DailyCandy and Television Without Pity are headed to the Internet graveyard next week. Today's sudden announcement wasn’t only surprising for fans of the lifestyle and television news staples. One DailyCandy editor told Adweek that she was “in shock” over the news. According to Re/Code, owner NBCUniversal tried to sell both online publications, but didn’t have any luck.
Taco Bell's "Wake Up Live Mas" campaign entails a clever TV push, radio ads, in-store point-of-purchase and earned social media—all common marketing fare nowadays.
Time Inc.’s People magazine is giving celebrities unprecedented access to its website—permitting them to post their unfiltered tweets and other content—through a partnership with startup WhoSay. WhoSay helps celebrities control their social media presence and lists stars like Eva Longoria, Sofia Vergara and Tom Hanks among its members.
Lithium Technologies paid $200 million for Klout, the social media scorekeeper, in a deal made official today. Lithium CEO Rob Tarkoff said the addition of Klout signifies a relaunch for his company. “This is less about Lithium acquiring a company and technology, it’s actually redefining who Lithium is,” Tarkoff said in a news conference. Lithium already helps brands manage their online and social media activity, and Klout was built to give everyday users social media tools to manage their activity.
Twitter and Billboard have teamed up to make real-time music charts based on the musings of the social platform's 240 million users.
The American Society of Magazine Editors released its list of finalists for the 2014 National Magazine Awards (or “Ellies,” as they’re known in the industry) today, and with a total of 30 nominations—far more than any other publisher—Condé Nast cleaned up. By comparison, Time Inc. racked up nine nominations, while Hearst had seven. Rodale came in fourth with four nominations.
Publishers are claiming that content they share on Facebook pages isn't reaching as many readers as it used to. Adweek reached out to comScore to find out how referral traffic through Facebook has changed from Nov. 2013 to Feb. 2014 for several top properties. For reference, we also tracked the change in the sites’ unique visitors over the same time period.
The Senate's version of a bill to curb patent troll abuses suffered a slight setback Thursday when Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the judiciary committee, was forced to push back consideration of his bill to next week. Advocates for patent troll reform have been anxiously waiting for the Senate to catch up to the House, which easily passed a bill last year.
When you're a breakfast upstart like Taco Bell, how do you launch into a category where every fast-food outlet stagnates in the shadow of the Golden Arches? Well, first you find Errol Morris. Then you find a bunch of guys named Ronald McDonald and feed them breakfast tacos. Morris, one of the most respected directors in film and advertising, worked with Deutsch L.A. to film spots that feature real people named Ronald McDonald enjoying Taco Bell's new breakfast menu items, like the A.M. Crunchwrap and Sausage Flatbread Melt.
In a legal brief, Aereo has asked the Supreme Court to reject broadcasters' arguments that its antenna-based Internet streaming service is "a sort of Rube Goldberg device" and just "a clever way to take advantage of existing laws." The 100-page brief, filed just a few hours before the court's midnight deadline, will form the foundation for Aereo's defense of its system before the Supreme Court on April 22.
