Influencers overtaking journalists as news source: report

PARIS — TikTok influencers and celebrities are increasingly taking over from journalists as the main source of news for young people, according to a report published Wednesday by the Britain-based Reuters Institute.

The report found that 55 percent of TikTok and Snapchat users and 52 percent of Instagram users get their news from "personalities" -- compared to 33 to 42 percent who get it from mainstream media and journalists on those platforms, which are most popular among the young.

The figures were based on interviews with some 94,000 people across 46 countries, conducted for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, part of Britain's University of Oxford.

"While mainstream journalists often lead conversations around news in Twitter and Facebook, they struggle to get attention in newer networks like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok," the report said.

Lead author Nic Newman highlighted people like Britain's Matt Welland, who discusses current affairs and daily life on TikTok for his 2.8 million subscribers.

"Or it could be a celebrity like a footballer talking about a topical news event," he told AFP, such as footballer Marcus Rashford's 2020 campaign to get free school meals for children from poor families.

For young people, "news" is not just the traditional focus on politics and international relations, but "anything new that is happening in any walk of life: sports, entertainment, celebrity gossip, current affairs, culture, arts, technology..." he added.

'FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE'

Facebook remains the leading source of news among social networks worldwide, but its influence is dropping, with 28 percent saying they use it to get news, compared with 42 percent in 2016.

This likely reflects Facebook's shift away from news-sharing towards a focus on friends and family, as well as young people's preference for more video-based apps like TikTok and YouTube.

TikTok now reaches 44 percent of 18-24-year-olds, and 20 percent get their news from the app, up five percent on last year.

The biggest challenge for traditional news outlets is the falling number who go direct to their websites -- just 22 percent, down 10 points since 2018 -- rather than relying on social media links.

In his foreword, Reuters Institute director Rasmus Kleis Nielsen said this shift presented "a much more fundamental change" for the news industry than even the shift from paper to digital a generation ago.

"Legacy media... now face a continual transformation of digital as generations come of age who eschew direct discovery for all but the most appealing brands, (and) have little interest in many conventional news offers oriented towards older generations' habits, interests, and values," he said.

These new audiences are aware of the risks of relying on algorithms, with only 30 percent thinking this is a good way to get a balanced diet of news -- but that is still considered better than relying on journalists, who scored just 27 percent.

None of this is good news for media firms reliant on subscribers and ad revenue.

The report found that 39 percent of subscribers had canceled or renegotiated subscriptions, though the overall share of people paying for news across 20 countries surveyed remained stable compared with last year at 17 percent.

Agence France-Presse

Australia's Nine Entertainment signs content deal with Facebook, Google

Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd said on Tuesday it had signed multi-year content-supply deals with Google and Facebook under Australia's news media bargaining code.

The agreement, terms of which were not disclosed, comes after rival Seven West Media Ltd and News Corp signed similar deals following the enactment of tough laws to make US tech giants pay for displaying news on their platforms.

The multi-media firm said it would supply content for Google's News Showcase platform for five years and to a similar Facebook product for three.

Google would also expand its marketing ventures across Nine's platforms, the publisher of the Australian Financial Review, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald newspapers added.

After considering these new deals and ongoing subscription revenue for Nine's mastheads, the Sydney-based company said it expected growth of A$30 million to A$40 million ($23.2 million to $31 million) in its publishing unit's fiscal 2022 core earnings.

-reuters-

Australia to force Google, Facebook to pay for news content

BRISBANE - Australia said Monday it would begin forcing Google and Facebook to pay news companies for content, in a landmark move aimed at shielding traditional media from the tech giants' digital dominance.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said a mandatory code of conduct to be unveiled by July would require the firms to reimburse Australian media companies for using their news and other content.

"What we want to see is a level playing field. What we want to see here is a fair go for the companies and for the journalistic content that is prepared," he told Channel 7.

It comes just weeks after France's competition authority ordered Google to negotiate with publishers over payments to reuse snippets of content in its news aggregator and Google Search.

Google and Facebook have had a huge impact on Australia's news industry, with the number of newspaper and online journalists falling more than 20 percent since 2014 as digital advertising revenues were overwhelmingly captured by the two titans.

The new regulations follow an 18-month inquiry into the power of digital platforms by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which recommended an overhaul of existing regulations.

Frydenberg said the government was imposing the measures after discussions on a voluntary code failed to make headway, with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on advertising revenues hastening the need for action.

"That hasn't made meaningful progress so now we are taking the decisive decision to create a mandatory code, seeking to be the first country in the world to ensure that these social media giants pay for content," he said.

A similar move by Spain saw Google shut down its News service there in 2014, while the company has threatened to do the same in response to the new French laws.

Australia's new regulations will also cover the sharing of data, and the ranking and display of news content, to be enforced by binding dispute resolution mechanisms and penalties.

An estimated 17 million Australians use Facebook each month and spend an average of 30 minutes on the platform a day, while 98 percent of Australian mobile searches use Google.

Agence France-Presse

Magma movement to determine length of Taal's eruption, says Solidum

MANILA – The Taal Volcano is still erupting but its activity has gone weaker than in previous days, according to the country's chief seismologist on Wednesday.

But how long the eruptions would last depends on the speed of the rise of magma.

Phivolcs executive director Renato Solidum said Wednesday they still record a lot of earthquakes at the Taal volcano and its general area, and many of these temblors have been felt.

"These can be interpreted as magma intruding from beneath the volcano causing fissures to move, causing earthquakes and also lifting off the ground. Hence, if these magma would continue to rise there can still be further activity related to the current situation," Solidum said on ANC's Headstart.


Solidum cannot exactly tell how long Taal's eruptions will be as he said the volcano has exhibited various styles of eruptions in the past, lasting from a few days to several months.

