Media & Advertising

Pornhub allows new users to upload videos. The company had temporarily suspended the function. Now it is returning alongside a new upload identification requirement. The move comes after Pornhub came under criticism at the end of last year for its handling of content showing abuse. The New York Times, for example, criticized the pornography platform in a column for not doing enough to crack down on the distribution of abusive content.

Users who want to upload content must now verify themselves - the platform uses a solution from a third-party provider, namely the London-based company Yoti. Users have to upload a recent photo and an official photo ID, as well as a video or voice recording of themselves.

In the context of fake news and an increase in attacks on journalists, the TV broadcaster ARD was able to report positive news: In January 2021, the news program achieved the highest monthly audience ratings since the measurement began with a market share of 42 percent. Within about a year, the previous record from March 2020 was surpassed again.

The Budweiser beer brand will not have an ad during the Super Bowl, but instead, the company will donate the money it would have spent on the ad to Covid-19 vaccination awareness efforts. This is the first time since 1983 that Anheuser-Busch will not showcase its iconic Budweiser brand during the Super Bowl.

Anheuser-Busch still will use four minutes of advertising during the game for its other brands including Bud Light, Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade, Michelob Ultra and Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer.

Earlier this week, Kering-owned luxury fashion brand Bottega Veneta closed down its Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts without warning and with no explanation. It is unclear whether this is a mere marketing stunt or whether Bottega Veneta's decision may be a bellwether for an emerging trend.

Social media doesn’t work to attract the right people to a luxury brand, according to an analysis of a luxury insiders’ survey among some 500 executives working in or supporting the luxury industry.

“We have not found any marketing tool that produces leads qualified for our luxury products and service,” was among the comments in that survey. And another said, “So far nothing is working. Social media is seeing no actual move to act.”

Two possible reasons are currently discussed publically:

• Social media is mass, not class. Luxury does not fit in the hodgepodge of divergent messages that is social media.
• People who can actually afford luxury brands are over-marketed to and not likely to pay attention to the brand's social media posts. Bombarding them with irrelevant posts on social media is not how to be respectful of them and personalize every interaction.

GQ’s Rachel Tashjain speculated: “Perhaps the Bottega deletion is the ultimate act of stealth luxury – it will now be a brand that travels strictly by word of mouth.”

According to the annual press freedom survey published by the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) at least 387 journalists are imprisoned worldwide. According to the data, fifty-four journalists are currently considered abducted, and four disappeared in 2020.

Over 130 journalists have been arrested for their reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic.

The site made the announcement days after Discover, Mastercard, and Visa all stopped accepting payments from Pornhub over concerns the platform was hosting thousands of child porn and rape video clips. In its defense, Pornhub is questioning why the child porn controversy is threatening its business when illegal videos continue to circulate on mainstream social media sites such as Facebook. However, the founder of TraffickingHub, Laila Mickelwait, has long argued that Pornhub often ignored the child porn videos on its site, leaving victims to suffer while it profits from the traffic.

Visa and Mastercard opened investigations and put MindGeek's business relationship under scrutiny on Monday after a New York Times report indicated that child abuse and non-consensual sexual violence videos had been published on Pornhub.

According to the New York Times, Mastercard stated on Thursday that the investigations had confirmed "violations of our standards to ban illegal content" on Pornhub's website. MindGeek announced on Tuesday restrictions on uploads and downloads to Pornhub in view of the accusations in the New York Times report and the subsequent investigations by Visa and Mastercard.

German media group Bertelsmann will acquire U.S. publisher Simon & Schuster from ViacomCBS for more than $2 billion. Bertelsmann, the owner of Penguin Random House, outbid Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for the publisher of authors Dan Brown, Hillary Clinton and Stephen King that Viacom put up for sale earlier this year.

CEO Thomas Rabe is restructuring the group to reduce its exposure to declining areas such as printing, has merged its Arvato CRM customer services unit and made a string of smaller technology bets.

BuzzFeed has agreed to acquire HuffPost, as part of a larger deal with Huffpost's owner Verizon Media Group.

"This is a real vote of confidence after years of many shocks in our industry and few success stories," so Mark Schoofs, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, in an email to staff.

Netflix, the largest video streaming provider, has cancelled the free trial period in many countries without notice.

Markets, including the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia and Japan have switched over to a model where the second month is free.

The 30-day trial subscription is no longer available in Germany and France either. In some other countries, nothing has changed yet.

The Jelly Belly jelly beans founder, David Klein, has launched a "Gold Ticket Treasure hunt" for people in the United States. After paying an entry fee of $49,99 participants can hunt treasures in the different states of the US.

Different treasures can be found and per treasure, 1000 people can participant in hunting it. According to the announcement each treasure is valued at $5,000 and all participants can hunt for a grant treasure in the end which contains an all-expenses-paid trip to a factory.

Mozilla has confirmed that they've renewed their search partnership with Google keeping the Google search engine the default for the Mozilla Firefox browser. Official numbers from Mozilla have shown that Google has paid $430 million under the previous deal in 2018.

