Advertising news today: Mic’s shutdown, holiday ad spending

Mic CEO Chris
Altchek
Mic

Millennial startup Mic sold itself to Bustle Digital Group for a
reported $5 million, a fraction of the $60 million it raised,
after financial problems including the impact of Facebook
canceling a video show.

But the Mic situation reveals broader challenges with the
Facebook-funded shows, and the ongoing relationships between
publishers and the social-media giant.

Mic was one of eight publishers, along with the likes of CNN, ABC
News, and Fox News, that Facebook picked to produce its first
slate of news shows for its YouTube rival Facebook Watch.

Facebook was reportedly spending $90 million to fund Watch shows
to signal it was taking news seriously after coming under fire
for letting fake news spread on the platform. The first shows
were announced in June and rolled out during the summer.

Click here to read more about what Mic’s
canceled Facebook Watch show reveals about other Facebook-funded
news shows.

In other news:

The holidays are looking like a happy time for digital
ads — and for Google, Amazon, and even Facebook.
Digital advertising spending appears to be growing at a healthy
rate this holiday season, Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Baird
Equity Research, said in a new report.

Sheryl Sandberg reportedly wanted to know if George
Soros, who publicly criticized Facebook, was shorting the
company’s stock. The news comes after it was
revealed that Facebook had a relationship with the
opposition-research firm, Definers Public Affairs.

Facebook is dropping its controversial policy on
archiving promoted news, reports Axios. The company
is getting rid of a policy that labels publishers’ promoted
content as political advertising in its ads archive.

We’re already getting an indication that Verizon 5G is
stealing customers from its competitors. At an
analyst event in November, Verizon management said about half of
the customers who signed up for 5G Home were new to Verizon.

Twitter keeps a list of everything it thinks you’re
interested in; here’s how to find it. Twitter
collects a lot of data on you, including a compiled list of
“inferred interests” it uses to personalize your experience.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and DJ Khaled will each pay more
than $100,000 in fines to settle charges that they illegally
touted ICOs. The SEC charged Mayweather and Khaled
with promoting an initial coin offerings (ICOs) without
disclosing that they were paid for them.

500 million Marriott customers have had their data hacked
after staying at hotels including W, Sheraton, and
Westin. A breach in the Starwood guest-authorization
database meant that millions of people had a combination of their
name, address, passport number, date of birth, and other
information stolen, the company said.

Today is the last day to nominate rising stars of Madison
Avenue. Please submit your ideas
via this survey by Nov. 30.

Announcing IGNITION 2018 speakers: Don’t miss Mark Cuban, Sir
Martin Sorrell, Danica Patrick, Troy Carter, and
more!