Posts Tagged ‘USA Today’

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Facebook’s IPO One of World’s Largest (AP)
Facebook priced its IPO at $38 per share on Thursday, at the top of expectations. Now, regular investors will have a chance to buy stock in Facebook for the first time. The stock will begin trading on the Nasdaq sometime this morning. The ticker symbol will be FB. The Verge To commemorate the momentous day, co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been invited by NASDAQ to ring the stock exchange’s opening bell. He won’t be at the New York stock market in person, but the ceremony will be carried out remotely from Facebook’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters Reuters The scramble for shares in what is one of largest initial public offerings in U.S. history quickly divided the haves from the have-nots on Thursday. Those with big brokerage accounts and a long history as customers of Wall Street firms likely got at least part of their orders for Facebook shares filled, but would-be buyers who had no such ties were lucky to get any. Bloomberg Businessweek The average first-day “pop” for a technology company is 32 percent; if Facebook follows that trend, it’ll be worth $137 billion by day’s end. But there’s little about Facebook that’s average, including its public offering. TechCrunch Facebook kicked off its 31st Hackathon Thursday evening to celebrate the IPO. Hackathons are a company tradition. They’re a place where engineers and other non-technical employees get to stay out all night building concepts into real products that sometimes eventually get shipped. The Huffington Post The big money has already been staked out. Facebook’s founders and early investors own huge amounts of stock. When the company goes public, some will hold on to their stock; others will walk away with cash after selling shares at the IPO. The Daily Beast The $104 billion Facebook IPO testifies to the still considerable innovative power of Silicon Valley, but the hoopla over the new wave of billionaires won’t change the basic reality of the state’s secular economic decline. AllFacebook We now know that Facebook’s initial public offering will open at $38 per share. But what price will it reach at the end of the trading day? Let us know your prediction by taking our poll. The Washington Post On Thursday, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., used the anticipation surrounding Facebook’s big day to talk again about why Congress needs to close loopholes in corporate tax law. Levin objected to Facebook’s decision to issue its employees options to buy company stock in the future at its original issuing price. Read more

Privacy seems to always be a concern of ours with Facebook…or is it? According to a recent USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of 2,000 adults, users become less concerned with privacy the more they use Facebook, which makes sense, doesn’t it?

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A true-to-life drama better than anything Aaron Sorkin could pen for Hollywood.

Dan Lyon’s The Daily Beast reported today that Facebook hired “Burson-Marsteller, a top public-relations firm, to pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers, urging them to investigate claims that Google was invading people’s privacy.”

Burson offered to help Chris Soghoian, a prominent blogger, write a Google-bashing op-ed. Then, Burson backed up the proposal with a promise to place the blog in outlets like The Washington Post, Politico and The Huffington Post.

Facebook’s proposed smear campaign was fabricated from a Google tool called Social Circle. The tool allows people with Gmail accounts see information about their friends and about the friends of their friends. Google calls it “secondary connections.”

Burson’s wanted to slant the claim that Social Circle was “designed to scrape private data and build deeply personal dossiers on millions of users—in a direct and flagrant violation of [Google's] agreement with the FTC.”

The Daily Beast also reported that Burson was trying foist off on the media the idea that “The American people must be made aware of the now immediate intrusions into their deeply personal lives Google is cataloging and broadcasting every minute of every day—without their permission.”

But, the scheme backfired when the blogger turned down Burson’s offer and posted the emails that Burson had sent him. My hat goes off to Chris Soghoian for turning down Burson’s offer and exposing their smear campaign.

The smear campaign spiraled over the USA Today where the publication reported that two PR agents from Burson “had been pushing reporters at USA Today and other outlets to write stories and editorials claiming Google was violating people’s privacy with Social Circle.”

The Daily Best confronted Facebook with evidence in which “a Facebook spokesman last night confirmed that Facebook hired Burson, citing two reasons: First, because it believes Google is doing some things in social networking that raise privacy concerns; second, and perhaps more important, because Facebook resents Google’s attempts to use Facebook data in its own social-networking service.“

“A smear campaign is an intentional, premeditated effort to undermine an individual’s or group’s reputation, credibility, and character. “Mud Slinging,” like negative campaigning, most often targets government officials, politicians, political candidates, and other public figures. However, private persons or groups may also become targets of smear campaigns perpetrated in schools, companies, institutions, families, and other social groups.” Wikipedia

Why a smear campaign? What is Facebook afraid of? There’s plenty of space on the Internet for everyone to reap the benefits. The Daily Best says there is a growing rivalry between Google and Facebook. “Google, the search giant, views Facebook as a threat, and has been determined to fight back by launching a social-networking system of its own. So far, however, Google has not had much luck, but Facebook nonetheless felt it necessary to return fire—clandestinely.”

