Tech

Rob Wilk, most recently global head of advertising at Microsoft, joined Snap as the first president of Americas overseeing the Snapchat parent company’s sales in the region. Wilk, who is based out of Snap’s New York offices, reports to Snap COO Jerry Hunter. In the new role, Wilk will run sales across the U.S., Canada

Is Elon Musk’s move to grant verified blue check-marks only to paying Twitter users designed to prop up the company’s revenue — or is it supposedly to democratize the social network? After actor William Shatner groused about Twitter’s plan to revoke legacy blue check-marks as of April 1 and force users to pay for the

APPOINTMENTS U.K. podcast production outfit Blanchard House has tapped HBO Max podcasting strategy director Hassan Chaudhry as its new head of partnerships and strategy, Variety can exclusively reveal. Meanwhile Amica Sciortino Nowlan, formerly of The Economist, joins as managing producer. The new hires come ahead of a busy year for the podcast outfit, which is

The U.S. Army has paused its advertising campaign featuring Jonathan Majors in response to the actor’s arrest Saturday for an alleged assault. The two “Be All You Can Be” commercials featuring Majors as an on-screen narrator were pulled Sunday. The U.S. Army plans to continue running other ads in the campaign, maintaining a digital presence

As Elon Musk promised, Twitter’s previous blue check-mark verification regime will soon be history. The social network, which the mega-billionaire bought last year in a debt-heavy $44 billion deal, announced on Thursday that starting April 1, it will remove the verified check-mark status of accounts that Twitter had been verified as notable before Musk’s takeover

Next-generation social platform Spill has named cultural leader Kenya Parham its new global VP of community and partnerships. In her role, Parham will be the voice of the Spill community within the company and the face of the platform to creators, communities and media partners externally. Spill, founded in December 2022 by a group of

The odds of the U.S. banning TikTok are higher after the app’s CEO testified before a House committee, according to some analysts. During the hearing, American politicians — both Republicans and Democrats — expressed frustration over what they saw as evasive and unconvincing answers about China’s influence over TikTok and the communist regime’s ability to

In front of a panel of skeptical and hostile U.S. representatives, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew tried to make the case for why the popular app is not a security threat to the country — and why a government ban of the app would be the wrong course of action. A U.S. ban of the

Nick Grudin is leaving his short jaunt into the NFT world to return to Meta, rejoining the social-media giant as head of content partnerships — the same job he left last fall, Variety has confirmed. Grudin had left Meta in September 2022 to join NFT startup Dapper Labs as chief business officer. In coming back

Digital World Acquisition Corp., the blank-check company that has proposed merging with Donald Trump’s media company, said it fired chairman and CEO Patrick Orlando. On March 19, the company’s board of directors terminated Orlando from his positions as chairman and CEO, DWAC disclosed in an SEC filing Wednesday. Orlando remains a director of the company.

Amazon may be laying off thousands of employees, but it’s still selling a ton of stuff — including streaming devices and connected TVs. The company said sales of Fire TV streaming devices and smart TVs have now surpassed 200 million units to date. Amazon, which doles out such stats selectively, previously announced a milestone of

Say goodbye to Rooster Teeth’s longstanding rebus-style logo of the rooster and the windup chattering teeth. The fandom and comedy entertainment company, a division of Warner Bros. Discovery, is turning 20 years old on April 1. To mark the two-decade milestone, Rooster Teeth is introducing new logos (pictured above) along with a new tagline: “Just

As it tries to reverse a tide of red ink, FuboTV is rebranding its internet pay-TV service Fubo — and the company unveiled a new brand campaign co-produced with Maximum Effort, the advertising and production company headed by Ryan Reynolds, who’s an investor in Fubo. Fubo’s new nationwide ad campaign features NBA champion and Hall

A bumper crop of Steve Martins will be on display in a new audiobook coming out this spring from Pushkin Industries. “So Many Steves: Afternoons With Steve Martin” will be published on May 2, 2023, by Pushkin, the audio production company co-founded by Malcolm Gladwell and Jacob Weisberg. The project condenses a year’s worth of conversations between

Leading Japanese publisher, Kodansha is to launch an online comic book distribution service from May. Titled K Manga, the operation will go live in May and be exclusive to readers in the U.S. The company is publisher of many of the best-known manga titles in history including “Attack on Titan” and “Ghost in the Shell.”

