News & Opinion

FULL DISCLOSURE: Prince is a certifiable genius and I own all of his music. That said, the dude is also a certifiable guest in one of those padded cells with the cutesy little jackets that buckles in the back. Prince is known for writing amazing tunes, wearing ass-less chaps, indulging in omnisexual freakishness, and hating the Internet. That vitriol comes in response to people bootlegging “His Royal Badness’” tunes via the technology of said Interweb. To wit, Prince Rogers Nelson (who knew) is suing 22 of his fans for one millllllllllllllllllion dollars. There’s more in the suit after the jump… “The Defendants in this case engage in massive infringement and bootlegging of Prince’s material,” the lawsuit, news of which was first reported by TorrentFreak, claims.It alleges one of the individuals had 363 infringing links to file sharing services hosting Prince bootlegs. It also claims the majority of the links were on Facebook-based fan pages and Google’s Blogger network. “Prince has suffered and is continuing to suffer damages in an amount according to proof, but no less than $1 million per Defendant,” the suit adds. “Suffered?!” No, the people who suffer are those who have no other options for support but to call the now defunct McResources helpline. Prince, exposing himself in front of whatever exotic wildlife he has roaming his palatial estate in Minnesota, is hardly suffering. However, he is hell-bent on teaching his fans a very expensive lesson: I Would Sue 4 U. You know, nameless fans who worship at his purple altar under the name of Symbol pseudonyms (20 of them, in fact) — many of which are Prince-related, such as “PurpleHouse2? and “PurpleKissTwo” — are also being sued. “Defendants rely on either Google’s Blogger platform or Facebook, or both, to accomplish their unlawful activity,” the court papers claim. “Rather than publishing lawful content to their blogs, they typically publish posts that list all the songs performed at a certain Prince live show and then provide a link to a file sharing service where unauthorized copies of the performance can be downloaded.” According to the suit, some of the material dates back to a 1983 concert but most of it is recent. Prince’s lawyer claims that there were 363 illicit links on one website alone. The moral of the story: There is some justice in being a Justin Bieber fan, after all. You’re welcome, eight-year-old girls. By Shawn Paul Wood

There are more than 1.2 billion active monthly users on Facebook. If you haven't taken advantage of talking to these users through Facebook ads, perhaps it’s time to get started. Facebook lets you target ads for just about any group of people you can imagine. But before you pony up, there are four key factors to consider: 1. What do you hope to accomplish?  Determining your goals first will help you focus on what kind of ad to create on Facebook. For instance, do you want to: • Build your audience • Increase you engagement, or • Encourage people to visit your website? Based on your answer, you will advertise either in people's new feeds, promote your wall post, or place a stationary ad on the right column of users' home pages. Whether you advertising via Facebook ads or promoted posts, don't forget to include a call to action. Ask potential customers to do something in order to increase their engagement. Make your offer tangible so they will immediately understand why they should click on your ad. 2. Who is your audience?  If you want to get the most for your money, target narrowly. The size of your audience will be influenced by your brand and location, no doubt, but you also must consider the following: • Location: Choose specific cities, states or countries where your ads will be seen. Perhaps your brand is launching a new location; you can target your ad to residents in that city or within a specific geographical radius. • Demographics: Choose an age range and whether you want to target men, women or both. For example, if you're advertising a contest, are winners only eligible over the age of 18? You can set those perimeters. • “Likes” and interests: Enter a specific interest, and Facebook will match your ad with users who have included that interest in their profiles or “liked” other brand pages related to that interest area. Maybe you are hosting a charitable giveaway. You can target people who are already interested in charities on Facebook, increasing the likelihood of engagement. • Connections on Facebook: Identify whom you'd like to target. Do you want to target just fans of your page? Or just users who aren't fans of your page? Or just the friends of your fans who haven't liked your page? • Advanced targeting: Additional options include level of education, whether to target people on their birthdays, language, and relationship status. 3. What's your budget?  When setting budget limits, determine what you're willing to pay per action to get results from new customers. Once your budget is set, use Facebook's tools to set a lifetime budget or a daily dollar goal. Don't forget to budget for any third-party software applications you many need for contests or giveaways. These tools aren't expensive, and they can make your work easier. Woobox or Rafflecopter are two great choices that can help you fan-gate contests, easily retrieve information from contestants, encourage shares and tweets for bonus entries to cross-promote on various social media platforms and beyond.  4. How will your ad be designed?  This is where you can save lots of money. Using your imagination and becoming the copywriter, graphic designer, and photographer can save you hundreds of dollars. • Destination: Choose between an external URL (such as the third-party applications we mentioned above or a page on your company website) and a unique Facebook page. • Image: Pictures are the most important leverage you have, other than targeting. It is worth trying your ads with different pictures throughout the campaign. • Text: You have 90 characters, use them wisely. • Timeframe: There is no magic length. Ultimately, what the ad is used for will determine how long the ad should last. Now that you're ready to start advertising, what kind of campaign will you be pushing? By Kate Matthews

In case you needed further proof that the multi-headed hydra we call “the media” still struggles to define its role in a micro-blog world, today brings two very different reports about the state of the journalistic game. We’ll start with the bad news: Capital New York‘s soon-to-be-paywalled Media Pro newsletter let us know that, per our headline, more than 6,000 people who report for a living will keep us up-to-date on this year’s edition of what Stephen Colbert calls the “Superb Owl“. Some of them maystill be reporting on whether the Big Game will happen at all while the NFL’s media relations team cackles maniacally. Even CNN, aka “the only TV network that doesn’t have NFL rights to get broadcasting space” on Manhattan’s “Super Bowl Boulevard”, will transform its “Election Express” bus into the “Super Bowl Express”, because no American could possibly suffer from Football Overexposure and replacing one annoying thing with another, slightly less annoying thing is always a good idea. What he said. Now for more encouraging news: a 6-year-old magazine called Pacific Standard has scored big traffic numbers over the past month not due to some weird promotional trick, exclusive politico interview or infographic generator but simply thanks to the strength of in-depth, long-form reporting supported by an underlying research foundation a la Poynter and others. As the Columbia Journalism Review reported yesterday, the mag’s big traffic bump has been driven by research-driven pieces like these two: The Next Civil Rights Issue: Why Women Aren’t Welcome on the Internet How Did Toast Become the Latest Artisanal Food Craze? The New Yorker might not respond to your pitch, but wouldn’t it be great to score coverage in a publication like PS? We’re cautiously optimistic. By Patrick Coffee