Ownership

Facebook is testing a major change that would shift non-promoted posts out of its news feed, a move that could be catastrophic for publishers relying on the social network for their audience. A new system being trialled in six countries including Slovakia, Serbia and Sri Lanka sees almost all non-promoted posts shifted over to a secondary feed, leaving the main feed focused entirely on original content from friends, and advertisements.

The change has seen users’ engagement with Facebook pages drop precipitously, by 60% to 80% . If replicated more broadly, such a change would destroy many smaller publishers, as well as larger ones with an outsized reliance on social media referrals for visitors.

With Alphabet’s engineering resources, Jigsaw translates this research into internet tools that combat hate speech, detect fake news, and defend against cyberattacks. Jigsaw CEO Jared Cohen’s eight-day visit to Pakistan in December provided firsthand insights into what methods extremists are now using to recruit new members online, which Jigsaw aims to circumvent using targeted advertising to counter terrorist propaganda. Although Cohen’s mission sounds philanthropic, Jigsaw operates as a business, no different from any of Alphabet’s moonshots. Yet Cohen says there’s no stress on the group to generate a profit. For now, its value to the enterprise is the ancillary benefits of protecting Google’s myriad other businesses—Android, Gmail, YouTube—from the world’s worst digital threats. And if, in the process, Jigsaw can help address some of the most acute unintended consequences of digital communication, all the better.

“I don’t think it’s fair to ask the government to solve all these problems—they don’t have the resources,” says Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt. “The tech industry has a responsibility to get this right.”

The story of Alice Rogoff and the Alaska Dispatch News is a cautionary tale that shows the limits of what a wealthy owner is willing, or able, to do for a struggling newspaper in the digital era. In the three years that Rogoff owned the paper, its value declined ninety-seven per cent. Of course, Rogoff’s debacle is emblematic of a much bigger financial crisis in American journalism. Even with the arrival of a handful of rich backers—Bezos, at the Post; the Sandler family, at ProPublica; and Laurene Powell Jobs, at The Atlantic—the broader industry has failed to find a viable digital-news model as traditional forms of revenue—advertising and subscriptions—continue to evaporate like rain in the Sahara.

Creating indispensible journalism—whether at the local or national level—is not without cost. It does not want to be free. If people aren’t willing to pay for it, like they pay for the Internet or cell-phone service, then it will surely disappear, sometimes right before your eyes.

I think it is important to address the elephant in the room. There is currently a merger pending before the Commission that some argue will benefit from, and is the reason for, any changes to our media ownership rules. While I make no comments regarding this, or any, merger application, let me be clear: this transaction is in no way the catalyst for FCC action on these issues.

First, the statute requires the FCC review its media rules. Having failed that, we now have pending petitions before us to reconsider the past shoddy effort. Second, I have been calling for media ownership reform since joining the Commission and as a staffer in the U.S. Senate before that. It’s not a new position or reaction to a pending application. Instead, for the first time, we finally have a Chairman receptive to these ideas.

Sens Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mark Warner (D-VA) took the first steps toward regulating online political advertising in a manner similar to the way the government already regulates these ads in traditional media. The Sens say their Honest Ads Act will protect against foreign interference in elections by requiring platforms like Facebook to make details about ads’ buyers, pricing, and targeting publicly available. Now the question is how much momentum the bill can generate.

In addition to the Sunlight Foundation, it received endorsements from advocacy groups, including the Campaign Legal Center, Issue One, the Brennan Center of Justice, Common Cause and Public Citizen. For Sens Klobuchar and Warner, that represents a good start. But the real battle is only beginning. And with lobbyists ramping up their involvement, much of the fight over transparency in advertising will play out behind closed doors.

Nearly two dozen major companies in technology and other industries are planning to launch a coalition to demand legislation that would allow young, illegal immigrants a path to permanent residency.

The Coalition for the American Dream intends to ask Congress to pass bipartisan legislation in 2017 that would allow these immigrants, often referred to as “Dreamers,” to continue working in the United States, the documents said. Alphabet's Google, Microsoft, Amazon.com, Facebook, Intel, Uber, IBM, Marriott International Inc and other top U.S. companies are listed as members.

The National Hispanic Media Coalition is threatening to rally Latino leaders against Verizon for its removal of Univision from the Verizon Fios service. Verizon's blackout comes as the country recovers from Hurricane Katia and a pair of earthquakes, all of which hit in September.

In a letter to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, the group's president and CEO Alex Nogales said the NHMC "is outraged that at a time when catastrophic events have occurred in Mexico and Puerto Rico, Verizon has chosen to blackout Univision, the primary source of news for millions of Spanish-speaking and bilingual Latinos residing in the United States." Verizon removed Univision from its network Oct 16 when the two could not reach an agreement. Univision President and CEO Randy Falco charged Verizon with not acting in good faith in a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai.

Verizon gave Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai its side of the carriage dispute with Univision that has resulted in those networks being off Verizon pay-TV and wireless platforms. Verizon SVP Kathleen Grillo said that despite Verizon's efforts over the past two months, Univision sought unreasonable terms and price increases--more than double its current rate despite declining viewership, says Grillo. She said Univision initially asked for a 170% increase and did not come off that figure "materially"--it ultimately dropped to 130%--in subsequent negotiations, including an offer that came Oct. 16, five hours after the expiration of the contract.

Grillo said it was clear that they were at an impasse and that a further extension--there had been an initial 16-day extension--would not result in a reasonable rate. Grillo also said Verizon had an obligation to customers to negotiate a reasonable rate to protect them from "unwarranted" price increases.

The fiery editorials of Sinclair Broadcast Group chief political analyst Boris Epshteyn will be beamed into seven in 10 American living rooms if the company is allowed to complete a merger that would transform it into a nationwide conservative TV juggernaut. But Sinclair’s proposed $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Media Co. is encountering opposition from unlikely foes: media stalwarts of the right.

Newsmax Media, headed by friend-of-President Trump Chris Ruddy, One America News Network and TheBlaze, founded by former Fox News host Glenn Beck, are joining liberals in criticizing the merger. The Coalition to Save Local Media -- an alliance that includes One America, TheBlaze, the Common Cause policy group and Dish Network, which worries about Sinclair demanding higher fee -- said it was commencing an advertising campaign against the deal. Charles Herring, president of One America Network parent Herring Networks, said Sinclair will have leverage to force cable providers that most viewers rely upon to pay high fees for its TV stations’ signals, draining the pool of money available for independent programmers such as his news channel. “Small, large, left, right -- everybody has spoken out against this merger,” Herring said. “I’m unaware of anybody who isn’t directly or very closely associated with Sinclair speaking out in favor of the merger,” he added.

AT&T has secured the blessing of Brazilian regulators for its $85-billion takeover of Time Warner, moving the blockbuster deal closer to the finish line.

The company said Brazil’s antitrust authority, the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica, had signed off on AT&T’s application to acquire the media company which owns CNN, HBO, TBS, Cartoon Network and Hollywood’s biggest film and television studio, Warner Bros. Now, AT&T must win approval from the US Department of Justice before it can finalize the merger. The government’s review slowed over the summer because the Senate’s approval of President Trump’s appointment of Makan Delrahim as chief of the Justice Department’s anti-trust division was made in late September. The Justice Department and AT&T continue to negotiate conditions for the merger, according to knowledgeable people who do not want to be identified discussing the sensitive process. AT&T earlier had received approval from regulators in Chile and Mexico. Brazilian regulators concluded that AT&T would not be required to divest any assets.