In today’s ExchangeWire news digest: The News Alliance launches #AskForNews campaign to win back skittish advertisers, Chord buys Zenlytic in a $5m all-stock deal to add conversational analytics, and Apple beats estimates in John Ternus’s first earnings report as CEO, but China and iPad disappoint

#AskForNews Campaign aims to bring advertisers back to News 

The News Alliance, a UK coalition of news publishers, has launched a campaign urging marketers to rethink their reluctance to advertise alongside news. Called #AskForNews and timed to coincide with Journalism Matters Week, it challenges assumptions about brand safety, pointing out that 96% of UK adults consume news, according to Ofcom. The campaign uses satirical humour to highlight what the alliance sees as irrational behaviour, and targets senior marketers with the power to change brand safety practices and how news features in media plans.

Developed by Bountiful Cow’s in-house creative team, the ads will run until the end of November across print, digital and audio news channels, including The Guardian, The Standard, The Telegraph, Reach and Sky News, as well as trade titles The Media Leader and Campaign. 

Chord buys Zenlytic in $5m all-stock deal

E-commerce analytics startup Chord has acquired business intelligence platform Zenlytic in an all-stock deal valued at about USD$5m (£3.8m), Axios Pro reported. Zenlytic builds AI tools that let users query company data in plain language, and Chord plans to use the technology to add a natural-language layer to its analytics for e-commerce brands.

Chord CEO Bryan Mahoney said the company intends to raise roughly USD$15m (£11.4m) in a Series A at a USD$70m to USD$80m (£53.2m to £60.8m) valuation in the coming months.

Apple beats estimates in Ternus’s first earnings as CEO 

Apple topped Wall Street’s expectations in its first earnings report under new CEO John Ternus, though its stock was roughly flat in after-hours trading. Revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter came in at USD$114.5bn (£87bn) against estimates of USD$113.46bn (£86.2bn), and earnings per share were USD$2.10 (£1.59) against a forecast of USD$2 (£1.51). iPhone sales reached USD$57.58bn (£43.8bn), ahead of the USD$56.48bn (£42.9bn) expected, while Mac revenue of USD$10.79bn (£8.2bn) beat estimates by more than USD$1bn (£755m). Services, at USD$31.57bn (£24bn), landed largely in line.

Revenue from China was USD$17.54bn (£13.3bn), below the USD$18.75bn (£14.3bn) analysts expected, and iPad sales of USD$6.23bn (£4.7bn) also fell short of the USD$6.83bn (£5.2bn) forecast. Gross margin of 47.9% was lifted by tariff refunds, and CFO Kevan Parekh said that without them margins would have fallen about a point from the prior quarter, mainly because of higher memory costs. Apple forecast operating expenses of USD$20.4bn (£15.4bn) to USD$20.8bn (£15.8bn), slightly above analyst estimates.