*By Michael Teich*
At a time when misinformation floods digital news platforms, and internet trolls take over comment sections, online news platform NewsPicks is turning to high-profile curators for quality content.
Curation led by trusted sources increases the "chance of bringing in the best content that's obviously not fake," said CEO Ian Myers.
The growing need to purge tech sites of potentially problematic content was highlighted most recently by Twitter which, [according to the Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/07/06/twitter-is-sweeping-out-fake-accounts-like-never-before-putting-user-growth-risk/), suspended 70 million fake accounts over the last two months and was banning more than a million accounts a day.
Fears that such a culling would cut into user growth sent shares of Twitter reeling Monday, though the stock was about to pare losses after CFO Ned Segal [tweeted](https://twitter.com/nedsegal/status/1016371745933033472) that such accounts were not counted in the company's metrics.
Still, the way news is digested and delivered is undergoing a period of disruption, and tech companies such as Apple, Google, and Facebook are looking to seize the market. But the aggregation by Silicon Valley natives lacks originality, Myers told Cheddar.
“It’s commodity news. Doesn’t matter where you get it. It’s just where you click first.”
NewsPicks is owned by a Japanese media company that also acquired Quartz last week for up to $110 million.
For the full segment, [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/newspicks-ceos-key-to-winning-digital-news-quality-over-quantity)
Plaid, the company that connects consumer bank accounts to fintech apps like Venmo, Coinbase or Robinhood, is acquiring competitor Quovo, according to a Tuesday morning blog post by the Plaid founders.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2018.
Investor sentiment is easy to track on the public markets, but private trends are more opaque ー and tech investors are increasingly prioritizing profitability over valuation. That's good news for companies looking to go public, like Airbnb and Lyft, but Uber might want to consider an alternative path to liquidity, J. Michael Ostendorff, director for Lagniappe Labs, told Cheddar on Monday.
Vocera wants to get patients in and out of the hospital as quickly and efficiently as possible ー and it's using Star Trek-inspired, connected badges to achieve that ambition. "We believe that by delivering the right information to the right caregiver at the right point in time, we can really eliminate some of those frustrations and delays and interruptions ー and allow \[patients\] to have a more seamless path through the hospital," Vocera CEO Brent Lang told Cheddar Monday.
The world's biggest tech event, CES, is upon us. In past years, the Las Vegas-based trade show has presented such memorable innovations as the first-ever home VCR and the (short-lived) Nintendo PlayStation ー but this year will be all about 5G. "Just like the transition from 3G to 4G, this transition from 4G to 5G is inevitable ー it is happening," George Slefo, Ad Age technology reporter told Cheddar Monday.
The head of security for Huawei, the embattled Chinese tech giant that has been accused of working as a front for Chinese intelligence services, told Cheddar's Hope King on Monday that "no government has ever asked us to spy" and that those accusations were part of a "drumbeat of anti-Huawei criticism."
It's become par for the course for Epic Games to release game-changing items in Fortnite just before tournaments. Ghost Gaming's Kayuun shares his worries for what that means for competitive Fortnite.
People with "get a job" on their list of New Year's resolutions should look to the tech industry, according to a trends report from PayScale. "Tech is the winner when it comes to where you really want to go for good career opportunities, high job satisfaction, and good wage growth," Katie Bardaro, PayScale's Chief Economist and VP of Data Analytics, told Cheddar Friday.
New York is getting into a crypto state of mind with plans to create the nation's first Crypto Task Force. "New York State is the financial capital of the world, and we must have the proper regulations and proper balance to be able to figure out how to regulate in this space," N.Y. Assemblyman Clyde Vanel told Cheddar.
Roku's new content partnership with Showtime, Starz, and other premium channels is "just the beginning" of a greater expansion into paid content, the company's VP of programming and engagement told Cheddar Thursday.
