Mediagazer: Viacom CEO Bob Bakish says “highly selective” licensing deals for new shows will reinforce the need for pay TV contracts (Peter Kafka/Recode)

2:00 AM ET, February 10, 2017

Top News:

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

Flush with donations, ProPublica is planning to add 15-25 journalists to its newsrooms in New York and Illinois as it reorients itself to cover Trump — Bleak about the future of journalism? Here are some encouraging statistics: — In 2015, ProPublica ended the year with $450,000 in small donations …

Discussion: @charlesornstein and @laur_katz

Adam Klasfeld / Courthouse News Service:

NFL writer Bart Hubbuch sues Murdoch's New York Post, claiming wrongful termination for his tweet critical of Trump on inauguration day — MANHATTAN (CN) — Mocking his raunchy tabloid's desire for a “safe space,” a sports writer wants damages after the New York Post fired him for a tweet …

Discussion: ProFootballTalk, Adweek, ProFootballTalk, @richarddeitsch, @johnmcquaid, Awful Announcing, Kansas City Star, The Hill, Bleacher Report and The Big Lead

Peter Kafka / Recode:

Viacom CEO Bob Bakish says “highly selective” licensing deals for new shows will reinforce the need for pay TV contracts — Viacom's new boss reminds the pay TV guys that he likes doing business with the pay TV guys. — Do you like watching shows from MTV, Comedy Central and other Viacom-owned networks?

Discussion: Forbes, Engadget, Axios, Variety, Hollywood Reporter and Variety

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

Viacom beats estimates with Q1 net earnings of $396M, with Paramount posting $180M operating loss; CEO Bob Bakish announces Paramount turnaround plan — The new regime at Viacom unveiled a turnaround plan for Paramount Pictures and its cable network group as the conglom surprised Wall Street Thursday …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Broadcasting & Cable, Deadline, Deadline, Viacom, Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, Broadcasting & Cable and Los Angeles Times

Stephen Witt / Billboard:

Interview with Jeff Bezos and Steve Boom, VP of Amazon Music, about the music industry, Echo and Alexa's place in it, more — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would make almost any list of the world's most powerful people. In retail, he's clearly on top, and in tech, he's close to it.

Discussion: Gizmodo, Daily Mail, INSIDER, @palafo, @ckindel, Mediaite, AppleInsider, GeekWire, RAIN News, Business Insider and Axios

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Fox News cements its standing as Trump TV as Kellyanne Conway plugs Ivanka Trump's products without any opposition from Fox & Friends anchors — What's less surprising: that a top aide to President Trump would go on a Fox News program and plug the line of clothing and accessories of Ivanka Trump …

Discussion: Fox News Insider, LawNewz, TheBlaze, Politico, The Hill, New York Times, Mediaite, Occupy Democrats, AOL, IJR, Hit & Run, The Huffington Post, The Wrap, Variety, New York Magazine, The Guardian, Forbes, New York's PIX11, Mashable, Racked, New York Times, @erikwemple, @erikwemple and @sopandeb

Eliana Johnson / Politico:

Sources: at least two candidates have turned down WH communications director job, a position that has remained vacant since Jason Miller resigned in December — At least two candidates have turned down the job of White House communications director. — Controlling the message coming …

Andrew Liptak / The Verge:

Facebook hires MTV executive Mina Lefevre as head of development, overseeing scripted and unscripted content — Mina Lefevre had been the head of scripted for MTV — Facebook has been working to make video a central part of how its users experience the site, first with Facebook Live …

Discussion: Mina Lefevre, Tubefilter, Deadline, Forbes, Engadget, Business Insider, Fast Company, Mashable, @andrewliptak and The Wrap

McClatchy:

McClatchy reports Q4 net income of $3.1M, down from $8.8M in 2015, and revenue of $262.2M, down 8.3%; CEO Craig Forman pledges faster digital transition — McClatchy (NYSE-MNI) today reported net income in the fourth quarter of 2016 of $3.1 million, or $0.40 per share …

Discussion: Reuters, Sacramento Bee, Politico and Poynter

Lara O'Reilly / Business Insider:

