Wall Street Journal

Publishers From Rolling Stone to PopSugar Pool Ad Sales Efforts to Combat Tech Giants

As Facebook and Alphabet's Google continue to dominate digital ad sales, publishers are increasingly teaming up to give themselves a better shot at competing with the tech giants. New York Media, PopSugar and Rolling Stone are all joining Concert, a digital advertising marketplace operated by Vox Media. Concert shares ad revenue with publishers in the network, but declined to disclose the share each party keeps. Concert, which is a joint venture of Vox Media and Comcast’s NBCUniversal, still lags far behind the biggest tech giants in terms of global audience size.

T-Mobile Says It Hired Lobbying Firm Tied to Former Trump Aide Corey Lewandowski

T-Mobile is getting advice from Corey Lewandowski, the former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, as part of a lobbying effort to help the telecommunications company secure federal approval for its proposed takeover of Sprint. T-Mobile said it hired Turnberry Solutions in August. “Corey Lewandowski is now affiliated with that firm and they have offered perspective to T-Mobile on a variety of topics, including the pending transaction,” the company said. According to documents,  Lewandowski receives a cut of the fees paid to the lobbying firm on the T-Mobile contract.

US, China Agree on Outline to Settle ZTE Controversy

Apparently, the US and China have agreed on the broad outline of a deal that would save imperiled Chinese telecom giant ZTE as the two sides move closer to resolving their trade dispute. The Trump administration would remove the ban on US companies selling components and software to ZTE, a penalty that has threatened to put the company out of business. Instead, ZTE would be forced to make big changes in management, board seats and possibly pay significant fines. Beijing has also offered to remove tariffs on billions of dollars of US farm products as part of the negotiations.