It is a large link herd update this week as there hasn’t been one for a while. The headline is, again, the constant rise of native advertising and publishers adapting to cope.  Today’s wordcloud is based off the herd’s bullet points.

• Time Inc. moves into native advertising with CEO Joe Ripp creating eight-person native team
  Big beast Time Inc have created an 8 person strong team that will specialise in native ads. The team will work side-by-side with editorial staff.
• Amazon Isn’t Killing Writing, The Market Is
  Danny Crichton writes; “Amazon is finally reaching its end goal: the complete dissolution of the traditional book business model through a vertically integrated publishing platform, from writer to Kindle.”
• French blogger fined over review’s Google search placing
  Oh dear. A French judge has fined a blogger after her negative review ranked too well on Google. There’s some comment on the ruling, though, to suggest this won’t create legal precedence.
• Upworthy’s Sponsored Posts Are Crushing Their Regular Editorial. Here’s Why
  It turns out that Upworthy’s sponsored content might be better than their regular posts. Is this good or bad, though?
• Does Michael Acton Smith stepping aside as CEO at Mind Candy mark the end of the company behind Moshi Monsters?
  A games centric write up of Michael Acton Smith stepping down from the role of CEO as Mind Candy. This is an interesting development as Mind Candy is one of those neo-publishers many brands strive to become. The challenge they face, though, is that their audience has changed. Kids grow up quickly. The next generation of kids are doing something different. Mind Candy has become a big company so is it agile enough to meet the needs and demands of kids today and tomorrow?
• Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti expects branded content growth
  Peretti argues that the phrase “Native Advertising” is used in different ways by people who want it to mean different things.
• In Google Newsroom, Brazil Defeat Is Not A Headline
  Wouldn’t be scary if Google tried its hand at being a publisher? Trick question. We’re all publishers now. In this piece Aarti Shahani gets access to Google’s experimental newsroom and discovers the giant is mining trends and using influencers in order to produce viral content.
• The Biggest Media Company You’ve Never Heard Of
  Forbes’ write up of MLB Advanced Media. This is a company streamed 18,000 hours of live video – in 2009! The company does tickets and content; often a magic mix and that might be why they have $1bn 2016 target.
• Ryanair eyes digital acquisitions for £10m-a-year tech hub ahead of second pan-European campaign
  Ryanair is on the hunt for digital acquisitions to build an in-house hub. This is in addition to looking for a digital agency for a long term partnership. In another sign that brands are all publishers Ryanair Labs will be looking at content as well as an understanding of the audience and the platforms (starting with mobile) they use.
• Lanning: Publisher-developer relationships are very unfair
  From the world of computer gaming publishing – the returns for making the games are far less than those from publishing them. Lorne Lanning, who closed his studio in 2005, tells MVC that; “…for the most part the big publishers didn’t want to have anything to do with you if they couldn’t own your IP”
• Facebook Buys LiveRail to Make Video Ads Better
  Facebook’s bought an ad optimisation system for video. It’s a good bit of technology and must, again, hint at Facebook moving towards video. Could Facebook be far off from launching a content rich AdSense rival?
• Defining The Native Advertising Landscape (video)
  Rebecca Lieb, an analyst at Altimeter Group, talks about native ads to an audience of search marketers. The video is a 101 but contains some helpful insights and likely some points you won’t agree with – which is the hallmark for a good discussion.
• EA Games rapped for ‘omitting’ in-app purchasing information in email ad
  I think there’s a lot to be said for the 0-1-100 model. That’s free to use, easy to spend £1 and possible to spend £100. A lot of “free to play” games use something similar. EA’s Dungeon Keeper tried but upset fans. Was the game really a playable experience without spending money? The ASA thought not.
• ‘Traditional Marketing Is Broken,’ Declares Richard Edelman
  The famous Richard Edelman declares the marketing is all wrong – lots of money spent for very little results. Why the change? Brands are becoming publishers.
• In content-marketing era, agencies tap publishers for expertise
  About DigitasLBi (disclaimer: work) hooking up with BuzzFeed while 360i teams up with Mashable’s viral trend spotter. In the article Ricardo Bilton argues that publishers know what agencies don’t.
• 7 news trends and their effect on PR
  A PR point of view on the trends in the news business. Ever noticed how a story is “breaking” even though a news channel as been reporting on it for the last two hours?