Need to Know – The latest US media & marketing news: Uber taps Google PR boss, Walmart takes on Amazon Prime and bad news for Simpsons fans
Morning all, here’s a glimpse at all the media and marketing news you should know today.
Harry Shearer, the voice of Ned Flanders, has reportedly quit the show
1. Google just lost PR boss, Rachel Whetstone, to Uber. Whetstone is set to join the startup in the same role, replacing David Plouffe, who was hired in 2014.
2. This Mother's Day was a bumper one for Facebook, as the social network revealed Sunday's Mom-related posts racked up more mentions than the Super Bowl, the NCAA tournament and the Sochi Olympics combined. Mashable reports that 229 million people worldwide used Facebook to send 1.8bn messages.
3. Wal-Mart is to take on Amazon with $50-per-year fast delivery service, notes the International Business Times. The new service, codenamed 'Tahoe', will be similar to Amazon Prime, and is intended to boost Wal-Mart online business. It was set to be launched in 2014, but was delayed several times due to technical and other issues.
4. In related news, Amazon wants to train up young people to become cloud experts, says the Next Web. The online giant has debuted a new program with the aim of educating future talent. The scheme will be free for educational institutions to "help educators and students use real-world cloud technology in the classroom."
5.Yahoo's Kevin Gentzel is to depart from his role as head of sales just seven months after he joined, says AdAge. At this stage it's still unclear why Gentzel has left Yahoo so soon, or whether the decision was his or the company's.
6. CNN is going to add non-news programming to its current line-up, according to MediaPost. Speaking at yesterday's Turner Upfront, Anderson Cooper told the audience that the channel will now air "original series, documentaries and feature-length films" to broaden its audience.
7. If you're DC bound then please leave your drones at home, that's the message from the The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which issued a warning to visitors to the nation's capital via Twitter yesterday. The public outreach campaign is to remind folks that flying drones in and around the DC skies is prohibited, and comes less than four months after a recreational drone crashed on the grounds of the White House.
8. And if your favorite Simpsons character is Ned Flanders, Mr. Burns or Principal Skinner then you're out of luck. Harry Shearer, the voice of three characters has quit the show, posts the Verge. The voice artist used Twitter to indicate that he won't be returning in upcoming seasons of the long-running cartoon.
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