'Hug them close and punch them in the nose': How upstart Protocol, eager to get inside crowded tech beat, struggled and cut to survive

The company had an ambitious goal: To do for tech news coverage what Politico had done for politics coverage a decade earlier. July 09, 2020 Protocol had an ambitious goal: To do for tech news coverage what Politico had done for politics coverage a decade earlier. But just a few months after its launch, the company laid off 13 employees across the editorial and business sides, reducing the newsroom size by about half. Four of those forced out were people of color, leaving the already non-diverse Protocol almost entirely white. More than a dozen current and former Protocol staffers and people familiar with its leadership paint a picture of an ambitious operation full of early struggles, in part due to coronavirus but also of the company’s own making. Read more below. - Inside the Allbritton empire, some have been openly wondering just how [much runway will be extended to Protocol]( by the largely easygoing magnate. - The overall goals of civil rights advocates organizing the Facebook boycott differ slightly from those of advertisers. While everyone wants hate speech to be purged from the platform, [advertisers also want a lot more control]( of their relationship with the social giant. - Pernod Ricard may have pulled its media dollars from Facebook for the month of July, but U.S. CEO Ann Mukherjee doesn’t think a boycott will be enough to push the [social network to make any lasting change]( to how it moderates content. Other things to know about - ICYMI: On a recent episode of The New Normal, Gina Joseph, VentureBeat’s vp of strategic partnerships, discussed their quick pivot to virtual events, including how the value of the event goes up when hosting it online. [Watch the on-demand recording and view a breakdown of the key takeaways here](. - [According to new findings](, linear TV’s impressions are at least 8 times higher than those of ad-supported OTT. Increasingly, advertisers are using data and analytics to properly allocate spend across the two platforms. Sponsored by Simulmedia. Top Stories Managing Through Crisis ['Hug them close and punch them in the nose': How upstart Protocol, eager to get inside crowded tech beat, struggled and cut to survive]( The company had an ambitious goal: To do for tech news coverage what Politico had done for politics coverage a decade earlier. howdy! Facebook Ad Boycott ['We're letting Facebook grade their own homework': Here's how advertisers' desired changes differ from overall boycott]( The overall goals of civil rights advocates organizing the boycott differ slightly from those of advertisers. Sponsored by LiveRamp [Why data clean rooms are a start, but not enough]( Clean rooms are intended to be a “safe space” for brands to collaborate with walled gardens, but the greater opportunity for all brands is bringing together all of their data to create a single source of truth that they own and can continually enrich. Advertisement howdy! Facebook Ad Boycott [Pernod Ricard thinks the Facebook advertiser revolt won't be enough to curb hate speech online, so it's developing an app to help]( Pernod Ricard is developing an app that will let people flag hate speech they see online. Sponsored by MiQ [Research: Programmatic advertisers are switching their budgets to connected TV]( According to new findings, programmatic advertisers are looking to CTV as the next major platform for investment and growth. But their plans vary widely across regions. howdy! 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Esports ['It is important for us to take a leadership role': How esports giant FaZe Clan is working to root out bad behavior in the gaming community]( Lee Trink, CEO of the $240 million esports collective, on its expansion plans and no tolerance rule on divisive language. [All Latest Stories]( [‘I don’t ever get the benefit of the doubt’: Blavity founder Morgan DeBaun on running a Black media business in 2020]( These should be banner days for a Black media site that has long covered social injustice for a young audience. But Blavity CEO and founder Morgan DeBaun describes challenges that start at the initial difficulty of raising investment as a Black company. "For me, the systemic racism comes in the fact that I don't ever get the benefit of the doubt," DeBaun said at the Digiday Publishing Summit. You received this email because you’re a member of the Digiday community. If someone forwarded this to you, [subscribe for yourself here](#). 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