Technology • Innovation • Publishing — Issue #125
By: Kathy Sandler
Tags: Streaming, AR, Innovation, Publishing, Technology

Innovation

Twitter’s Audio Spaces test includes transcriptions, speaker controls and reporting features — techcrunch.com

ICYMI Earlier this month, Twitter announced it would soon begin testing its own Clubhouse rival, called Audio Spaces. The new product will allow Twitter users to gather in dedicated spaces for live conversations with another person or with groups of people.

Walmart will do its first ‘shoppable’ livestream on TikTok, a holiday variety show to pitch apparel — adage.com

Walmart’s one-hour show will include peeks inside influencers’ closets, a living room runway show and fashion-themed dance-offs, during which people can buy featured items without leaving TikTok.

Amazon wants to scan your body to make perfectly fitting shirts — www.fastcompany.com

For $25, Amazon will make you a custom T-shirt.

Mojo Vision teams up with optics leader Menicon to develop AR contact lenses — venturebeat.com

HT @nycmedialab Mojo Vision has teamed up to develop AR contact lenses with Menicon, Japan’s largest and oldest maker of contact lenses. #AR

Forrester Predictions 2021 — go.forrester.com

Explore Predictions 2021 to understand the trends that will shape technology, CX, marketing, sales, and other sectors in the year ahead. Read now.

Gartner Top 10 Strategic Predictions for 2021 and Beyond — www.gartner.com

This year’s Gartner Top Strategic Predictions highlights anticipated non-traditional business approaches like dna storage, factory and farm automation and freelance customer service.

Technology

FTC launches sweeping privacy study of top tech platforms — www.axios.com

FTC set to announce wide-ranging study into privacy/data collection practices of ByteDance, Amazon, Discord, Facebook, Reddit, Snap, Twitter, WhatsApp and YouTube. The move appears to be a wide-reaching inquiry into everything major tech companies know about their users and what they do with that data

The big Google DOJ antitrust case probably won’t go to trial until 2023 — techcrunch.com

The Justice Department’s historic lawsuit against Google is moving along — albeit very, very slowly. In a status hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta set a tentative date for the case. The good news and the bad news for both parties involved is that it’s more than two years away.

www.bloomberg.com

ICYMI #Facebook #Apple

techcrunch.com

I am looking forward to bots being identified. (Hope they can do it properly!)

TikTok app launches on Samsung smart TVs — www.businessinsider.com

TikTok is going up against YouTube, whose viewership on TVs is growing.

Publishing & Media

How The NYC Subway Was Saved By A Typeface — www.youtube.com

For much of its existence the New York City subway system was a mess of competing signage leaving unexperienced riders understandably confused.

qz.com

HT @gretchenrubin Great newsletter issue from Quartz on Book Covers w Best Cover Archive fascinating history and analysis

I’m a Romance Novelist Who Writes About Politics — And I Won’t “Stay In My Lane” — www.oprahmag.com

HT @publishingtrend Is there such a thing as an apolitical romance novel? (Or any book?)

PW’s 2020 Person of the Year: The Book Business Worker — www.publishersweekly.com

As it should be.

Burger King France Is Donating Its Instagram Posts to Independent Restaurants in Lockdown — www.adweek.com

Burger King in France has given over its Instagram channel to independent restaurants — giving them the equivalent of free advertising until Jan. 21, when they will be allowed to open once more. #WhopperAndFriends

How Vogue’s international approach to audience data helped it reach record readers — digiday.com

#magazines

BTS really can do anything. Now it’s got print magazines flying off the stands — www.cnn.com

With their recent BTS cover stories, Variety, WSJ. Magazine and Esquire each ended up going back to the presses to print more. Variety printed 30% more copies than usual of its Grammy issue, which featured BTS on the cover, and created a digital version for sale.

www.pressgazette.co.uk

#newsbusiness

mondaynote.com

Google and the French media made a deal. Per media, without them, Facebook would be MySpace and Google the Yellow Pages. To put things into perspective, €150m/year is about 12% of the revenue of the entire legacy French press. #Google #media

Collaborative between journalism groups seeks to start 500 local newsrooms in three years — www.poynter.org

The Tiny News Collective says it will provide participants the tools and resources they need to start their own local newsroom

New Ad Fraud Scheme Highlights a Growing Problem for Streaming TV — www.wsj.com

RT @michellemanafy A new Ad Fraud Scam, which @OracleDataCloud has dubbed “StreamScam,” took advantage of flaws in streaming-TV ad-serving technology & the supply chain to fool marketers into paying for ads that were never actually seen by viewers on real devices and apps.

Average U.S. Streaming Consumer Uses Seven Content Services, up from five in April 2020 — worldscreen.com

#streaming

Warner Bros.’s HBO Max News’ Impact on Advanced TV — www.groupm.com

HBO and HBO Max’s total content budget might amount to $6–7B in 2021. For context: the value of a yr’s output from Warner Bros.’ theatrical biz before AT&T acquisition in 2018 typically amounted to $3–4B of cash costs w about half attributable to the U.S.

BBC Studios to Launch Ad-Free Subscription Streaming Channel — worldscreen.com

BBC Studios is set to launch a new, ad-free subscription streaming channel, BBC Select, in early 2021 on Amazon Prime Video Channels and the Apple TV app. #TV

www.axios.com

Spotify signs exclusive podcast deal with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle — finance.yahoo.com

ICYMI The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are the latest to sign an exclusive podcast pact with Spotify. #podcasting

High-Energy X-Rays Reveal the Secrets of Ancient Egyptian Ink — www.wired.com

Scientists used high-energy x-rays to analyze 12 fragments from ancient Egyptian papyri revealing secrets of ink & paint techniques developed & used well before the 15th century.

Resources & Opportunities

twitter.com

RT @sethasfishman It’s that time again: I’m looking to rep more amazing webcomics. I’m looking to rep BIPOC artists. I love humor and awe and emotion and aww. I am up for adult, ya, mg, picture books. Nonfiction or fiction. I want a POV. I want a story. I am searching. I AM SEARCHING FOR YOU.

www.usajobs.gov

RT @suzelibrarian

Create a wacky Christmas opera with Google’s latest experiment — www.fastcompany.com

Google has learned how to sing like famous opera singers. And it lets you share the joy.