T AT&T Inc

By Steven Perlberg 

MAKING THE CASE: The CEOs of AT&T and Time Warner were on Capitol Hill Wednesday to defend their proposed $85 billion merger, The Wall Street Journal reports. And they were doing so in a tricky political environment where President-elect Donald Trump has said (before the election) that he wants to block the deal. The two executives have maintained that their companies don't directly compete and were joined by a high-profile ally, entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who argued the blockbuster deal is necessary to create another company with any hope of competing with the likes of Facebook and Google, Recode notes. "A combined entity at least gives them a chance to battle the dominant players in the marketplace," Mr. Cuban said. As Politico reports, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he "may well agree" with Mr. Trump that the merger should be blocked, but he argued Mr. Trump's aversion to the deal has more to do with his disapproval of Time Warner-owned CNN's coverage. "There were comments made from candidates on all sides, saying they were against the merger, before any of them had information," Mr. Bewkes said, adding that he is confident that regulators will evaluate the deal fairly.

AMAZON AD TECH: Amazon has been quiet about its advertising business, but the e-commerce company is something of a sleeping giant. And as CMO Today reports, Amazon is now pushing further into ad tech with two new products. The first is a new "header bidding" product which is designed to help publishers generate higher revenue from their ad inventory by enabling multiple ad buyers, including ad networks and ad agencies, to bid on ad space simultaneously. Amazon's already in the header bidding game. The twist with this product is that it's in the cloud, so that should allow publishers to not slow down their page loads, according to the company. Amazon is also rolling out a new analytics product that uses its e-commerce data to help publishers better understand who is visiting their sites. Given Amazon's vast trove of user data, the company's advertising efforts are attracting marketers' attention, but it's far from clear if the company can really challenge Google and Facebook in the ad marketplace.

TRUMP MARKETING: Donald Trump's campaign was criticized for focusing heavily on social media advertising when TV ads have long been the formula to win over voters. But Jason Stein, CEO of social media agency Laundry Service, said on the latest episode of the WSJ Media Mix podcast that brands can learn something from Mr. Trump. "He used Facebook data to not just inform the ads and the content they were making, but actually to inform the messaging of his speeches on the campaign trail. That's something brands really don't do enough," Mr. Stein said. It's perhaps not surprising that Mr. Stein would be arguing in favor of social media, given that his firm specializes in creating social media-geared content for marketers. He argues that the TV landscape is showing signs of erosion this year, particularly through the NFL's ratings decline and ESPN's subscriber losses. "There are way too many young people who are not watching TV at all," he said. For more with Mr. Stein, check out the episode and subscribe to the WSJ Media Mix podcast on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify or Stitcher.

MAGAZINE MOVES: Most magazine news these days has to do with titles shutting down, but as WSJ reports, Hearst is readying a new title in collaboration with food blogger Ree Drummond. The magazine, called The Pioneer Woman, is in partnership with Food Network-owner Scripps Networks Interactive, and the first issue will be exclusively sold in Wal-Mart. "It is a little old school, but one thing I've learned through having a blog and then having cookbooks with some of the same recipes, is that people want to hold something in their hand and kick back and read it," Ms. Drummond said. Hearst says that it has found profitability in its other magazines it has created via partnerships, like Dr Oz The Good Life and Food Network Magazine. Meanwhile, Billboard reported that Complex, which is owned by Hearst and Verizon, will cease publishing its print magazine, and an unspecified number of employees were laid off as part of the move.

Elsewhere

Interpublic acknowledged that one of its advertising agencies has been contacted by the Justice Department as part of its probe into whether agencies are manipulating pricing of contracts for ad production. The ad holding company said it is cooperating with the government. [ WSJ]

NBC aired live commercials during "Hairspray Live" Wednesday night. Oreo and Reddi-wip were among brands whose ads were integrated into the performance, featuring cast and crew. [ Ad Age]

BuzzFeed has hired Mondelez marketing executive Laura Henderson as senior vice president of marketing. Frank Cooper, the former CMO, recently left BuzzFeed for asset manager BlackRock. [ CMO Today]

Turner has signed an expanded deal with Snapchat. Bleacher Report will launch on the app's Discover page and Turner networks like TBS and TruTV will work with Snapchat to make original shows. [ Variety]

Facebook's measurement miscalculation has led some brands and agencies to rethink their spending on the platform. [ Marketing Land]

Facebook is patenting a new tool to "identify objectionable content," a feature that might be able to automate the removal of fake news articles. [ The Verge]

Advertising tech company AdRoll has laid off about 50 employees. The company has raised about $90 million in funding. [ Fortune]

Apple is in talks with the Hollywood studios for earlier, high-priced rentals on new movies. Some studio executives have been pushing to allow rentals as early as two weeks after a film debuts. [ Bloomberg]

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Write to Steven Perlberg at steven.perlberg@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 08, 2016 07:46 ET (12:46 GMT)

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