The repercussions from Facebook’s huge algorithm tweak continue to hit the media industry.
During a panel at Luma Partners’ Digital Media Summit in New York on Tuesday, Complex Media’s CEO Rich Antoniello said that the publisher’s Facebook audience is “probably down somewhere in the 18% to 20% range” over the last 18 months.
While that may not be equivalent to the nose dives in traffic that ultimately put digital upstarts like LittleThings and Cooking Panda out of business, Complex Media’s drop-off in traffic is the latest example of publishers’ complicated relationship with Facebook.
To read more about how Facebook’s algorithm change makes it ‘virtually impossible’ to launch new media brands on the platform, click here.
In other news:
The US Senate has voted in favor of restoring the FCC's net-neutrality rules. The vote came in at 52-47 on Wednesday, which would overturn a vote by the agency in December to scuttle its open-internet regulations.
BuzzFeed wants to make the next TV hit - but advertisers are skeptical. The publisher is looking to diversify its revenue, and sees a big future in licensing and content development from TV and film projects.
YouTube's new music subscription service takes on Apple Music and Spotify. The new $10/month music subscription service is named YouTube Music Premium.
Mark Zuckerberg will appear before European Parliament early next week to answer questions about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Zuckerberg has so far refused to appear before British politicians in the UK.
Facebook is still allowing advertisers to target users based on sensitive inferred interests such as their sexuality or race, despite both being categorised as protected data under new European regulation. Facebook argues that it is not storing sensitive data.
21st Century Fox said Wednesday that Lachlan Murdoch will serve as chairman and chief executive of Fox if its pending deal to sell much of the company to Disney closes, the Wall Street Journal reports. Rupert Murdoch will serve as co-chairman, while 21st Century Fox Chief Financial Officer John Nallen will take a broader role as chief operating officer at New Fox.