Media

Look past the headline about how a Sinclair-dominated media world is worrisome to liberals (Sinclair has a well-documented conservative/libertarian POV it imposes across its properties) and think about how one company reaching 72% of U.S. households is bad regardless of political affiliation.

If you enjoy reading Variety, Deadline and other Penske Media-owned websites, the experience will continue to be awful as the company has expanded its deal with sponsored content company Outbrain, resulting in more of those irritating “From Around the Web” type ad units.

Content Marketing

A statement from MailChimp’s CEO reassures people TinyLetter, which is purchased a couple years ago as a free-to-use service, won’t be shutting down this year. The motivations behind the statement are unclear, as is TinyLetter’s fate beyond that, but nothing is changing for now. Still, the panic over the unknown could have publishers looking for alternatives sooner rather than later, not wanting to be caught unprepared when the plug is pulled.

Influencer marketing agency/platform Whosay has been acquired by Viacom, part of that company’s efforts to expand its influencer footprint.

Social Media

CBS has signed a deal to debut clips from both “The Late Show” and “The Late Late Show on Facebook Watch. That’s not quite the super-attractive exclusive content Facebook is hoping for, but it still could provide an alternative to YouTube, which might be enough for the moment.

Twitter apparently feels enough time has gone by and has begun verifying select users again. Once more, the process of deciding who does and doesn’t qualify for verification seems to be opaque and confusing, which is exactly how this all began.

Technology

The battle over net neutrality isn’t quite dead yet, as enough Democratic Senators have now agreed to fight it that a vote to reinstate the rules the FCC dropped could be called. It might be symbolic, but it forces other lawmakers to take a stand on the issue. That follows the news Netflix and a consortium of other internet companies are joining the fight.

I still can’t really believe cassette tapes are making a comeback. Even when tapes were a big deal, they were never really ideal. Not surprisingly, it’s nostalgia that’s driving the boom, specifically releases featuring just the kind of music we all bought on tape the first time around.

All the humans who were helping teach Facebook’s “M” virtual assistant have been let go as the learnings from that project are applied to other areas. M seemed to suffer from a lack of clarity around what it was meant to be and what purpose it was meant to serve.

Want even more recommendations? Check out my Pocket Shared Items.

Chris Thilk is a freelance writer and content strategist who lives in the Chicago suburbs.