Bank-Erupted
The private equity firm and empty LLCs schlepping MediaMath through its bankruptcy process face a new class-action suit brought by former employees over alleged labor violations.
Justin Adler-Swanberg, until recently MediaMath’s director of product strategy in charge of marketplace quality and compliance, is the named plaintiff. The filing says roughly 200 MediaMath employees who worked at (or remotely reported to) the company’s now-former World Trade Center office were fired without notice on June 30, the same day the business declared bankruptcy.
The WARN Act (which stands for “Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification” Act – there’s a federal and New York state version) requires a 60-day notification prior to shutting down a company and halting all payroll.
MediaMath’s employees have seemingly been given no information regarding severance, but payroll was put fully on hold. The suit also alleges the company failed to communicate and will not pay commissions on business previously earned, still-unpaid bonuses or accrued holiday wages. Health insurance was terminated for employees as well, also without notice.
Social Butterflies
Meta’s new Threads app, a Twitter challenger, is far from the only would-be new social media star.
Another shiny entrant is Retro, a nostalgic take on Instagram co-founded by four former Meta employees, The Information reports.
Retro is a photo-sharing app akin to Instagram. One of Retro’s innovations is that it gates content, which means that users must post in exchange for access on a daily basis. (Lurkers that don’t post get 24 hours free per week.) That idea is lifted from BeReal, a French social net that requires a post per day to enjoy the app’s social aspects.
But, although Facebook, Instagram and YouTube can clone and quash competitors, it’s a tough trick to pull off in reverse. (Just ask BeReal, which had a huge 2022, but whose momentum flamed out before it could ever earn a buck.)
If Instagram converts just 25% of its user base to Threads, it’ll be a bona fide hit. That’s tough but doable. An independent app going from zero to hundreds of millions of users, though, is like winning the lottery by comparison.
Cali Kicks The Can
The California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA) won’t be passed this year. Instead, deliberations will continue into 2024, California state assemblywoman Buffy Wicks tweeted.
The CJPA, which seeks to impose a “link tax” on large platforms like Meta and Google for sharing content from California-based news publishers, was slated for consideration by the state Senate on Friday. The bill was passed by the state assembly in June.
But Meta and Google had threatened to stop sharing content from California-based publishers if the law goes into effect. Both companies blocked Canadian news content distribution in response to Canada’s Online News Act, which was passed into law last month and has similar provisions for news content.
These moves follow the playbook Meta and Google used back in 2021 to fight Australia’s Media Bargaining Code, which forced Big Tech platforms to enter revenue-sharing agreements with news publishers.
Related: Bloomberg on why the fight over the future of digital news is happening in Canada.
But Wait, There’s More!
Brands take their IP – and marketing mixes – to Hollywood. [Digiday]
Can Meta’s Threads app reach 100MM DAU this quarter? [Mobile Dev Memo]
Also, how Meta is pitching Threads to potential advertisers. [Ad Age]
You’re Hired!
Publicis agency Spark Foundry appoints Valerie Bernstein as chief growth officer. [MediaPost]
