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Tag: The Wall Street Journal

  • EU Ramps Up Facebook Antitrust Inquiry

    EU Ramps Up Facebook Antitrust Inquiry

    European Union (EU) investigators are ramping up their antitrust inquiry into Facebook’s data practices, according to The Wall Street Journal.

    The EU’s investigators have been requesting “documents related to allegations by rival companies and politicians that Facebook leveraged access to its users’ data to stifle competition, rewarding partners and cutting off rivals, those people said.”

    One such example stems from how Facebook used VPN provider Onavo, which the company purchased in 2013. The WSJ reported in 2018 that Onavo was passing information about its users’ habits to Facebook, essentially serving as an early warning system for the social media giant. By providing information on what rival apps Onavo customers were using, Facebook could take action before those apps became a threat to Facebook’s business.

    According to the WSJ, the EU used a “law that allows for daily fines to punish noncompliance,” when requesting documents about how Facebook manages access to its user data. By using that law, the EU is tipping its hand that it doesn’t trust Facebook to comply with its requests unless it’s forced to do so. At the same time, by focusing on how Facebook manages data access, the EU’s investigation seems to be centering around these allegations of anticompetitive behavior.

    We will continue to provide updates as the story develops.

  • Scarlett Johansson Says No Sex Symbol Title For Her

    Whether she’s playing a sexy character in one of Woody Allen’s films like Match Point, or whether she’s kicking butt in action flicks like The Avengers, Scarlett Johansson has been driving men crazy for quite some time now.

    But when it comes to being a sex symbol, the blonde actress says she doesn’t care for the title at all, and when all is said and done she rather be remembered for the characters she plays, not her physical appearance.

    “I don’t want to be the ingenue anymore,” she said. “It’s nice to be glamorous, but I don’t want to always be an object of desire, because it doesn’t last.”

    Johansson said something similar in a separate interview, because for years now she’s been doing her best to shy away from that sex symbol image.

    “I don’t like being labelled as the ‘sexiest woman alive,’” she said. “As an actress I prefer to maintain the anonymity.”

    This month Scarlett Johansson, who’s now pregnant with her first child, is on the cover of Wall Street Journal magazine, where she talks about everything from her fiance Romain Dauriac, to living in Paris for the first time.

    She also talked about the pressures of being a working mom in Hollywood and said she can see why some women have troubling balancing both their family and career.

    “It seems so stressful to not be able to spend time with your family because you’re constantly chasing the tail of your own success,” said the 29 year old. “There must exist a world in which I can balance those things, be able to raise a family and still make a film a year, or work on my own, develop things, do theater. I want to be able to have it all.”

    Additionally, Johansson says she envies male actors a little bit, because after they have children nobody looks at them differently, but with women actors it’s the exact opposite.

    “I know there will be some sacrifices,” she said. “I know that’s the struggle with working mothers and successful careers….With [male actors] it just doesn’t happen that way. You can be every woman’s fantasy, and nobody thinks twice about the fact that you have eight kids or whatever.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Re/code (The New All Things D) Introduced For The New Year

    Back in September, The Wall Street Journal and its tech site All Things D announced that they were parting ways, and now with the new year, we get to see both the new Wall Street Journal tech section and the new All Things D.

    The new All Things D is not actually called All Things D at all, but is a brand new site called Re/code, which operates under a brand new company called Revere Digital, which has launched with backing from NBCUniversal News Group and Windsor Media. Revere Digital will host news sites and apps as well as a series of conferences called Code Conference.

    Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg (the two All Things D / re/code leaders) explain the new company, site and conference in a New Year’s blog post.

    Re/code brings the same All Things D team along for the ride. This includes: John Paczkowski, Peter Kafka, Ina Fried, Katherine Boehret, Liz Gannes, Lauren Goode, Arik Hesseldahl, Mike Isaac, Bonnie Cha, Jason Del Rey and Eric Johnson.

    Swisher and Mossberg write:

    Why have we chosen Re/code as the name for our new creation? Simply put: Because everything in tech and media is constantly being refreshed, renewed and reimagined. And this is the reinvention of ourselves.

    While we are presenting an improved new face, we promise that, if you liked what we were doing at All Things Digital and the D conferences, you will love what we are now planning for Re/code. We pledge to bring the same energy and standards to our news, reviews and events, with the plus of adding in even more talented staff and resources to the mix.

    The first Code Conference will take place from May 27th to May 29th. More events with partner CNBC are planned for “throughout the year”.

    The Wall Street Journal website has redesigned its Technology section. You can take a look at that here.

    Image: Re/code

  • Wall Street Journal remains No. 1 US newspaper

    According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the Wall Street Journal is still the number one most circulated publication in America. On average the Journal sells about 2.1 million weekday editions of their paper.

    USA Today comes in just behind them at 1.8 million papers per day and the New York Times ranks in third place selling 1.6 million weekday papers. This is an impressive 73% increase from just one year earlier.

    The averages are based on a six month period ending March 31st of this year. On average, total newspaper circulation increased 1%. Digital circulation, which accounts for about 14% of the total, is up from last year by almost 9%. Digital editions and paywalls have become more prevalent as mobile devices continue to gain popularity.

    A J.P. Morgan analysts comments on the growing trend of digital news:

    “Some companies [such as NYT] have demonstrated that consumers are willing to pay a premium for differentiated content,”

    “for the industry overall, the impact of print declines is likely to outweigh any digital benefit for the foreseeable future.”

    The Audit Bureau of Circulations cautions against the accuracy of the findings as it is increasingly harder to measure the circulation of papers due to bundled subscriptions, branded editions, and multiple delivery platforms.