In 1911, Solidum said the eruption lasted for only 3 to 4 days. In 1965, it lasted for a month and in 1754, the eruption continued on for around 7 months.

"These would be dependent on the ascent of the magma, how fast it would move up or whether the magma would stop moving. As we try to analyze this we rely on 2 things: the earthquakes and deformation on the ground," he explained.

He said volcanoes have different styles and speeds of eruption and precursors. Taal’s behavior, he said, could go from having precursors and not erupting to having precursors and then erupting within several days to several weeks.

“When any volcano would erupt, it has to show signs of the activities escalating. However, that volcano did not accelerate its activity and in fact even half a day or a day before there were no significant earthquake events or even maybe 12 or 6 hours before, if you look at seismic record, there was no record,” he said.

The volcano’s activity accelerated in a span of around 6 hours, prompting Phivolcs to immediately raise its alert level.

In comparison, Mount Pinatubo, which erupted in 1991, recorded activity that signaled its destructive eruption on June 15 of that year.

There were quakes that March, phreatic eruptions a month later, steam emissions in May, and then a small ash emission prior to its major eruption.

“You can see clearly the big difference in the timing and sequence of the events versus what happened last Sunday,” he said.

Solidum said Phivolcs, the local government, and disaster management teams have been preparing for the possibility of Taal's hazardous eruption.

"The explosive eruption scenario, and this is the scenario we have been preparing for together with the Batangas Provincial Risk Reduction [and] Management Office, is still possible simply because of the fact that we still have a lot of earthquakes and ground deformation within the area," he said.

Sunday's activity initially started as a phreatic eruption. When the crater was depressurized, he said magma suddenly rose and produced more eruptions turning it into a phreatomagmatic eruption.

"The highest eruption column that we saw was around 10 to 15 kilometers last Sunday, late afternoon and evening, and for many volcanoes that would really be considered hazardous," he said.

Lava fountaining was observed by early Monday morning, resulting in a magmatic eruption.

While it was hazardous, Phivolcs said they have not yet seen pyroclastic density currents or the flow of rocks and ash down the slope of the volcano or even horizontally-moving out of the crater towards the lake.

"That is what we call a hazardous volcanic eruption when Taal would exhibit not only tall eruption columns, but horizontally-moving clouds more than 60 kilometers per hour that even reach the mainland and cross above the water," he said.

Thousands of residents were evacuated after the volcano spewed ash and destroyed homes, plants, and animals on Sunday.

"If the volcano would rapidly increase in activity then there will be additional evacuation and that has happened. Unfortunately the volcano changed its condition very rapidly," he said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook’s new role as news publisher brings new scrutiny

A little more than 2 weeks after Facebook announced a news initiative, the social network was on the defensive, responding to a published report that a website co-founded by the company’s top news executive had displayed bias against Elizabeth Warren.

Popular Information, a liberal newsletter, reported on Monday that The 74, a nonprofit education policy website co-founded by Facebook’s top news executive, Campbell Brown, had published several articles attacking Warren, a senator from Massachusetts and Democratic presidential candidate. One of them called Warren “the second coming of Karl Marx.”

The newsletter entry was written by Judd Legum, a former editor of the defunct liberal website ThinkProgress and a onetime Democratic political operative. It argued that the articles critical of Warren that appeared on The 74 were relevant to Facebook’s move into the news business, because Brown still sits on the site’s board. Legum also reported that the family foundation of the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, was a donor to The 74.

Brown responded swiftly to the criticism on Monday, saying in a Twitter thread that her involvement with The 74 had no bearing on Facebook News and that the articles singled out by the newsletter were opinion essays, not news articles.

“The 74 is not part of Facebook News and the FB news team does not and has not supported The 74 in any way,” Brown wrote on Twitter. “I still care deeply about the issues The 74 covers so I remain on the board of directors w/no editorial role and make personal donations (it’s a nonprofit).”

Brown, a former anchor at NBC and CNN, also said that she had listed her relationship with The 74 in her Twitter biography. She added that her support for the charter-school movement — a frequent topic in The 74 — puts her in the company not only of DeVos, but of Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., a presidential candidate.

The flap is the latest sign that Facebook will be susceptible to charges of bias now that it has stepped more boldly into the role of media publisher.

The company drew the close attention of journalists, politicians and anyone else on the lookout for signs of partisanship when it announced Facebook News, a separate section on its mobile app featuring reporting from publications including BuzzFeed, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.

News organizations responded positively to the move, for the most part, because Facebook is able to deliver readers in huge numbers and had agreed to pay for some content. There was skepticism, too, some of it resulting from Facebook’s decision to include Breitbart, a far-right news and commentary site, among the publications it had chosen to highlight. On Friday, Facebook News removed posts from Breitbart that claimed to identify the whistleblower who set in motion an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Steve Snyder, the editor-in-chief of The 74, said in his own tweets Monday that the site had also published opinion pieces critical of DeVos and her policies, along with news articles dispassionately covering education. “Nothing is structured here to prioritize one viewpoint over another,” Snyder said in an interview. He added: “Campbell plays no editorial role.”

Legum defended his newsletter story in an interview. “She maintains a public association and is admittedly still involved in the website — she sits on the board,” he said, referring to Brown. “I don’t think it’s illegitimate to say we should be able to evaluate what’s on there and that it reflects somewhat upon her approach.”

A Facebook spokeswoman said in an emailed statement that The 74 was not among the sites whose articles will be featured in Facebook News’ selection of top stories, adding that Brown had always been open about her relationship with the site. “Any suggestion otherwise is baseless,” the spokeswoman said.

When the company announced its push into news last month, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, said he hoped the new tab’s users would number in the “tens of millions” in the United States and “hundreds of millions” globally.


2019 The New York Times Company

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook to pay 'subset' of news tab publishers

SAN FRANCISCO, United States - Facebook said Monday it plans to pay only a portion of the publishers whose stories appear in a news "tab" set to launch in the weeks ahead.

