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Facebook to Invest $300 Million in Local News Initiatives

Charlotte Henry ·

Facebook announced that it will invest $300 million in local news organizations and initiatives over the next three years. It will put $20 of million of this towards its Facebook Accelerator program that helps publishers develop membership and subscription models. It will also invest $6 million for the UK based Community News Project, $5 million to the Pulitzer Center for its “Bringing Stories Home”  initiative, and $2 million for the Report in America initiative that aims to place journalists in local newsrooms. Techcrunch looked at what the money means both for Facebook and the media industry.

As for why Facebook is focusing on local news specifically, Vice President of Global News Partnerships Campbell Brown said in a blog post that after examining “what kind of news people want to see on Facebook” and talking to industry partners, “We heard one consistent answer: people want more local news, and local newsrooms are looking for more support.”

 

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Weed Influencers Online are Helping Firms Get Around Advertising Regulations

Charlotte Henry ·

Weed firms are using online influencers to get around rules that prohibit the marketing of cannabis, even in U.S. states where the drug is legal. These influencers tend to be young women, who post on Instagram and YouTube, according to a report in Wired. Content can range from confessional videos to product reviews. Even though YouTube said it prohibits content around regulated substances like marijuana and removes the videos when it discovers them, firms marketing the products are benefiting from the influencers’ work.

For marketing agencies and companies selling cannabis products, influencers have been a boon – a creative way to get around regulations, with the added impression of authenticity. Typically, the more people that are looking at your product, or your posts, the better. But as public and legal attitudes to cannabis have shifted, the subcultures immersed in it are being subject to more scrutiny than before.

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Verizon Unlimited Customers Get Free Apple Music

Andrew Orr ·

Customers of Verizon Unlimited plans will get free, full Apple Music as a perk. This is for the Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited plans.

The bonus Apple Music should be launched in the next couple of days, according to the information that we received. Verizon is yet to make the announcement publicly, but the information comes from a source that has proved reliable in the past.

Goodnotes 5 is Out for $7.99
Cool Stuff Found

Goodnotes 5 is Out for $7.99

Andrew Orr ·

GoodNotes 5 is a major update to its predecessor GoodNotes 4. It includes many highly requested features, improvements to existing things and some special surprises.

What’s new in GoodNotes 5:

  • New folder system: Create unlimited levels of folders and subfolders
  • Text & handwriting search across all documents
  • Flexible scrolling directions: Horizontal or vertical scrolling
  • Favorites view: Shortcuts to important pages, documents, or folders.
  • QuickNotes: The fastest way to start taking notes
  • Optionally display documents as lists instead of thumbnails
  • Improved ink algorithm: More precise and natural writing experience

And a whole lot more.