Top News:
Sydney Ember / New York Times:
New York Times overall subscription revenue, which now accounts for 60% of total revenue, rose to more than $1B for 2017; Q4 revenue rose 10% YoY to $484M — In a tough environment for journalism, The New York Times Company continued to post significant subscriber growth, propelling the company to a healthy 2017.
Discussion:
The New York Observer, Business Wire, Ad Age, @ceciliakang, @mattblaze, @dangoodin001, @bernardchickey, Poynter, @bruceanderson, @ryanchittum, @adrianmorrow, AdExchanger, The New York Times Company, @journalistslike, @christophclarey, @nickconfessore, Jim Dwyer, @mathewi, @bcappelbaum and @cliffordlevy
Selina Wang / Bloomberg:
Twitter Q4: profit of $91.1M, its first ever, revenue of $731.6M, up 2% YoY, vs. $686.4M est.; MAUs up 4% YoY but flat QoQ at 330M vs. 333M est.; stock up 10%+ — Revenue rises to $732 million, topping analysts' estimates — Efforts to fight spam, bots limited gains in user numbers
Discussion:
Recode, Recode, Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, Fortune, The Verge, TechCrunch, Android Police, TechCrunch, The Daily Caller, Fast Company, NPR, New York Magazine, BloombergQuint, @leliosimi, @theoptionoracle, Forbes, VentureBeat, AdExchanger, The Verge, @richbtig, @twitterir, 9to5Google, The Week and @espnmichele, more at Techmeme »
Steven Waldman / Report for America:
Report for America names 9 more news outlets that will host journalists, starting in June, including The Dallas Morning News, Chicago Sun-Times, and The Incline — The crisis in local journalism - a.k.a. the crisis in local democracy, a.k.a. why you can't find out if your water is polluted …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Filing: Hulu lost $920M in 2017, compared to $531M in 2016, as owners invested $1B, vs. $733M in 2016; analyst estimates losses will climb 80% in 2018 to ~$1.7B — Hulu dropped deeper into the red last year as it boosted spending on originals and launched its live TV service — and the losses are expected to mount in 2018.
Discussion:
Cord Cutters News, Ubergizmo, 9to5Mac and The Verge
RELATED:
Matthew Cooper / Politico:
A look inside the changes at Newsweek: changing owners, leaner budgets, and uneven standards in the last year as editors focused on traffic over accuracy — Newsweek is in shambles. Time moved to Des Moines. Is it my fault? — It was 3 a.m. on Saturday, and I was seething.
RELATED:
Claire Atkinson / NBC News:
Newsweek Media Group's head of sales resigns, and a source says the company has lost “hundreds of thousands” in ad commitments since reports it bought traffic
Newsweek Media Group's head of sales resigns, and a source says the company has lost “hundreds of thousands” in ad commitments since reports it bought traffic
Discussion:
@jfxm, @jchaltiwanger, @linleyann, Mic, @melinadelkic, @journo_christal, @linleyann, @rachelcbrody and @jasonabbruzzese
John Koblin / New York Times:
HBO signs deal with hosts of Pod Save America for series of TV specials ahead of midterm elections, a week after launching four shows by hosts of 2 Dope Queens — HBO is getting into podcasts. — The premium cable network has signed a deal with the hosts of the popular “Pod Save America” …
Discussion:
Variety, Deadline, The Wrap and The Ringer
Andrew Liptak / The Verge:
Scribd, now with 700K subscribers, brings back unlimited subscriptions for $8.99/month and ends Scribd Select, but will throttle voracious readers — But there's a small catch for voracious readers — Two years after shifting away from its unlimited subscription model in favor of monthly credits …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Scribd Help Center, Fast Company and Publishers Weekly
Jeff Baumgartner / Multichannel News:
SEC filing: T-Mobile paid about $325M for Denver-based Layer3 TV, to help launch T-Mobile's new TV service later this year — Will use acquisition to launch ‘disruptive’ OTT TV service later this year — T-Mobile paid about $325 million to acquire Layer3 TV, the Denver-based MVPD …
Discussion:
Multichannel News and FierceCable, more at Techmeme »
Associated Press:
Knight Foundation grants $1.9M to Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism over three years to support innovation in TV news — https://apnews.com/515391b73ece4c83beaa d5f943edcdf0 — PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona State University's journalism school on Thursday …
Discussion:
Nieman Lab, TVSpy, Broadcasting & Cable and ASU Now
Ricardo Bilton / Nieman Lab:
Substack, a platform that offers tools for writers to create and monetize their own newsletters, opens to all for free, takes 10% cut if newsletters charge fees — “People will always pay for news they can put on the company credit card, but we've always believed that that it's far from the only thing people will pay for."
Sahil Patel / Digiday:
NBCUniversal and BuzzFeed launch Playfull, a millennial parenting channel on Facebook that marks the first time both companies have co-owned a publishing brand — NBCUniversal and BuzzFeed are creating a new millennial parenting channel together called Playfull, hoping to replicate BuzzFeed's success …
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Everipedia, a rival to Wikipedia that plans to use tokens to permit editing and reward users, raises $30M from investors including Galaxy Digital — Do we need a more lively Wikipedia for the Snapchat generation? The founders of a fast-growing site called Everipedia …