Facebook recently confirmed plans for a News Tab that will be edited by seasoned journalists, in a departure from its longstanding practice of letting algorithms dictate a user's experience.

A human team will select relevant, reliable breaking and top news stories.

"The number of publishers included in the news tab will grow over time," Facebook spokeswoman Mari Melguizo said in response to an AFP inquiry.

"To ensure we're including a range of topic areas, we'll start by paying a subset of publishers who can provide a steady volume of fact-based and original content."

A Wall Street Journal report earlier Monday said Facebook planned to pay about a quarter of the estimated 200 news organizations whose articles will be featured.

The tab will be separate from the trademark news feed at Facebook that displays updates and content from people's friends, according to the California-based online social network.

Aside from human-curated top news, sections of the tab will rely on algorithms to figure out a user's interests based on "signals" such as pages followed, interactions with online news or subscriptions to publications.

"Our goal with the News Tab is to provide a personalized, highly relevant experience for people," Facebook head of news partnerships Campbell Brown told AFP when the coming feature was revealed.

However the majority of stories people see will be determined by software, according to Brown.

Facebook Watch already allows users to peruse news shows funded by the social network and other on-demand online content.

Facebook has launched an array of initiatives to support or bolster journalism in recent years as social media has been under intense pressure to avoid becoming a tool to spread misinformation.

Earlier this year Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said he wanted "to make sure that to the extent that we can, we're funding as much high-quality journalism as possible."

The move comes with online platforms Facebook and Google dominating the market for online advertising, making it harder for traditional news organizations to gain traction in digital. The two internet giants have unveiled several initiatives aimed at helping the news industry and professional journalism.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

What does Facebook's plan to hire journalists mean for media industry?

NEW YORK -- Facebook's plan to hire professional journalists instead of relying solely on algorithms to deliver news is a positive step but is unlikely to shake up an embattled media industry, analysts say.

The social media giant said Tuesday it would build a small team of journalists to select the top national news of the day "to ensure we're highlighting the right stories."

It comes as the US media landscape is plagued by job losses and newspaper closures, with organizations trying to figure out how to record profits in the age of free news.

Stories will appear in a section called the "news tab," which will be separate from the traditional news feed that displays updates and content from users' friends and relatives.

"In theory I see this as a really positive development. It is something quite promising," Danna Young, a communications professor at the University of Delaware, told AFP.

Facebook's journalists will be curating stories from news sites and won't be editing headlines or writing content.

The California-based company has consistently said it does not want to be considered a media organization that makes major editorial decisions, and this announcement does little to change that, experts add.

"It's not transformative because it's not going to change necessarily the behavior of individuals who are referencing stories on their feeds," said Young.

"That's where the power comes from -- individuals you know and trust putting their tacit stamp of approval on stories by sharing them," she added.

'PERSONALIZED'

The tab will be the site's first news feature using human moderators since it shut down its ill-fated "trending topics" section last year after a scandal over allegations workers had suppressed stories about conservative issues.

Articles not deemed top news stories will still be collated using algorithms based on the user's history, such as pages they follow, publications they subscribe to and news they have already interacted with.

"Our goal with the news tab is to provide a personalized, highly relevant experience for people," Facebook head of news partnerships Campbell Brown told AFP in San Francisco Tuesday.

The news tab feature comes as Facebook embarks on a series of initiatives to boost journalism, with traditional media organizations accusing it of benefiting financially from their hard work.

Internet platforms are dominating the internet advertising space making it difficult for established news organizations to transition what were very profitable print advertisements online.

Facebook announced in January that it would invest $300 million over 3 years to support journalism, particularly local news organizations.

It has also funded fact-checking projects around the world, including one in partnership with AFP.

Facebook will reportedly pay some publishers to license news content for the tab but Mathew Ingram, who writes about digital media for the Columbia Journalism Review, doesn't expect that to trickle down to hard-up organizations that need it the most.

"The companies they are going to choose are ones already doing well I assume. It might give them a little extra cash but I don't see it driving a huge amount of traffic," he told AFP.

'DESTRUCTIVE'

Print journalism in the US is in free-fall as social media overtakes newspapers as the main news source for Americans.

Around 2,000 American newspapers closed in the past 15 years, according to the University of North Carolina, leaving millions of residents without reporters keeping track of what their local authorities are up to.

"The death of local news has such destructive effects for democracy. It's a complex issue that Facebook alone cannot fix," said Young.

The number of journalists working at US newspapers slumped by 47 percent from 2008 to 2018, according to a Pew Research Center survey released last year.

The total number of journalists in newsrooms fell by 25 percent, the group found, while consultancy firm Challenger Gray & Christmas says this is going to be the worst year for layoffs since 2009.

It's a difficult time for Stephen Groves, who recently earned a master's in journalism at New York University, to be looking for work. When he heard about Facebook's plans, he was skeptical.

"Facebook is not a journalism company and so before working for Facebook I would want to see their commitment to ethical, robust journalism," the 30-year-old told AFP.

The digital sector is also in trouble.

When Buzzfeed cut 200 jobs in January, 29-year-old Emily Tamkin was let go from a position she had held for just a few months.

"I'm personally not cheered by the fact that Facebook is swooping in and hiring journalists. If that's the silver lining then we have a very big cloud here," she told AFP.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook in talks with publishers on news effort: sources

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is pitching a new media initiative to license articles from some of the largest American news publishers and display that content inside the social network’s mobile app, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.

The project involves the social network striking deals potentially worth millions of dollars to publishers including The New York Times, The Washington Post and Dow Jones, parent company of The Wall Street Journal, among others, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The agreements would let Facebook pull in headlines and previews of the articles from partner publications for display inside a “News” tab in the Facebook app, they said. The talks with news organizations are continuing, they added, and it is unclear if any deals are close. Facebook hopes to introduce the effort by the end of the year.