Spotter, a digital media company that pays YouTube creators cash for the rights to monetize their video libraries and helps them grow their fanbases, hired Paul Bakaus as executive VP, product and creator tools. At Spotter, Bakaus will focus on developing products and tools to serve creators and deliver on Spotter’s mission to provide value

After a strategic review, Amazon intends to lay off 9,000 more employees — on top of the 18,000 job cuts it previously announced, CEO Andy Jassy announced Monday. The latest round of cuts will mostly impact employees in Amazon Web Services (AWS); People, Experience and Technology (PXT); advertising; and Twitch divisions, according to Jassy. “This

Netflix is continuing its push to bring out a diverse set of games — ranging from casual puzzle titles to AAA games — included for no extra cost with its streaming plans, on the theory that it will help drive up and retain subscribers. Since bowing its first games globally in November 2021, the company

After more than two years, YouTube has lifted its suspension on Donald Trump, the twice-impeached former U.S. president who was booted from major internet platforms in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. “Starting today, the Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and can upload new content,” YouTube

“Resident Evil 4” was first released on the Nintendo GameCube back in 2005. Since then, it’s been hailed as one of the best video games of all time. Its goofy dialogue and action-based gameplay made for an entertaining adventure with government agent Leon S. Kennedy as he rescues the president’s kidnapped daughter, Ashley, from a

MindGeek, the embattled parent company of Pornhub, has a new owner. Ethical Capital Partners (ECP), a private-equity firm based on Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, announced that it has acquired MindGeek. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. ECP says it is managed by a “multidisciplinary team with regulatory, law enforcement, public engagement and finance experience.”

Emmett Shear, longtime CEO of video game-centric livestreaming platform Twitch, announced that he’s leaving the post effectively immediately. Dan Clancy, currently Twitch’s president, will succeed Shear as CEO, effective immediately. In a blog post Thursday announcing the decision, Shear said he will continue to work at Twitch in an advisory role. Shear said he was

YouTube TV is getting pricier, as Google has raised the monthly subscription fee of the service by $8 — an increase of 12.3%. In a notice to customers, YouTube TV said, “As content costs have risen and we continue to invest in our quality of service, we’ll be adjusting our monthly cost, after 3 years,

The Audio Publishers Association (APA) has announced the the 28th Annual Audie Awards will feature special guest judges Whoopi Goldberg and AudioFile’s Robin Whitten. Comedian and podcast host Michelle Buteau will host the festivities. The Audie Awards will take place on March 28 at the Chelsea Piers’ Pier Sixty in New York City. The ceremony

Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Hispanic has partnered with GroupM and Cocina Media on “El Toque de Aarón.” The all-new original series follows celebrity chef Aarón Sánchez and his team as they help Latino restaurants in the Los Angeles area reach new heights. Kimberly Clark’s VivaÒ Paper Towels Brand will be an integrated sponsor, with other

Famed hoops fan Barack Obama announced his picks for the NCAA March Madness men and women’s tournaments — although, like many of us, he’s not overly confident about his predictions. “It’s the best time of year!” the 44th U.S. president tweeted Wednesday. “My #MarchMadness brackets will get busted soon enough, but here are my picks.

It’s déjà vu all over again: The Biden White House has told TikTok that Chinese parent company ByteDance must sell its ownership position in the popular video app or face a ban in the U.S., TikTok said on Wednesday. The U.S. government is demanding the divestiture on the basis of national security concerns. The news

Satellite radio and podcast company SiriusXM extended its relationship with Kevin Hart and his entertainment company, Hartbeat, in a new multiyear deal. Under the agreement, Hartbeat will continue to curate content on Hart’s Laugh Out Loud Radio (SiriusXM channel 96), where all of Hartbeat’s audio programs will premiere exclusively — and the channel will have

Federal prosecutors probed Donald Trump’s social media company for potential violations of money laundering laws in connection with $8 million in loans that appeared to have Russian ties, the Guardian reported. According to the report, $8 million in funds wired to Trump Media & Technology Group in 2021 and 2022 came from “two obscure entities

Mint Mobile, the prepaid wireless brand in which Ryan Reynolds holds a minority ownership stake, has been acquired by T-Mobile in a deal worth up to $1.35 billion. Under the pact, expected to close later this year, T-Mobile will acquire Ka’ena Corp. and its subsidiaries and brands: Mint Mobile, international wireless service Ultra Mobile and