Month: June 2018

Apple and Samsung Electronics have settled a yearslong dispute focused on whether Samsung’s phone designs violated Apple’s patents.

Facebook began testing subscriptions in Instant Articles with 10 publisher partners last October, and Wednesday, the social network provided an update, as well as a look at what’s ahead. Head of news products Alex Hardiman and product manager Sameera Salari revealed in a blog post that people who saw instant Articles from publishers in its…

Even a fairly proficient home cooks can get stumped by ingredients they’re not familiar with. Ghee? What the hell is ghee? And how do I use it? It’s basically clarified butter–mystery solved!–and all the culinary influencers on YouTube are already hip to it. Or are they? Organic Valley, under its continuing tagline, “Call us crazy,…

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is ready to cruise into the summer months with a major new marketing campaign that’s all about music. Today, the company dropped new creative across five brands (including Jeep, Fiat, Dodge, Ram and Chrysler), highlighting how Apple CarPlay fits into the FCA driving experience. Just last month, FCA started to offer customers…

CANNES, France–Few things in life feel better than a perfectly timed obscenity. And luckily for KFC U.K. and Ireland, the brand found exactly that. When the chain faced widespread store closures due to a severe and unexpected chicken shortage, it had all the makings of a PR disaster–the kind some brands never truly recover from….

Cannes Lions has come to an end, which means the traveling Adweek team are back and ready to recap everything that went down in the South of France. This week on Adweek’s podcast Yeah, That’s Probably an Ad, we’re joined by Kristina Monllos, senior editor, brands, and Doug Zanger, senior editor, creative, to talk all…

Reunite an immigrant parent with their child: Fundraiser for RAICES has become Facebook’s largest fundraiser to date, and it spurred the social network to add two new features to its fundraisers tool. Dave and Charlotte Willner started Reunite an immigrant parent with their child: Fundraiser for RAICES, which had raised nearly $20.4 million from over…

Twitter announced several updates in its efforts to thwart “inauthentic accounts, spam and malicious automation,” highlighted by requiring email addresses or phone numbers when new accounts are established. Yoel Roth, who works on application-programming interface policy and public trust for Twitter, and vice president of trust and safety Del Harvey wrote in a blog post…

BuzzFeed’s effort to close its French edition was stymied Wednesday by a French judge’s ruling saying the U.S. publisher had not provided enough information to demonstrate it had cause to shut BuzzFeed France down, according to staffers.

BuzzFeed is required to turn over additional documents to create a clearer picture of BuzzFeed France’s finances, including an audit of BuzzFeed France’s finances by its corporate parent in 2017, said a source familiar with the matter.

In a statement, BuzzFeed said it “will comply with today’s ruling and provide the court with additional information, which we believe will further validate our decision to reevaluate our current operations in France. We remain firm in our intent and committed to providing our employees with the support they need throughout this process.”

BuzzFeed has 10 days to provide those documents, and will incur fines if it fails to produce them on time. Once the documents have been turned over to French authorities, the review process will start from the beginning.

In the meantime, BuzzFeed France’s employees, who vowed to strike on Monday, have gone back to work, said the source familiar with the matter.

Since its founding in 2013, BuzzFeed France has not had its own sales staff, instead relying on its U.K. sales operation. It made $80,000 in profit in 2017 after operating in the red in 2016, according to reports.

At the beginning of June, BuzzFeed announced internally its plans to reorganize itself at home and abroad as it shifts its focus more toward programmatic advertising and away from announcing 45 new job listings as well as about 20 layoffs. The venture-backed publisher reportedly missed its revenue targets in 2017.

Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said BuzzFeed has to turn over a seven-figure contract between BuzzFeed France and BuzzFeed UK.

The post Judge pauses BuzzFeed France shutdown appeared first on Digiday.

You’re hungry. Then, all of a sudden, there’s a hankering for Subway but, for the life of you, you can’t figure out why. A new campaign for the brand, leveraging some clever stealth techniques, might be the reason. Created by The Franchise @ Dentsu Aegis Network, comprising mcgarrybowen New York on creative and Carat New…