We have seen our smear campaigns through history such as General Motors against Ralph Nader and Nixon’s re-election campaign. I am just delight that this one got nipped in the bud before it arrived in the press. Now, lies are recoiling on Facebook as well as Burson-Marsteller. The social network and the 58-year old PR firm have a lot of cleaning up to do. Burson’s CEO, Mark Penn, Burson’s CEO, was the political consultant for Bill Clinton, and is best known as the chief strategist in HIllary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign.

USA Today is tagging up with Microsoft, announcing that it will feature at least one Microsoft Tag bar code in each section of its print edition every day, which readers can scan with their mobile devices to access further online content including videos, photo galleries, and other digital features.

Owners of mobile devices can download the free Microsoft Tag reader app at http://gettag.mobi.

USA Today president and publisher Dave Hunke said:

This initiative is part of our goal to bring together our digital and print platforms to provide our readers easier access to special features from the newspaper. We are proud to be one of the first U.S. newspapers to offer these daily to readers, as well as to advertisers that can also take advantage of this new feature.

Microsoft director of Tag product management Bill McQuain added:

We’re excited that USA Today is using Tag to engage with readers in a more interactive way. Microsoft Tag makes the world around you clickable, and now, with the scan of Tag, customers will get a richer, more enhanced experience from the pages of the newspaper.

USA Today is covering Super Bowl XLV in 3-D and in 360 degrees, and its readers with Android or iPhone devices can take the field by downloading a free app from Junaio, and then pointing their devices at the images in the newspaper.

The Feb. 4 edition of the Gannett-owned national newspaper will feature a 360-degree tour of Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, site of the big game, and the Feb. 7 edition will feature a 3-D view of the key play of the game in an animated sequence.

The app uses image-recognition and object-tracking capabilities from Junaio, which is also the company behind the Winter Arts Guide app from The Boston Globe.

Remember Josh Chiles, who announced his plan in December to use social media in his quest to be hired by USA Today? It didn’t work, but all was not lost.

Chiles deleted his USA Today Hire Me Facebook page and Twitter account, telling WebNewser, “The campaign has ended, so I removed the profiles to be clear that I am not connected to USA Today in any way, shape, or form,” but this was the note he had posted on Facebook:

A big thank you to everyone (784 on Twitter and 140 on Facebook) for joining me on my quest to be hired by USA Today as their social-media manager. It has been a great honor to receive all the encouraging comments and inquiries on how my campaign is going.

Well, today I have good news and bad. First, the bad news. USA Today will not consider me for the position as their social-media manager. The week before Christmas, I received an email and phone call from their recruiting center to set up a time for me to meet with their current social-media manager, Alexandra. Apparently, this was just a polite way to lead me in a different direction because of the attention my social-media campaign had made. As the recruiter said in an email, “I believe she gave you some valuable information and leads for potential employment opportunities in the D.C./Virginia area.”

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Ted Williams, the homeless man whose voice made him an overnight sensation last week, has decided to check himself into rehab after admitting to Dr. Phil that he has been drinking daily.

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As reported by WebNewser last week via sister blog FishbowlNY, USA Today announced plans to hire a social media manager. But how can potential applicants set themselves apart in the flood of résumés the Gannett-owned national newspaper is sure to receive?

WebNewser received an email from Josh Chiles, who decided that the best way to be considered for the position of social media manager was to use social media. From Chiles’ email:

USA Today is hiring a social media manager and I’m using social media to help me get hired. Two days ago, I noticed the job posting and applied with my résumé, like everyone else, I’m sure. I thought just submitting my résumé for this position wouldn’t be enough, so I created a strategy to set myself apart. I created profiles on Facebook and Twitter to spread my message, get noticed, and gain a little momentum.

I have a plan of action for the next 30 days and could really use your help to spread my message. I’ve been unemployed for the past six months and I hope by using social media, it sets me apart just enough.

USA Today named two staffers to new social-media positions, as reported by Brad Wellen of sister blog FishbowlNY: Michelle Kessler (top) is the Gannett-owned national newspaper’s new social-media editor, and Glenna DeRoy was named social-media analyst.

Kessler had been a tech reporter and editor, and she will oversee social-media projects, social.usatoday.com, and the USA Today Twitter account, according to FishbowlNY, while DeRoy will analyze the success of the newspaper’s social-media efforts.

USA Today also plans to name a social-media manager, FishbowlNY reported.

Gannett held its third-quarter earnings call Friday, and paidContent reported on the publisher’s digital-related announcements.

According to paidContent, digital revenues were up 10.2 percent compared with the year-earlier period for its community publishing unit, which includes its 80 local newspapers, while USA Today saw digital ad revenues rise 35.1 percent.

Chairman and CEO Craig Dubow also mentioned that the USA Today iPad app has passed the 1 million-download mark, according to paidContent. During Gannett’s second-quarter conference call, he said the app would remain free-of-charge at least through the third quarter.