Amazon has finally made a decision regarding its second headquarters, according to individuals familiar with the process. Following a yearlong search that involved numerous cities in North America vying for Amazon’s business, the company is reportedly planning to split the headquarters between two East Coast locations — the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in New York and the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia. While it already has more employees in the two regions than anywhere else outside of its Seattle home base and the Bay Area, Amazon is expected to have a total of 50,000 employees between the two locations once the headquarters are completed. Continue reading Amazon Is Reportedly Splitting HQ2 Between Two Locations

In an effort to grow its stalled user base and generate more revenue, Snap Inc. announced it will encourage 20 publishing partners such as CNN, Cosmopolitan, NBC News and Viacom to create curated collections of user posts called Our Stories. Each collection of snaps will center on a specific event and will be made available via Snapchat’s Discover section. Snap has been generating revenue through ad sales by curating Our Stories for events such as concerts, awards shows and sports. While these have been curated by Snapchat employees, Snap is now asking media companies to build the collections. Continue reading Our Stories: Snapchat Turns to Publishers to Boost Revenue

More than 20 talent agencies and management companies are vying to represent some of YouTube’s biggest celebrities with the promise of growing these stars’ online audience and traditional media presence. Agents often negotiate endorsement deals, acting gigs, music deals and book deals. They can also help the young-adult and teenage stars navigate licensing contracts. YouTube stars have started attracting traditional media companies, and now traditional management companies. Continue reading YouTube Stars Hire Agents, Managers in Traditional Media Push

To leverage the growing trend of binge-viewing and promote its DVR services, TiVo sponsored an attempt by three men to break the world record for continuous TV watching. Las Vegas residents Chris Laughlin, Dan Jordan and Spencer Larson watched 87 straight hours of television through TiVo’s new Roamio DVR in a marathon viewing session at the company’s CES booth last week. The previous record was set by two Californians who watched more than 86 hours worth of “The Simpsons” in 2012. Continue reading CES: TV Binge Viewers Set New World Record at TiVo Booth

Hollywood studios adopted new terminology this week in home entertainment sell-through branding that will soon appear across marketing and communication efforts. The terms “Digital HD” and “Digital” will be used to package digital versions of filmed entertainment and television content. According to the Digital Entertainment Group, the branding intends to enhance the value of digital home entertainment offerings and offer consistency for consumers. Continue reading Home Entertainment Branding: Studios Adopt Digital Monikers

Twitter is planning to become a paid advertising service for TV networks. In recent months, Twitter has been attempting to lure television and advertisers with a more advanced marketing product called Amplify. Twitter is primarily a free service, and it can already create significant real-time traffic regarding specific TV shows. This traffic is gaining more recognition from companies, such as Nielsen, and competitors like Facebook. Continue reading Social TV: Twitter Launching Paid Ad Products for Networks