For those of you wondering why the New York Times threatened to use the big guns against ad-blocker users, look no further than the recent State of the News Media report from Pew Research, released this week. 2015 was the worst year for journalism since the recession, with many outlets losing print and digital subscribers. But out of all this pressure on the industry, diamonds are emerging -- some of them in mobile.

What is Twitter up to with SoundCloud? We now know that the struggling social giant recently invested about $70 million in the music service.

Why should brick-and-mortar businesses pay for mobile ads when more than 90% of retail sales still take place in-store? To answer that question, Facebook is rolling in several new services and ad units that it believes such businesses can't do without.

Snapchat is finally ready to make some real money. Following months of preparation with ad-tech companies and agencies, the social darling is rolling out Snapchat Partners -- an API that virtually guarantees the proliferation of ads across its messaging platform.

What a week Twitter is having. First came word that New York Times editor Jon Weisman was giving up on the network, because of its failure to stem the tide of anti-Semitism being tweeted in his direction. Then new data emerged showing that ad agencies are increasingly bypassing Twitter for other social networks -- especially Instagram.

As vertical video -- video shot on a mobile phone in portrait, rather than widescreen, format -- becomes a more legitimate form of self-expression thanks to social platforms like Meerkat, Periscope, and especially Snapchat, advertisers are starting to jump on board in larger numbers.

While mobile media users are nothing if not unpredictable, Snapchat appears positioned to hog much of their time through at least 2020. This year alone, Snapchat will grow its domestic user base by 27.2%, according to a fresh forecast from eMarketer. That should far exceed the average growth rate of 16% for all mobile messaging services.

For years, mobile thought leaders have held out the promise of higher in-store sales thanks to various integrations and buying efficiencies. And, for certain platforms, that promise is finally being realized. Promoted Pins do seem to get people to buy more in-store, according to a new study conducted by Oracle Data Cloud.

Compared to other types of content, no one would accuse podcasts of being particularly shiny or new. Yet their less-than-sexy reputation belies their power of podcasts, which includes the audiences they attract. In fact, among all forms of advertising on mobile devices, podcasts create the highest improvement in perception, according to fresh findings from comScore.

Reining in its app diversification strategy, Facebook is shuttering Notify less than a year after its launch.