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Facebook's system outages that started at about noon Wednesday and continued into Thursday may lead to refunds to advertisers on the company’s various platforms, according to a Bloomberg report. In addition to causing user problems, the outage also affected the company’s ad buying system. The outage is thought to be the largest that the social network has ever suffered. While rumors circulated online that the problems were the result of a distributed denial-of-service (DDos) attack, in which attackers flood a company's network, Facebook said—via Twitter—that "the issue is not related to a DDoS attack." Facebook’s shares slid 2.3 percent in pre-market trading on Thursday morning.
 Jeanine Pirro |
Advertisers are pulling their spots from both Jeanine Pirro and Tucker Carlson’s programs on Fox News. “Justice with Judge Jeanine” has lost at least three corporate advertisers after Pirro’s March 9 on-air comment that Muslim congresswoman Ilhan Omar is “Sharia-compliant” because she wears a traditional hijab head covering. Fox News condemned the comments in a statement, saying the network has “addressed the matter with her directly.” Carlson's show lost advertising from bedding and sleepwear company SHEEX after audio released by Media Matters revealed Carlson making comments that derided women, minorities and LGBTQ people. In December, Carlson faced an advertiser boycott after he said on his Fox show that immigrants make the country “poorer and dirtier.” In response, at least 30 advertisers ended their relationship with his show, including Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, CareerBuilder, TD Ameritrade and Just For Men.
 Jess Cagle |
People magazine editor-in-chief Jess Cagle is stepping down. Cagle, who is also editorial director of Meredith’s entertainment group, which in addition to People includes such titles as Entertainment Weekly, will officially exit March 31. From 2009 to 2014, Cagle was editor-in-chief of Entertainment Weekly. His 32 years at Time Inc. (which was acquired by Meredith in 2017) also included a stint as a senior editor at Time. "I’ve decided it’s time to do some other things while I’m still young — or at least alive," Cagle said in a note to staffers. While sources told the New York Post that Cagle’s contract expired and Meredith did not renew it, a Meredith representative told the paper that it was Cagle’s decision not to renew his contract.
Underscore Media, a new creator-led media venture dedicated to New York sports, is built around three established New York sports personalities, Sal Licata, Jimmy Traina, and John Jastremski.
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost. 
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