Twitter reports Q4 revenue of $717M, missing estimates, but beats on earnings as MAUs grew 2M from Q3 2016, reaching 319M — Twitter missed analysts' expectations for its fourth-quarter revenue — reporting $717 million versus estimates of $740 million — as advertising spend lagged behind …

Discussion: Jack Dorsey, Adweek, TechCrunch, GeekWire, Fortune, Vanity Fair, ZDNet, Forbes, Recode, The Guardian, Mashable, Bloomberg, Variety, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, INSIDER, @mathewi, Axios, VentureBeat, PR Newswire, Reuters, The Guardian, @bcappelbaum, @verge, Axios, @stevekovach, @businessinsider, @recode, @raju, Recode and VentureBeat

Brett Molina / USA Today:
Twitter shares close down 12.3% due to Q4 revenue miss, flat growth, weak Q1 guidance, and a 5% YoY drop in US ad revenue

Discussion: TechCrunch, Forbes, @techcrunch, Editor & Publisher, BBC, @edmundlee, VentureBeat and @cnbc

Richard Sandomir / New York Times:

Bob Costas ends his 24-year run as NBC's prime-time Olympics host, reducing his overall workload at the network as he takes on a role similar to Tom Brokaw's — When NBC televises next year's Winter Olympics from Pyeongchang, South Korea, a familiar face will be gone from the prime-time anchor seat …

Discussion: TODAY.com, IJR, Washington Post, TVWeek.com, @nbcolympics, @ap_sports, @businessinsider, @braddjaffy, @sinow, @bleacherreport, The Big Lead and @ennisnyt

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

Pew study: US adult news consumers can only recall the source of a news link 56% of the time, and 10% name Facebook as a news source — “The online news experience is a mix of deliberateness and serendipity,” a new report from Pew finds, noting that no one particular path to finding online news is dominant among users.

Discussion: Washington Post, Adweek, Quartz, USA Today, @pewjournalism, Columbia Journalism Review, @niemanlab, Broadcasting & Cable, Pew Research Center, @pewresearch, @pewresearch, @niemanlab, @hl_bowen and @ylichterman

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Christine Wang / CNBC:
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Discussion: Financial Review, @christiiineeee, Talking New Media, News Corp, Fox Business and Reuters

Katie Roof / TechCrunch:
Pandora beats with Q4 revenue of $393M, up 17% YoY, vs. $374M expected, predicts Q1 loss of $70-$80M

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West Virginia Public Broadcasting:
WV Gov. Jim Justice proposes elimination of all state funding for WV Public Broadcasting in new budget, which would translate into staff layoffs of up to 75%

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Jane Martinson / The Guardian:
Sources: Rupert Murdoch was in the room for Trump's Times of London interview with Michael Gove, a sign of his close ties with the president and his family

Discussion: Financial Times, Politico, Press Gazette, @robertshrimsley, Mirror.co.uk, @jgrovum, @henrymance, @tomgara, @mattgarrahan, @johngapper, @muradahmed and @mlcalderone

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Trey Williams / MarketWatch:
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Discussion: Seeking Alpha, StreetInsider.com and NASDAQ.com

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
UK mag Private Eye hit highest circulation in 55-year history in second half of 2016, up 9% YoY; its Christmas issue also had biggest sales ever at 287K copies

Discussion: @pressgazette, @claridgealex, @markismith50, @journalism, @malonebarry and @pressgazette

Ben Popper / The Verge:
Sources: Google combines product teams for YouTube Music and Google Play Music, likely paving way for a single music app in the future

Discussion: hypebot, RAIN News, Music Industry Blog, Gear, The Tech Portal, 9to5Google, Tubefilter, Variety and AndroidHeadlines.com

Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:
The New York Times partners with Spotify, giving readers who buy one-year digital subscriptions unlimited access to the music service's premium tier

Discussion: Reynolds Center, New York Times and Business Wire

From Techmeme:

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:
Source: Google has canceled the development of a second-generation Pixel Tablet, planned for release in 2025, due to concerns that it wouldn't sell very well

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is testing a more conversational version of Siri, dubbed “LLM Siri”, with plans to release it in spring 2026 as part of iOS 19 and macOS 16

The Information:
Sources: OpenAI considered making a browser, discussed deals to power AI features on Samsung devices and search on sites and apps from Condé Nast and others

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