Representatives for Dow Jones, The Times and The Post declined to comment. A Facebook spokeswoman confirmed that the company was aiming to include a “News” tab inside its app by the end of the year, but declined to comment further. News of the talks was first reported by The Journal.

Facebook’s pitch is the latest move by a major tech platform into the digital news and entertainment space, as companies vie for people’s attention. In a partnership with publishers, Google has developed Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP, to load articles faster on smartphones. Snapchat has also locked in revenue-sharing deals with publishers on its “Discover” tab inside its app.

In the past, Facebook secured deals with publishers — including The Times — that sucked entire articles into its app for them to load faster and provide what the company called a “better user experience.” But that project, called Instant Articles, fizzled shortly after its debut.

As Silicon Valley players have continued courting the news business, publishers have grown wary for fear of tech companies’ luring audience loyalty away from publishers’ sites.

Facebook is trying to differentiate its new product from past offerings. In its pitch, the company said its “News” tab would not display the main text of articles inside Facebook’s app. Instead, it would link to publishers’ sites or apps and direct users elsewhere to read whole articles, the people familiar with the plans said.

That has proved more enticing to some publishers than a deal proposed by Apple this year. The Apple News app, which costs subscribers $10 a month, pulls in entire articles from partner publishers, which include Vice Media and New York magazine. Apple takes half the overall revenue, while the publishers split the remaining 50 percent, paid to each outlet on a per-view basis.

Publishers including The Journal joined the Apple News effort. Others, like The Times and The Post, declined.

“We tend to be quite leery about the idea of almost habituating people to find our journalism somewhere else,” Mark Thompson, chief executive of The New York Times Co., told Reuters in an interview this year. “We’re also generically worried about our journalism being scrambled in a kind of Magimix with everyone else’s journalism.”


2019 The New York Times Company

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Apple eyes starpower for launch of new news, video streaming service

SAN FRANCISCO - Is it Hollywood time for Apple?

The iPhone maker appeared set to launch its streaming television service next month, calling on celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and "Star Wars" director J.J. Abrams to join an event at its Silicon Valley headquarters.

Apple remained customarily tight-lipped about its plans amid reports of a March 25 event at its Cupertino headquarters focusing on services, including video and a likely subscription news service aimed at shaking up the world of journalism.

The news comes with Apple under pressure to emphasize subscription-based services to diversify its revenues amid sluggish growth in smartphones, which have delivered the bulk of Apple's profits for the past decade.

With news and streaming video, Apple could potentially disrupt 2 sectors and move toward reinventing itself once again.

Apple transformed the digital music scene with deals to sell songs through its iTunes store launched in 2003.

An Apple streaming music service launched in mid-2015 now boasts more than 50 million subscribers.

Apple is believed to be investing at least $1 billion in content and has acquired the rights to a new series starring and co-produced by American actresses Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. 

The 2 actresses were expected to join chief executive Tim Cook in Cupertino, with Jennifer Garner also present, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The potential for an Apple service streaming movies or television shows has been a question since the company added the Apple TV set-top device to its lineup 12 years ago.

Bloomberg News reported the video service would compete with rivals like Netflix and Amazon Prime, although details of the service had not been finalized.

Apple for news?

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that some news organizations were balking at Apple's plan to take a 50 percent cut of revenues as it beefs up its mobile app to offer newspaper as well as magazine subscriptions.

The disclosure appears to be "attempts to negotiate through the media," according to tech analyst Ben Thompson on his Stratechery blog, who added that if Apple succeeds, "having one place to get all of the best journalism would be amazing."

Some analysts remained skeptical about Apple's plans to disrupt journalism.

"It's hard to justify a 50 percent cut," Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi said in a tweet on the subject.

Apple, known for having music stars perform at its media events, is looking to build momentum for its Apple TV service, with deals to have it installed on television models coming out this year.

During a recent earnings call, Cook confirmed that Apple plans to produce its own shows in a move that could challenge streaming television giants Netflix and Amazon Prime, which have invested heavily in original content.

"We will participate in the original content world," Cook said while discussing Apple's plans for video content including a partnership with Oprah Winfrey.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Murdoch's News Corp posts profit as newspapers struggle

NEW YORK -- Rupert Murdoch's News Corp said Thursday it swung to profit in the most recent quarter even as revenues dipped for its newspaper operations.

Profit in the three months through December amounted to $119 million, compared with a loss of $66 million a year earlier, for the conglomerate that publishes the Wall Street Journal, The Times of London, and titles in Australia.

Revenues rose 21 percent year-over-year as gains from new video subscription services, Australian pay TV and other operations offset weakness in the news and information unit.

The New York-based group also saw gains from its digital real estate and book publishing operations.

Chief executive Robert Thomson said the results showed "the power of premium content and authenticated audiences in a fact-challenged world that craves credibility."

He noted digital subscription gains at the Wall Street Journal, and stronger digital advertising revenues in both the US and Australia.

Wall Street Journal digital subscriptions rose to 1.7 million at the end of December from 1.39 million a year earlier.

The digital subscriber base also rose at Australia's mastheads as well as The Times and The Sunday Times.

But overall revenues dropped 3 percent for the news division in a quarter marked by gains in digital advertising and declines in print revenue.

The company said one-third of revenues in news come from digital, compared with 29 percent a year earlier, following an industry trend.

The update for the fiscal second quarter also showed rising revenues at its HarperCollins book division lifted by the release of "Homebody" by Joanna Gaines and "The Next Person You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom.

News Corp retained the publishing operations of Murdoch's media-entertainment empire after a 2013 split that created 21st Century Fox.

