• Alphabet Stock Boost As Pet Projects Spun Out From Cash Cows
    Larry Page's restructuring of Google under a new umbrella called Alphabet delivered an instant $28bn boost to the company's stock market value. The reason was clear, Page separated his pet projects and Google's speculative technologies -- human longevity, self-driving cars and internet-connected smoke thermostats -- from its core online businesses. Web search, Android, YouTube, Maps, advertising and the rest of Google's money spinners will now report their performance separately from the loss-making units.
  • Morrisons Says New Premium Milk Brand Came From Listening To Social Media
    Morrisons says it has launched a new milk brand that will give money directly to farmers in response to comments from its customers on social media and in its focus groups. The brand will sit alongside Morrisons' own-brand milk but cost 10p more per litre, with all that money going directly to farmers. Packaging on the bottles highlights that by buying the milk consumers are "giving back to farmers". The milk will go in stores in around 6 weeks' time.
  • Lord Sugar Sells Amscreen To Former CBS Outdoor Chief Exec Tom Goddard
    Lord Sugar has sold his out-of-home media business Amscreen to Tom Goddard, the former international chief executive of CBS Outdoor. The deal means DigiCom, Goddard's outdoor business, will take on responsibility for the sales and marketing for the 3,500 screens currently managed by Amscreen. The 15 staff in Amscreen's media division will now be employees of DigiCom, which Goddard runs as executive chairman.
  • Doritos Teams Up With The Lad Bible To Launch 'The Summer Bible'
    The Summer Bible will host "courageous videos and the best summer hacks" and encourage people to make the most of summer. The Lad Bible will document its own experience on Twitter, Periscope and Snapchat, as it leaves the office, flies to Ibiza and returns by 9.30am the next day. People who share their "bold summer experiences" will be eligible to appear on the online hub and be crowned "Lads of the summer." The media agency is OMD UK.
  • ITV Takes Stake In Channel Mum
    ITV has taken a stake in Channel Mum, a YouTube network looking to make stars of British "mummy vloggers". The broadcaster has taken a minority stake in the fledgling venture which was launched by Siobhan Freegard, the co-founder of parenting Web site Netmums, in January. Channel Mum, which runs with the strapline "the honest face of parenting" has 10 vloggers signed up, has signed deals with companies including Pampers, although it has a YouTube subscriber base of just 2,140.
  • Newspapers Reach New Deal On Football Coverage
    A coalition of the UK's major national newspapers and international news agencies have agreed a deal with the Premier League and Football League covering journalist access and reporting from matches for the next three seasons. The deal, which comes in the wake of sports journalists criticising the action of some clubs choosing to blacklist certain reporters, is understood to be the first to include a specific clause to provide formal opportunities to raise the issue.
  • Think Mobile Integration, Rather Than Mobile First
    The latest report from Ofcom found that more people are accessing the Web via smartphones than any other device. However, this doesn't mean that brands should be thinking "mobile first," but that they should be looking at how they integrate mobile effectively. However, brands are still struggling to be ensure their marketing is mobile-ready. While 80% of the top 250 UK brands have a mobile-optimised Web site, 10% are running mobile display campaigns without a site that renders well on mobile.
  • Ad Blocking Set To Cost $41bn Next Year
    With the use the ad-blocking software on the rise, it is set to cost publishers in excess of $40bn by the end of next year, according to a report from Adobe and anti-ad blocking firm PageFair, with European audiences more likely to block commercial content, compared to their US counterparts. The pair estimate that $5.8bn in lost revenue in 2014, with the amount projected to reach $10.7bn this year and $20.3bn in 2016. Globally, this number will climb to $41.4bn by the end of next year.
  • Google Forms Alphabet Parent Company
    The creators of Google have announced plans for a new parent company named Alphabet. The new entity will encompass not only Google, but other units previously categorized as being part of Google, such as its capital investments arm and Google X laboratory. Google co-founder Larry Page will become CEO of Alphabet, with fellow founder Sergey Brin being named its president. Sundar Pichai, a key lieutenant to both co-founders, will become CEO of Google.
  • Shell Company Floats To Buy Struggling Media Brands
    A shell company that plans to snap up a string of trusted but struggling media brands for up to GBP1bn each has made its debut on the Alternative Investment Market with backing from major institutions. Gloo Networks is the latest venture by the investment group Marwyn and has raised an initial pot of GBP30m to carry out due diligence on its targets. The shares will open at 120p on Tuesday. As well as Marwyn, the major shareholders on the first day of trading include Invesco, the hedge fund Ruffer, and Standard Life.
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