Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
The Apple Tea Party
Publishers are joining Epic’s epic fight against Apple’s app store fees. Digital Content Next (DCN), a publisher trade group, wrote a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook last week asking what it would take for its members to get better deal terms in the App Store, The Wall Street Journal reports. Apple takes a 30% cut of App Store subscriptions, a hefty chunk of change for struggling news publishers. But, apparently, big tech gets a better deal: The DCN letter cites an email from Apple exec Eddy Cue to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos outlining a 15% rev-share agreement for customers who sign up for Prime Video through the App Store. “I ask that you clearly define the conditions that Amazon satisfied for its arrangement so that DCN’s member companies meeting those conditions can be offered the same agreement,” said the letter, signed by DCN CEO Jason Kint.
Booking It
Antonio Lucio is picking up sticks after two years as CMO of Facebook, Business Insider reports. The average tenure for CMOs is roughly 43 months, but Lucio had his work cut out for him. He joined Facebook in September 2018, in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and launched a multipronged advertising blitz to rebuild customer trust, including a corporate rebrand and Facebook’s first Super Bowl ad. Employees were notified about Lucio’s departure Friday morning on an internal message board post. So, what’s next? In a Facebook post, Lucio said he wants to “play a more active part in accelerating change” as the country – and the ad industry – grapple with diversity, inclusion and equity. “Specifically, I want to devote the next, and probably final, chapter of my professional life to help companies and agencies in the marketing and advertising industries accelerate their transformation.” Guess that’s not possible at Facebook?
Podfraud
Spotify has a counterfeit podcast problem. The platform is surfacing ripoffs of popular shows, such as “The Joe Rogan Experience” and “Serial,” through its hosting platform Anchor, which allows anyone to distribute a podcast across the ecosystem for free, Digiday reports. These knockoffs appear high up in Apple and Google podcast player results because they mimic the names, cover art and metadata of popular shows. The goal, of course, is to trick users into listening to the fake shows just long enough for fraudsters to reap the ad investment. “It’s growing Anchor’s business at our expense,” said Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini, who has contacted Anchor about the issue and gotten no response. Spotify said it has taken the fakes down, but this isn’t the first time Anchor has caused a problem: The service was called out for illegally distributing music last year.
But Wait, There’s More!
- Facebook Staff Demand Policy Changes On India Hate Speech – WSJ
- How Agencies Are Deploying Diversity And Inclusion Execs – Digiday
- Facebook Asks FTC How To Avoid Another Cambridge Analytica – Bloomberg
- Retailers Rush To File For Bankruptcy As Fears Of Second COVID Wave Linger – CNBC
- Zuckerberg Interviewed By FTC As Part Of Antitrust Probe Into Facebook – Politico
- The World’s Biggest Brands Are Spending More In Programmatic – Adweek
- Facebook Braces For Trump To Cast Doubt On Election Results – NYT
You’re Hired!
- Joe Hogan Gains Oversight Of Xandr Sales In Interim WarnerMedia Move – Variety
- Snap’s Former Content Chief Joins Google – The Information
- Jeff Wilke, Early Amazon Exec And Jeff Bezos Lieutenant, To Retire – WSJ
