fake news: after a week of debate over whether fake news influenced the outcome of the presidential election, the two biggest web giants are beginning to crack down on that content. google and facebook said they will take steps to prevent fake news sites from generating revenue through their ad-selling services , the wall street journal reports. google was dragged into the arena after its search engine highlighted a little-known right-wing blog that erroneously claimed donald trump won the popular vote, wsj reports. google acknowledged the mistake and said it is always working to improve its algorithms. facebook<u+2019>s change won<u+2019>t affect the fake news that appears in users<u+2019> feeds, so expect the controversy to continue. gizmodo reported that the social giant had the chance to remove fake news from news feeds but chose not to when it realized that the necessary update would have disproportionately impacted right-leaning sites. facebook said it <u+201c>did not build and withhold any news feed changes based on their potential impact on any one political party.<u+201d> meanwhile, buzzfeed reports that facebook employees have formed an unofficial task force to look into the fake news issue at their company. ad bubble: are marketers talking to themselves instead of their customers? the question was on the minds of ad execs and agencies -- many of which skew democratic -- as they watched the surprising rise to power of donald trump. his mass appeal took them by surprise, prompting them to wonder if they<u+2019>ve been looking at the correct data sources and how they should be studying consumers, reports the new york times. advertisers, like many others, <u+201c>may have found ourselves in bubbles of our own making,<u+201d> said publicis groupe chief strategist rishad tobaccowala. 360i ceo sarah hofstetter emphasized the importance of <u+201c>social listening<u+201d> in market research, beyond traditional controlled environments like focus groups, while tbwa/chiat/day new york chief rob schwartz said that clients are going to scrutinize not only the data, but also what it tells them about who<u+2019>s <u+201c>been to kansas to understand what they<u+2019>re consuming in kansas.<u+201d> advertisers aren<u+2019>t the only ones questioning their own methodologies, and their appeal to trump supporters. pollsters that misread consumer sentiment during the election will be on the hook to defend their value to the marketers they also serve, reports ad age. media<u+2019>s payday: as news outlets face the wrath of president-elect donald trump and contemplate four years in which the white house may be hostile toward the mainstream press, they<u+2019>re welcoming expressions of support from the public. especially if it is monetary support. in the aftermath of mr. trump<u+2019>s electoral victory, news organizations saw a bump in subscriptions and donations , reports niemanlab. donations for investigative news site propublica were <u+201c>running at about 10 times the rate that we<u+2019>re used to,<u+201d> said president richard tofel, thanks in part to a donation plea from hbo<u+2019>s john oliver. the rate of new subscriptions after the election increased 16% at the atlantic. at the wall street journal, new subscriber volume got a 300% boost the day after the election, bloomberg reports. and, despite mr. trump<u+2019>s assertions on twitter that the new york times<u+2019> subscriptions are down, they<u+2019>re actually up, the paper tweeted in response to mr. trump on sunday. some of this could simply be heightened interest in news after recent events -- and some of it could be the segments of the public rallying to back the fourth estate. end of an era: as consumers<u+2019> media habits change so, too, do the behemoths that control the flow of billions in advertising dollars. at groupm, one of the largest buyers of media inventory, that means the end of an era as rino scanzoni, the legendary ad-buying vet, moves out of his chief investment role , cmo today reports. he will move into another role overseeing addressable tv and the changing barter business, which essentially helps companies trade distressed assets for media inventory. lyle schwartz, groupm<u+2019>s managing partner for research and marketplace analysis, will replace him in a lead investment role in north america. the wpp-owned media agency network and its new regime are the latest to reorganize to thrive in a digital media landscape in which ad deals are more reliant on data and technology than handshakes. with the leadership changes also comes the bundling of central digital resources, including search, social and analytics, into a group called platform services. ad-buying resources will live within another group called investment. longtime pbs news anchor and presidential debate moderator gwen ifill died at 61 after a battle with cancer. over three decades, she had a distinguished career at national newspapers like the washington post and new york times, as well as nbc and pbs, while breaking barriers as a black female journalist. tributes poured in from media heavyweights and political figures. [ politico , nyt , wapo ] at the wsj ceo council monday night, donald trump<u+2019>s campaign manager, kellyanne conway, scolded the media for biased polling. [ wsj ] veteran nevada journalist jon ralston, known for his accurate predictions of how the state will vote (including in 2016) is launching a nonprofit news organization called the independent. [ politico ] snapchat is foursquare<u+2019>s latest customer as the photo-sharing app signs on to use the location-based social network<u+2019>s data. [ adweek ] salesforce ceo marc benioff said the company backed out of a bid to buy twitter because shareholders didn<u+2019>t like it. <u+201c>if anything, i have to be able to listen, and if i wasn<u+2019>t listening then i wouldn<u+2019>t really be the leader that i<u+2019>m trying to be,<u+201d> he told recode. [ recode ] hbo will renew its expensive , fantasy hit westworld, which to date has averaged 11.7 million viewers per episode, including reruns, vod and streaming. divorce and insecure will also get renewed. [ variety ] after a short break from a long career at established media companies, deadline hollywood founder nikki finke will reemerge as a senior columnist at mediaite. [ mediaite ] abc has ordered a new series, marvel<u+2019>s <u+201c>the inhumans.<u+201d> a version of the first two episodes will premiere in imax theaters next summer before the hour-long drama heads to abc in the fall. [ variety ] follow us on twitter: @wsjcmo , @digitalshields , @vranicawsj , @jackmarshall , @perlberg , @alexbruell , @srabil , @asharma subscribe to our morning newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox, at http://on.wsj.com/cmotodaysignup . write to alexandra bruell at alexandra.bruell@wsj.com
cmo today: google and facebook crack down on fake news sites  - wsj
alexandra bruell