A spokesperson for Mozilla has stated that: "Mozilla’s search partnership with Google is ongoing, with Google as the default search provider in the Firefox browser in many places around the world. We've recently extended the partnership, and the relationship isn't changing."

Three journalists have colour, Sohla El-Waylly, Priya Krishna and Rick Martinez, have simultaneously released statements announcing their departure from Bon Appétit's Test Kitchen after alleged racial discrimination. Krishna detailed her decision to leave the company in a post to Twitter, writing that even though she was told "that things were changing and that there would be a huge push towards diversity", including equitable pay, the contract she received was "nowhere near equitable, and actually would potentially allow for me to make even less."

Molly Baz and Gaby Melian have since voiced their support for their colleagues and said they would also no longer appear in Bon Appétit videos, with Baz stating that she had asked to be released from "the video obligations of my contract".

Melian released a statement to her Instagram, writing: "After weeks of negotiations, Conde Nast Entertainment is not meeting my expectations regarding the plans to have a more diverse and inclusive video program. For that reason I will not be signing a contract with them to appear in videos."

NBCUniversal has announced that in an effort to increase diversity and inclusion in its workforce, it is starting the "Fifty Percent Challenge Initiative". The initiative, which was sent out in a memo to employees at NBCUniversal News Group, calls to have a workforce made up of 50 percent people of colour and 50 percent women but the network has not included a timeline.

"We want to increase diversity and inclusion both in front of and behind the camera, and earn the trust of every community in America that relies on us for exceptional journalism,” so Cesar Conde, chairman of the NBCUniversal News Group.

More and more companies are joining the #StopHateForProfit movement to boycott Facebook over its hate speech policies. Over the past days, numerous brands have announced they would stop advertising on Facebook platforms, including Lego, Pepsi, Henkel, Volkswagen Group, Target, Chobani, Vans, Puma and Mars Inc.

The New York Times has ended its partnership with Apple News and has stopped distributing articles in the Apple News App.

The biggest factors behind the decision are that "Apple had given it little in the way of direct relationships with readers and little control over the business," and The Times is seeking to "drive readers directly to its own website and mobile app so that it could 'fund quality journalism'."

"Core to a healthy model between The Times and the platforms is a direct path for sending those readers back into our environments, where we control the presentation of our report, the relationships with our readers and the nature of our business rules," so Meredith Kopit Levien, chief operating officer. "Our relationship with Apple News does not fit within these parameters."

Ford, Adidas and Clorox have joined a growing list of companies pausing social media advertising to take action against hate speech. Ford will not advertise on either Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Twitter in the U.S. for the next 30 days. Clorox is pausing advertising globally on all Facebook-owned platforms until the end of the year, Adidas through July.

Starbucks has announced to halt advertising on "all social media platforms", though the company is not joining the #StopHateForProfit boycott campaign. The coffeehouse chain further stated it would hold "discussions internally and with media partners and civil rights organizations to stop the spread of hate speech" but would continue to post on social media platforms without paid promotion.

"We believe in bringing communities together, both in person and online, and we stand against hate speech," so the company in a statement on Sunday. "We believe more must be done to create welcoming and inclusive online communities, and we believe both business leaders and policy makers need to come together to affect real change."

Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, announced that he and his wife Patty Quillin would be donating a total of $120 million to three HBCUs, historically black colleges and universities. Morehouse College, Spelman College and United Negro College Fund will receive $40 million each.

In their statement, the pair said that they have "supported these three extraordinary institutions for the last few years" because they believe that "investing in the education of Black youth is one of the best ways to invest in America's future" and adding "generally, white capital flows to predominantly white institutions, perpetuating capital isolation. We hope this additional $120 million donation will help more black students follow their dreams."

Facebook announced Wednesday it relaxes its rules about coronavirus-related advertising. After banning ads for masks on its platform in March, the company will now allow advertisers to promote non-medical masks, provided they’re not marketed with medical, health or prevention claims.

“We will still maintain a temporary ban on selling medical masks, such as surgical or N95 masks, to prevent people from exploiting the pandemic for financial gain.,” said Rob Leathern, Facebook’s director of product management.

Google announced it would stop allowing housing, employment and credit ads to be targeted to users based on their postal code, gender, age, parental status or marital status, aiming to protect users from unlawful discrimination.

The new rules will build on top of a policy that already prohibits advertisers from targeting users on sensitive areas, categories related to identity, beliefs, sexuality or attributes such as race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

The new policy will go into effect by the end of the year in the US and Canada.

Spotify published its financial results for Q1 2020, reporting that it had 130 million Premium subscribers globally at the end of the quarter. That was up by 6m subscribers compared to the end of the prior quarter (Q4 2019) and up by 30m (+31%) compared to the same period last year.

The company stated it started seeing a fall in users in late February in virus-affected countries such as Italy and Spain, but has seen a meaningful recovery in the last few weeks.

Total revenue was €1.85 billion, an increase of 22% compared to last year, while premium subscription revenue grew by 23% reaching €1.70 billion.