Murdoch, 87, began a gradual withdrawal from both companies in 2013, and now shares the title of chairman with his eldest son Lachlan at both firms.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook to test news story paywalls: report

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook will test limiting the number of published news stories that can be read for free on its Instant Articles platform for premium publishers, US media reported on Wednesday.

The leading social network has become a major source of news for people, triggering complaints by publishers that they lose control and revenue when their stories are shared free at Facebook.

A paywall is under construction in Facebook's Instant Articles section where the social network has agreements with select outlets to publish directly to the platform, according to a story initially published online at TheStreet

The service was launched two years ago and competes with Google's AMP that also optimizes content from select media for mobile web browsing.

Facebook head of news partnerships Campbell Brown said at a digital publishing conference in New York on Tuesday that the social network is responding to publishers' concerns with the move, TheStreet reported.

Facebook in October will begin testing a feature that limits to 10 the number of stories that can be accessed in its "Instant Articles" section and guides readers to publisher home pages to consider buying subscriptions, according to media reports.

California-based Facebook did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

Instant Articles aggregates published stories and quickly loads mobile pages to cater to smartphone or tablet users.

"One of the things we heard in our initial meetings from many newspapers and digital publishers is that 'we want a subscription product -- we want to be able to see a paywall in Facebook," TheStreet quoted Brown as saying at the conference.

"And that is something we're doing now."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

NBC News launches new broadcast on Snapchat

NEW YORK - NBC News launched a news show Wednesday on Snapchat, a first-of-its- kind broadcast aimed at wooing a younger audience.

The program "Stay Tuned," produced by a 30-person team, resembles a regular news broadcast in that it is presented by a journalist seen on-screen. But it lasts just three minutes and consists of a rapid-fire series of video clips, none lasting even 10 seconds.


Like other news organizations that broadcast content on social media, mainly Facebook, NBC News uses subtitles on "Stay Tuned" so people can watch videos without sound.

NBC News will run the program live twice daily during the week and once a day on weekends. Recorded versions can be seen on Snapchat's Discover platform.

NBC will sell ad space for the program and share the revenue with Snapchat, CNBC reported. NBC News did not respond to an AFP request for confirmation of this.

NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC and a unit of cable operator Comcast, invested $500 million in Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, when it went public in March.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

CBS, BBC announce global newsgathering tie-up

WASHINGTON - CBS News and the BBC on Thursday announced a new editorial and newsgathering partnership that aims to boost their global strength against rivals such as CNN.

The US and British television news giants will share video, editorial content, and other resources in New York, London, Washington and around the world, according to a joint statement.

"There's never been a more important time for smart, courageous coverage of what's happening in the world," said James Harding, the BBC's director of news and current affairs.

"This new partnership between the BBC and CBS News is designed to bring our audiences -- wherever you live, whatever your point of view -- news that is reliable, original and illuminating. Our ambition is to deliver the best in international reporting on television."

The deal brings together two major television news organizations and comes weeks after US-based NBC finalized a deal to take a 25 percent stake in France-based Euronews to boost its global scale.

CBS News president David Rhodes said his organization "is completely committed to original reporting around the world -- a commitment clearly shared by the BBC."

He added, "There's no better partner to strengthen and extend our global coverage than BBC News."

The two groups sharing of content between CBS News and BBC News will begin immediately and that additional newsgathering elements would be rolled out in the coming months.

BBC News claims to be the largest broadcast news operation in the world with more than 2,000 journalists and 48 newsgathering bureaus, according to its website.

CBS News is part of the large CBS television network with offices around the United States and a handful of overseas locations.

This new partnership replaces the BBC’s current arrangement with Disney-owned ABC News, according to Harding who called that relationship "long and fruitful."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

The Best Publications for Aspiring Forex Traders

Trading currencies is undeniably complex. The financial markets are some of the fastest moving in the world, and with a thousand different drivers to influence new trends and patterns, it can be incredibly hard for aspiring traders to wrap their heads around the intricacies of the foreign exchange.

Like any art, however, forex can be mastered by most. It’s not always an easy education, but provided that you have the time, grit, and desire to learn about the currency markets, most people can pick up enough information to trade successfully.

A lot of would-be investors struggle to know where to start their search for knowledge, but fortunately there are plenty of places to acquire an education. Here are a few to get you started…

#1: Books

There are few resources that can rival a good book when it comes to acquiring new information, and this is as true for forex as it is for any other area of academic interest. A quick Amazon search should soon reveal a myriad of useful titles to choose from, each of them boasting handy reviews to help you find the perfect purchase. With both new and second-hand books available, you should also be able to find some great bargains even if you’re trying to stick to a budget. Your local library will also be worth checking out, as there could well be some handy tomes gathering dust on its shelves.

#2: Online Journals and News Sites

Books are a fantastic way to learn about tactics and strategies, but they’re unlikely to offer a contemporary insight into current market trends. Online journals, on the other hand, will do just that. News site are often an incredibly useful source of information, and can provide a handy heads up with regards to emergent trends. What’s more, many will contain commentaries to help you understand not only what’s happening on the markets, but also why it’s happening. Archived content can even provide examples of how the market has reacted to certain stimuli in the past, which can be a useful tool for deducing how a similar contemporary event will impact your currency pairings.

#3: Blogs

Thirdly and finally, be sure to take full advantage of any beneficial blogs that you stumble across. Lots of professionals and expert investors will share their insights on the currency markets and current events, and these can prove invaluable in lending a sense of direction to your trading. The right advice really can make all the difference if you feel like you’re floundering, and many bloggers will provide insights into their own strategy and tactics, as well as their commentary on current events, which you can adapt to suit your own needs. Brokers’ blogs, like this one from FxPro, are often particularly useful and well informed, and can be a fantastic resource for the inexperienced investor.

Transform your trading today with these three essential resources.

source:  20smoney.com

Facebook dives deep into news with publisher deal

WASHINGTON - Facebook moved deeper into the media business Wednesday by crafting a deal with news publishers which allows the social network to deliver articles directly to readers.

