Mediagazer: Sources: Spotify, valued at $13B, plans direct listing on the NYSE in Q4 2017 or Q1 2018; Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Allen & Co. are advising (CNBC)

5:45 PM ET, May 12, 2017

Top News:

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

In a tweet, President Trump raised the possibility of canceling regular briefings with the White House press corps — In a mini-tweetstorm Friday that combined references to alleged unfair treatment of his spokespeople and the firing of FBI Director James Comey, President Trump raised …

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:

Once a president drops even the pretense of accuracy, White House press briefings lose their value — So the threat we have been waiting for — girding for — has finally arrived from the presidential level. — “Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future 'press briefings …

Dylan Byers / CNNMoney:
Amid the White House's credibility issues, substitute press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders faces the same challenge as Sean Spicer, with incongruous claims

Discussion: @2020pleasehurry, @braddjaffy, @brianstelter and @carloslozadawp

CNBC:

Sources: Spotify, valued at $13B, plans direct listing on the NYSE in Q4 2017 or Q1 2018; Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Allen & Co. are advising — - Spotify is expected to go public as a direct listing on the NYSE between Q4 2017 and Q1 2018, according to sources.

Discussion: The Wrap, Financial Times, RAIN News, New York Times, Music Business Worldwide, TheStreet, Reuters, Seeking Alpha, The Next Web, @mdudas and hypebot, more at Techmeme »

Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:

Mother Jones announces a $500K crowdfunding campaign to investigate the connection between the Trump administration and Russia — Mother Jones on Friday announced a half-million dollar crowdfunding campaign to investigate any connections between the Trump administration and Russia …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Boing Boing, @megangarber, @mathewi, @brandyljensen, @motherjones, @motherjones, Mother Jones and @benmullin

Jennifer Schuessler / New York Times:

Hal Niedzviecki, the editor of Write, the magazine of the Writers Union of Canada, has resigned after half-jokingly defending cultural appropriation — The simmering debate over cultural appropriation took another turn on Wednesday, when the Writers Union of Canada apologized …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, @suketumehta, @michelledean, @jpodhoretz, @nytimesarts and Rehak/Stuebing Mostly Media

Daniel Victor / New York Times:

In a lengthy review, The Associated Press rebuts the charge that it aided the Nazi regime during WW2, but still acknowledges some missteps — Pushing back against implications that it actively helped the Nazi regime, The Associated Press defended its reporting from Nazi Germany during …

Discussion: @palafo, @mlcalderone, @michaelsocolow, Press Gazette, Associated Press and The Daily Caller

Jason Del Rey / Recode:

Sources: NBCUniversal paid around $230M for Craftsy, a site that sells videos of crafts classes, as well as craft supplies and kits — Put one in the win column for content + commerce. — It turns out content and commerce can be a valuable mix. — Earlier this week …

more at Techmeme »

April Simpson / Current:

NPR will begin testing functions in its NPR One app this summer to help users donate through the app, including listeners in the UK — NPR will begin testing functions in its NPR One app this summer to help users donate through the app, including listeners in the U.K.

Discussion: @currentpubmedia, @aprilleticia and @ylichterman

Ben Munson / Fierce Cable:

ComScore introduces Total Home Panel, a service to offer viewership data for OTT services like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu — ComScore to offer viewership numbers for Netflix, Amazon, Hulu — Through what it's calling a “breakthrough,” ComScore says it will now be able to offer OTT activity statistics …

Discussion: PR Newswire, Beet.TV, VideoInk - Medium, Adweek and VideoNuze Analysis

Mike James / I Programmer News:

Fraunhofer, the major contributor to MP3, shut down its licensing program in April as MP3 patents have expired — Red Hat has announced that Fedora will include official MP3 decoding and encoding. The reason is that MP3 is now patent free - as far as anyone can tell.

Discussion: NPR, Fraunhofer IIS, @avadiax and RAIN News

Max Willens / Digiday:

The Daily Beast's newly unveiled redesign cuts the number of its homepage articles by a third to better appeal to advertisers — The Daily Beast has been looking for ways to build deeper relationships with its brand advertisers. To do it, it had to take an axe to its most powerful traffic magnet …

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Sam Roberts / New York Times:

Robert H. Phelps, who missed the Watergate scandal as an editor at The New York Times, has died at 97 — Robert H. Phelps had a distinguished career at The Boston Globe, shaping the modern paper, overseeing the coverage in major series that won Pulitzer Prizes, and serving as the newspaper's executive editor for 11 years.

Mark Kleinman / Sky News:

Sources: TPG Capital in talks to acquire 10% of Vice Media for just over $500M; other prospective bidders include CVC Capital Partners — A US private equity group which owns a stake in Airbnb is in talks about buying a shareholding in Vice Media, the millennials-focused news and entertainment group …

Discussion: Fortune, Media Wire Daily and Deadline