Guide to Writing Conferences to Apply to
MT @vanjchan Dismayed but unsurprised to learn that many POC writers don’t know about the writing conference circuit that happens in the summer. I myself only learned about them last year, and thru literal constant searching on Twitter. So here’s a nonexhaustive guide to stuff I applied to.
Granum Foundation Fellowship Prize
MT @libbytheflores A new an excellent prize for writers ($5000.00) to help U.S.-based writers complete substantive literary works — such as poetry books, short story collections, novels, and translations — or to help launch these works.
NYC Authors Can Apply for $5,000 Grants — www.authorsguild.org
RT @GothamGhosts Apply for one of City Artists Corp’s 3,000 available grants! In response to the pandemic’s negative impact on New York City, the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment is offering $5,000 grants to artists who were impacted by COVID-19.
Editor, Travel Digital Media at National Geographic
MT @leannalakeram Interested in #journalismjobs with @NatGeo? Our editorial team is seeking an Editor, Travel Digital Media!
Quirk Auditions
MT @RKGyllenhaal Exciting opportunity for emerging writers! Want to become the author of a Quirk-generated idea? Well you’re in luck, because I’m holding auditions to write an adult mystery/thriller novel about multi-level marketing schemes.
Build A Racially Equitable Collection — www.slj.com
RT @kishizuka A one-day, online workshop for teachers and librarians will precede the 11th National Conference of African American Librarians — July 27. Co-produced by @sljournal and @BCALA_Inc #NCAAL
Asian American Writers’ Workshop — aaww.org
RT @aaww We’ve a legendary line-up for Page Turner, the Publishing Conference on Saturday, June 26th. Book your tix ($15)