The long-anticipated move by Facebook means it will host news items on its servers to give readers faster access.

The plan has been hotly debated in the news industry -- by those who argue it can help struggling media groups, and others who say news organizations will lose control of their content to the social network.

The new feature called Instant Articles "makes the reading experience as much as ten times faster than standard mobile web articles," Facebook said in a blog post on its website.

Sharing articles on Facebook's mobile app is growing but the average article takes about eight second to load, according to Facebook.

The nine partners in the launch are The New York Times, National Geographic, BuzzFeed, NBC, The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel and Bild, Facebook said.

Facebook said publishers will be able to sell advertisements in the articles and keep the revenue or use Facebook's ad network. Publishers will also be able to track traffic and other data of their content hosted by the social network.

Instant Articles will initially be available on the Facebook app for iPhone, but Facebook is working to expand the platform.

"As a lover of journalism, storytelling and mobile, I have high hopes for the positive impact Instant Articles will have on how we read, and share, the news," Facebook's news partnerships manager Liz Heron said of the plan.

- News juggernaut -

A recent Pew Research Center report found some 30 percent of Americans get at least some of their news from Facebook.

But media groups have been struggling with the shift to digital from print, both in terms of delivering relevant articles to readers and in getting ad revenue from their online services.

Some in the news industry argue the plan gives Facebook too much control of the news.

"Overall I don't think it is a good idea," said Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

Kennedy said Facebook is not transparent about how it shows users news and the site can make changes that promote or demote content, which can have a major impact on news organizations.

"When news organizations turn over a key part of their publishing platform to large corporation with its own agenda there are some real risks," Kennedy said.

New York Times media critic David Carr, who died in February, said last year that media outlets "would essentially be serfs in a kingdom that Facebook owns" under such a plan.

"I can see why these news sites are tempted by the offer, but I think they’re going to regret it," said John Gruber who writes the "Daring Fireball" news blog.

Facebook's formula for structuring its news feed has long been a source of controversy, with some arguing it creates an "information bubble" that segregates readers into like-minded groups.

A study published last week by Facebook found this was not the case -- that the site's members were exposed to considerable "cross-cutting" content -- but some analysts said the conclusions were debatable.

- The future of news -

Danny Sullivan, founding editor at the Search Engine Land blog, said the move opens the door for Google to make a similar news partnership that could have a major impact on the news industry.

"I worry what it means when the free and independent web is mirrored within the walled gardens of two giants, Facebook and Google," Sullivan said in a blog post.

But City University of New York journalism professor Jeff Jarvis said the Facebook move is a watershed event for news.

"This is good news for news," Jarvis said. "If news and technology can come to terms, we can begin to reinvent journalism in a distributed world with new business models."

Jarvis said Facebook's move along with Google's efforts to partner with news organizations show a path for the future of the industry.

"We in media can't do it all by ourselves anymore," he said in a blog post.

"We are no longer monopolies in control of content and distribution from top to bottom. We now live in ecosystems where we must work with others. Get used to it. Find the opportunity in it."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

When fake news goes viral, blame the media - study

WASHINGTON - It's true. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.

In fact, according to a study by media researchers, many news organizations fail to do enough to separate fact from fiction, and often help unverified rumors and reports to go viral online.

"Rather than acting as a source of accurate information, online media frequently promote misinformation in an attempt to drive traffic and social engagement," said the study led by Craig Silverman, a research fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University.

While news organizations have always dealt with unverified information, practices at some websites may accelerate the dissemination of fake news, said the report, "Lies, Damn Lies and Viral Content."

"Many news sites apply little or no basic verification to the claims they pass on. Instead, they rely on linking-out to other media reports, which themselves often only cite other media reports as well," the study concluded.

Fake stories are often sexier or more interesting than the real ones, and as such get wider dissemination, Silverman said.

"The extent to which a fake news article can get traction was surprising to me," Silverman told AFP.

Examples cited in the study were rumors spread on Facebook and Twitter that an Ebola patient had been identified in Britain, and another that the disease had been found in Richmond, Virginia. Both reports were untrue.

'Rehana, ISIS slayer'

In another case, a story about a Kurdish woman dubbed "Rehana the ISIS slayer," or the "Angel of Kobane" purported to have killed 100 Islamic fighters, turned out to have no basis in fact even though reports about her spread for weeks last October.

The researchers traced the story to a tweet from Indian journalist and activist Pawan Durani, who published the woman's picture on Twitter and asked people to retweet it.

Stories of her exploits -- and reports of her death -- were picked up widely by news outlets "but seemed entirely based on falsities," Silverman's report said.

"The simple story of the attractive Kurd who killed dozens of ISIS fighters is a powerful wish rumor. Add in a compelling image and it’s perfect for propagation on social networks. The result is that most of us will never know the woman's true story -- and the press bears a level of responsibility for that."

Silverman said that even if much of the fake news is spread by "new media" or tabloid journals, the traditional or "quality" journalism outlets often sit by, allowing rumors to gain traction.

"When (fake) information is out there and websites are covering it, there is an imperative on the part of news organizations to look at it, flag it for readers and tell them what we know and what we don't know," Silverman said.

"If we remain silent, the ones who win are the mindless propagators."

And many news organizations fail to follow up when a false report is debunked, the report said: "The explosive claim that ISIS fighters had been apprehended at the US-Mexico border was refuted within 24 hours and yet only 20 percent of news organizations that wrote an initial story came back to it."

A 'disturbing trend'

The findings show "a very disturbing trend," said Bill Adair, a Duke University journalism professor who in 2007 founded the fact-checking website PolitiFact.

"It's particularly disturbing when journalists pass along things without knowing whether they are true or not."

