Month: April 2024

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti published his annual letter to shareholders Monday afternoon, outlining his vision to turn the flagship BuzzFeed publication into an AI-driven technology and media company.

The “pivot to AI” may be the new “pivot to video” of years’ past (which wasn’t a great strategy for most, to put it kindly). Peretti himself once touted the opportunities in short-form video and creator networks. But that strategy hasn’t led to strong business outcomes — its 2023 revenues, excluding Complex, declined 26% to $253 million, Peretti wrote in the memo. 

At a time of declining referral traffic and other audience attention challenges, Peretti’s solution is for BuzzFeed to focus on its own platforms to drive traffic and pursue generative AI chatbots as a new content format. Whether this will lead to a sustainable business model for a legacy digital publisher remains to be seen.

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Right off the top, I got two shocks while watching the Netflix version of “Ripley,” an eight-episode series now streaming on Netflix

Apple has now made it possible for game emulators to be officially listed on the App Store. Apple confirmed the news to developers via an email that highlights the inclusion of retro gaming console
emulators as well as downloadable game offerings.

Spotify has launched a beta version of its newest feature: AI playlist creation. Premium users can now generate and refine playlists based on written prompts.

Error-prone ads based on AI have become a nuisance for blind internet users.

The report, from Stagwell’s Assembly cites research finding that that 71% of Gen Z and Millennials sometimes turn to social media to self-diagnose instead of seeking professional healthcare.

Bipartisan lawmakers on Sunday floated a privacy bill that would require companies to allow consumers to opt out of ad targeting based on non-sensitive data, and require opt-in consent before
transferring “sensitive” data — including web-browsing data — for targeted ads.

And a hit song for your eyes. No, not that one.

A potentially eye-opening move by legacy TV network groups and legacy pay TV distributors revolves around issues for their seemingly much maligned smaller cable TV networks.

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak at the 2024 IAB Public Policy and Legal Summit in Washington, DC, about the importance of standardization in privacy compliance, discuss the IAB Diligence Platform and hear directly from regulators about what they are looking for. Standardization is an urgent issue for three reasons. Advertising is now […]

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