• Apple Developing Non-scripted Series About Apps
    Outside of the music category, Apple just announced its first foray into original content in partnership with Will.i.am and veteran TV executives, Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens. The subject? The app economy. The New York Times suggests that the non-scripted series sounds more like a “marketing campaign” than a blockbuster production.
  • Microsoft Mulling Yahoo Bid
    Microsoft is reportedly meeting with private equity firms about a Yahoo bid. “The software giant has made no commitments so far to any investors, and any discussions now are exploratory,” Re/code reports. Complicating matters, Yahoo reportedly wants $10 billion, despite the fact that its core business is generally believed to be worth $6 billion-to-$8 billion.  
  • Digital Ad Spending On Fire In China
    This year, digital ad spending in China will account for 49.7% of all ad spending -- up from 14.8% just five years ago -- according to a new report from GroupM. “China is well ahead of the global average on that front,” AdAge notes, citing GroupM’s findings. In fact, “WPP’s GroupM has forecast that 31% of worldwide ad budgets this year will go to online.”
  • Gawker Media Worth $83M
    Gawker Media’s assets total $83 million, and, last year, it earned gross revenue of $48.7 million. The company’s lawyers revealed the figures on Monday in an effort to minimize the punitive damages in the case against Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan. After awarding the Hulk $115 million on Friday, Gawker’s lawyers said awarding him any more money would be “financially devastating” to Gawker founder Nick Denton, WWD reports.
  • Analytics Startup Moat Gets $50M
    Analytics startup Moat just raised $50 million in a new investment round led by Insight Venture Partners. Funds in hand, Moat “plans to challenge Google, Nielsen, comScore and other digital media companies by developing a standard metric that would serve as the currency for buying and selling digital ads,” The Wall Street Journal reports.
  • NPR Forbids Stations From Promoting Podcasts
    As tensions rise between NPR and its member stations, the media company has forbid stations from promoting NPR podcasts and the NPR One app, NiemanLab reports. “This tension -- between the local stations who pay the largest share of NPR’s bills and the network that sees a future beyond terrestrial radio signals -- is basically everywhere you look in public radio,” it writes. “And it’s the right frame through which to view this new “ethics” policy from NPR.”
  • Andreessen Horowitz Raising Fresh $1.5B
    Top technology venture firm Andreessen Horowitz is reportedly in the process of raising a fresh $1.5 billion. “Altogether, Andreessen Horowitz, which launched in June 2009, has so far raised $4.35 billion, including three previous funds,” TechCrunch reports. “Though it will undoubtedly reach its target, the young firm is looking for capital at a time when its own investors may not be feeling terribly flush.”
  • Fake NYTimes Story Gets Serious Traction
    A fake New York Times online news article claiming that Senator Elizabeth Warren endorsed Bernie Sanders for president was viewed more than 50,000 times, and shared roughly 15,000 times on Facebook. “The article appeared to have been created around midday Monday on Clone Zone, a website that allows users to make website ‘clones’ in the guise of well-established sites,” the real New York Times reports.
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