Because of the fast-moving nature of Twitter and other social media, Adair said that "many people including journalists feel that if it's tweeted, it's out there and it's fair game. But news organizations have always had an obligation to check out what they pass on."

Sometimes the sheer number of repetitions of false information makes people believe something is true, the researchers said.

One example of this is the oft-repeated claim that the Obamacare health plan includes "death panels" which decide whether a person can receive treatment.

"Anyone who repeated it -- even when trying to debunk it -- further implanted it and its negative connotations in people's minds," the report said.

Nikki Usher, a George Washington University professor specializing in new media, said previous research has shown that repeating false information makes it more believable, "but what is different now is the speed with which rumors can unfold."

The Internet's "crowdsourcing" ability can often bring the truth out, but cannot entirely correct the problem, said Silverman, who also operates the @emergentdotinfo Twitter feed that tracks online rumors.

"Over time the truth emerges, but the corrections don't tend to be as viral or get as widely distributed. And they don't always reach the same people," he said.

"I am a believer in the value of the crowd, but the truth is often far less interesting and shareable than the lie."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

ABS-CBNnews.com is Facebook's 6th biggest publisher

103.3 million pageviews, 53.49 million visits, 16.46 million unique browsers in July

MANILA – ABS-CBNnews.com rose to 6th place among the world's biggest publishers on Facebook in July 2014, according to news aggregator NewsWhip.

ABS-CBNnews.com was ahead of other global news companies such as The New York Times, CNN, BBC, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, the Washington Post, and others.

ABS-CBNnews.com is also the lone Philippine and Asian website on the list.

"The biggest gains came from the Philippine news site ABS CBN, which attracted over 11.5m interactions last month, up from 8.6m in June," NewsWhip's latest report said.

ABS-CBNnews.com climbed one notch in the latest rankings, from 7th place in May 2014.

ABS-CBN Corporation's news website has more than 5.48 million followers on Facebook, the largest among all news websites in the Philippines.

The top 10 publishers on Facebook, as of July 2014, are: huffingtonpost.com, buzzfeed.com, foxnews.com, nbc.com, ijreview.com, abs-cbnnews.com, theguardian.com, nytimes.com, dailymail.co.uk, and bleacherreport.com.






TOP PHILIPPINE NEWS WEBSITE

ABS-CBNnews.com also remains as the top Philippine news website in unique browsers, unique visitors, visits, and pageviews.

It set an all-time high of more than 100 million pageviews for the month of July.

Almost a million users visit the ABS-CBNnews.com website daily, translated into an average of 3 million pageviews a day, according to data from Effective Measure (EM), the common provider of audience measurement analytics of Philippine online publishers.

For the Philippine audience alone, ABS-CBNnews.com recorded more than 8.9 million unique browsers, more than 25.6 million visits, and more than 44.8 million pageviews in July.

For the worldwide audience, ABS-CBNnews.com had more than 16.46 million unique browsers, 53.49 million visits, and 103.3 million pageviews for the month.

Second-placed GMA Network, in comparison, had 47.9 million total pageviews, 23.7 million visits, and 10.1 million unique browsers.

Ranking by unique browsers is deemed important because EM assigns a unique cookie ID to a viewer's web browser (or device) when the person visits an EM-audited site, drawing data to an almost 1-viewer-to-1 web browser or device.

Only EM subscribers are shown in its analytics reports.

ABS-CBNnews.com's stats for July are the highest recorded for a month by any Philippines news site.

 Separate data from Comscore, an American Internet analytics company, also shows ABS-CBNnews.com ahead of other local news websites with regard to the number of unique visitors from the Philippines in June 2014.

ABS-CBNnews.com's YouTube channel is also the most-subscribed in Southeast Asia with almost 1.8 million subscribers and more than 500 million views as of August 4, 2014.

More than 2.3 million people also follow ABS-CBNnews.com's accounts on Twitter.

Nearly 50% of ABS-CBNnews.com's visitors are in the Philippines, with the rest from North America, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and Europe.

More than 62% of ABS-CBNnews.com's audience access the website through their mobile devices.

Around 379,000 people have installed ABS-CBNnews.com's mobile iOS app, and almost 362,000 are using its Android app version.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Freebies for the 4th of July

The biggest weekend of the summer is here and with it comes freebies, giveaways and discounts. Here are just some of the special holiday promotions you can enjoy:

• Michigan’s Adventure will give a free pass to military personnel on July 3 and July 4, 2014. Anyone in any branch of the armed forces, National Guard, or Reserve can get the pass with their military ID. They can also receive up to 6 addition tickets for family members at a discounted price.
• Outback Steakhouses is giving away free bloomin’ onions to anyone that makes a purchase of any kind and says the word “freedom”. This is only on the Fourth of July as an apparent attempt to lure people from the picnic grounds. This promotion is open to all customers, military or otherwise.
• Travel Centers of America and Petro Truck Stops is giving veterans, active military and reservists a free meal at more than 170 Participating Iron Skillet, Country Pride and other full-service restaurants within TA and Petro Shopping Locations on July 4th.
• White House Down is being shown at many AMC, Cinemark, and Regal Entertainment theaters. Those with current military IDs will be given free admission at participating locations. 

Although these items are not free they are significant discounts available on Independence Day.

• Boston Market is offering half off a family meal purchase at participating Boston Market Restaurants on July 4th using this coupon or promo code 34533.
• Home Depot is offering a 10% discount on July 4th when you present a DoD-issued ID, a DD214, or a veteran’s driver license.
• Logan’s Roadhouse is having a buy one, get one sale on entrees on the 4th when you use this coupon. The discount is capped at $12.
• Lowes is also offering s 10% discount to active, reserved or retired military personnel on July 4th when presented with a proper ID.

Books that will save you money

“The Money Saving Mom's Budget”: Slash your spending, pay down your debt, streamline your life, and save thousands a year.

