Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

What you need to read today

New Digital Age highlights some of the best stories you should read across the media, marketing and advertising press.

AMAZON

CNBC, 05.10

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the company could do more to treat workers better

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Tuesday the company could do more to treat employees better and acknowledged one of its approaches to worker safety during the coronavirus pandemic fell short.

The Guardian 06.10 

Amazon opens first UK bricks-and-mortar non-food store

Amazon is bolstering its UK high street presence with the opening of its first non-food physical shop offering its bestselling lines of books, electronics, toys, games and homeware.

Mediatel, 5/10/21 

Amazon begins ‘exclusive’ ads partnership with Wavemaker

Wavemaker has begun working with Amazon Advertising in an exclusive arrangement in which Amazon data and insights can be directly fed into the media agency’s plans and campaigns.

Business Insider

Amazon is starting Black Friday early with big deals on Apple AirPods, including $70 off the AirPods Pro

It’s a good time to buy a pair of AirPods. To welcome the upcoming holiday season, Amazon is offering some excellent deals on all models of the wireless earbuds, bringing them down to some of the best prices we’ve seen all year. 

TECH

WSJ 

China Leaps Ahead in Effort to Rein In Algorithms

Beijing is building a system intended to ensure that internet platforms’ automated processes are fair, transparent and in line with Communist Party ideology

MARKETING

WSJ

Marketing Veteran Lou Paskalis Named President at Ad Association MMA

Mr. Paskalis, most recently a senior marketing and media executive at Bank of America, was tapped to help the trade association continue to broaden its focus

FACEBOOK OUTAGE

The Telegraph

Six hours in the dark: What really happened when Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp went down

Facebook’s 60,000 employees could have been forgiven for not wanting to start work on Monday. The social network had faced another week of drubbing from politicians after a former

Business Insider

For some influencers, yesterday’s Facebook outage was a snow day. Others almost lost thousands in brand deals

On Monday, Facebook’s apps, which include Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, experienced an outage for around six hours. In a blogpost late yesterday, Santosh Janardhan

CNBC

Facebook says sorry for mass outage and reveals why it happened

Facebook has apologized for the mass outage that left billions of users unable to access Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger for several hours.

Performance Marketing World 06.10 

Facebook goes dark: How a six-hour outage cost billions

Facebook’s biggest outage since 2008 is a stark reminder for advertisers to spread their bets… and flex their creativity.

FACEBOOK WHISTLEBLOWER

CNBC

Senators demand Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg answer questions after whistleblower’s revelations at hearing

As senators absorbed Tuesday’s testimony from the Facebook whistleblower, who leaked the company’s internal research to reporters, they demanded to hear from the person in charge.

PRIVACY

AdExchanger

FTC Commissioner Advocates ‘Data Minimization’ In Advertising

What if all the privacy-safe, transparent, opt-in and consent-based digital advertising initiatives of the past few years turn out, a few years hence, to have been an entire waste of time?

GENM INVISIBILITY REPORT

The Drum

The GenM agenda: co-founders say brands ‘need to talk’ more openly about menopause

After its nationwide Invisibility Report revealed the distinct lack of education and support for people going through the menopause, GenM released its open letter pushing for brands to

SUSTAINABILITY 

The Guardian

Google Maps to show the lowest carbon route for car journeys

Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai said the initiative could save 1m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year

COVID/PUBLISHING 

Mediatel – A worrying silence as Covid continues

The Covid-19 pandemic hasn’t gone away so why has media coverage been reduced to celebrity anti-vaxers amid relative silence? asks Raymond Snoddy. You can still see Covid-related headlines in the UK press but they mostly concern vaccinations – or more precisely stars who are holding out against vaccination.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

 Digiday

‘You’re only as good as your worst customer experience’: Horizontal Digital looks to fill a gap between agencies and consultancies

Horizontal saw an opportunity to take on the Deloittes and Accentures by specializing in Salesforce, and servicing the back-end needs of companies looking to draw customers in.