“How to Save More Money”: 349 tips to help you keep your hard-earned cash.

“How to Be Frugal”: New ways to view money and 100 tips reduce your expenses.

Additional money-saving resources for you

Get coupons at coupons.com.

Get a free e-reader for use on any tablet, Apple, or PC.

Get a free trail for thousands of movies and TV programs at Amazon Prime.

Information about the economic culture.

Best deals and ease of use for bridal registries: Amazon’s Wedding Registry.

Amazon also has a baby registry that offers great savings. Click here to review.

Daily specials from Amazon.com in what they call the GoldBox.

source: examiner.com

Thai Constitutional Court voids February election

BANGKOK - Thailand's Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that a general election held last month was invalid, deepening a political stalemate following weeks of opposition protests.

The February 2 polls, called by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in an unsuccessful attempt to ease a months-old political crisis, have not yet been completed because of disruption by demonstrators.

A court spokesman told reporters that the 6:3 ruling was reached on the grounds that voting was not held for the entire country on the same day.

Opposition protesters blocked candidate registrations in 28 constituencies, and also caused the closure of about 10 percent of polling stations.

The main opposition Democrat Party boycotted the vote, saying it would not end years of political turmoil.

The case was one of a slew of legal hurdles facing Yingluck, who has withstood calls to resign despite months of political street protests.

A spokesman for her Puea Thai Party described the outcome as "regrettable", and said the annulment of the vote would "set a bad precedent".

The petition was filed by a Bangkok law lecturer. A similar bid, submitted by the opposition on the grounds that the failure to hold the entire election on the same day was an attempt to grab power unconstitutionally, was rejected by the Constitutional Court last month.

Yingluck's government, in a caretaker role following the incomplete election, faces a series of legal challenges that could lead to her removal from office, including negligence charges linked to a rice subsidy scheme.

She has faced more than four months of street demonstrations seeking to force her from office and install an unelected government to oversee reforms and curb the dominance of her billionaire family.

Twenty-three people have been killed in recent weeks in gun and grenade attacks, mostly targeting protesters.

It is the latest chapter in a political crisis stretching back to a military coup in 2006 that ousted Yingluck's brother Thaksin Shinawatra, a divisive tycoon-turned-politician who lives in Dubai to avoid prison for a corruption conviction.

On Tuesday, Thailand ended a state of emergency in force for almost two months in Bangkok and surrounding areas, reflecting an improvement in security since protesters scaled down their rallies at the start of March.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Seattle helicopter crash adds to concern about chopper safety

Troubled by an "unacceptably high number of helicopter accidents" during the last decade, the National Transportation Safety Board in recent weeks has asked the helicopter industry to take extra care when inspecting and fixing helicopters. Officials have also suggested that pilots spend more time training on simulators.

The deaths of a pilot and a photojournalist in a fiery helicopter crash in downtown Seattle on Tuesday are likely to bring more urgency to that safety campaign. Already, Seattle's mayor has said he wants to reexamine the city’s regulations about helipads.

The KOMO-TV news chopper had just taken off from its helipad atop a downtown building when witnesses described hearing unusual noises, including the sound of a "whining" engine, the NTSB said. The aircraft starting spinning and sputtered into the ground, where it exploded and damaged three cars. One of the drivers was hospitalized for serious burn injuries.

More than 500 people have died in at least 1,600 helicopter crashes since 2004, the NTSB said in January. The agency attributed part of what it described as an alarming upward trend to the growing demand for helicopters to serve as ambulances, help with searches, cover news events and serve in private tours.

Helicopter crashes have been a cause for concern worldwide. In just the last week, four men died in a crash in England and a radio journalist died in El Salvador while covering a bike race from a helicopter that smashed into the ground shortly after takeoff.

The 11-year-old Eurocopter AS350 B2 that went down in Seattle was owned by Helicopters Inc., which says on its website that it operates choppers for more than 50 news organizations. KOMO-TV and KING-TV had been jointly leasing a helicopter from the company. But the one that crashed was a temporary replacement while the usual one received upgrades,  KOMO-TV said.

A Boston television station, WBZ-TV, reported that it and another local station, WFXT-TV, had been using the same helicopter for a decade before switching it out last fall.

Investigators trying to determine what caused the fiery crash will examine the pilot's background and the remains of the aircraft. They will also consider environmental factors such as the weather, said Dennis Hogenson, the NTSB's acting deputy for the Western Pacific region.

The agency's weeks-old safety campaign has spurred action from helicopter manufacturers and helicopter operators. At a helicopter trade conference last month, industry leaders said pilots should make precautionary landings and ground their helicopters if they feel something is amiss. Pilots shouldn't worry about ridicule from colleagues or punishment from the FAA, they said.

"If we are so good at landing anywhere, how come we don't use that feature when we need it the most -- to prevent an accident?" Matt Zuccaro, president of Helicopter Assn. International reportedly said of the "Land and Live" message. "If the weather is closing in, if you are unsure of your ability to reach your fueling point, if there is a maintenance sound or an indication on the panel or if the pilot is not feeling well physically, why not just stop that sequence of events?"

In Seattle, Mayor Ed Murray said a review of helipad regulations was necessary because the crash could have been "much worse." The crash site was across from popular tourist attractions, including the Space Needle, a monorail and a music museum. But the area was quiet about 7:40 a.m. when the crash occurred, he said at a televised news conference.

Emmy Award-winning photojournalist Bill Strothman and the helicopter pilot, Gary Pfitzner, died. Richard Newman, 38, escaped from one of three cars damaged by the crash and was hospitalized in serious condition with burns on up to 20% of his body.

The wreckage was taken to a hangar at Auburn Municipal Airport about 30 miles away. A preliminary report on the crash should be available within five days, the NTSB said, though investigators may not have determined a cause by then.

source: latimes.com