Top News:
Maggie Haberman / New York Times:
White House Communications Director Hope Hicks says she's resigning in coming weeks; sources say she has been considering leaving for several months — Hope Hicks, the White House communications director and one of President Trump's longest-serving advisers, said Wednesday that she was resigning.
Discussion:
@maggienyt, @farhip, The Wrap, Mediaite, Splinter, @annehelen, Washington Post, @kellyannepolls, CNN, Vanity Fair, The Daily Caller, 50 States of Blue, Variety, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, Slate, ABC News, TVNewser, @bluechoochoo, Footwear News, Axios, FOX2now.com, KTLA, @brianstelter, @sarahkendzior, The Root, @shanegoldmacher, @ryanbeckwith, Hollywood Life, @brianstelter, @pkcapitol, Refinery29, Paste, Fortune, Jezebel and thecut
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Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:
Sources: White House Communications Director Hope Hicks told House investigators that her role sometimes required her to tell white lies on behalf of Trump
Sources: White House Communications Director Hope Hicks told House investigators that her role sometimes required her to tell white lies on behalf of Trump
Discussion:
CNN, Mediaite, Forbes, The Wrap, @chucktodd, Vanity Fair, Mother Jones, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, The Mary Sue, @bridgeproject21, Splinter, @chucktodd, New York Magazine, @magi_jay, AOL, @mobute, @brianbeutler, @amandacarpenter, @matthewamiller, @cristianafarias, @aubs89, @mmurraypolitics, @philippereines, @waltshaub, @sethabramson, @cahnemily, @jpbrammer, @drwestinfortx07, @brianklaas, PEN America, KTLA and The Root
Dan Primack / Axios:
Spotify files with SEC for $1B direct listing, will use SPOT as stock symbol; reports 71M paid subs, up 46% YoY, $4.09B revenue in 2017, up from $2.95B in 2016 — Music streaming giant Spotify today filed for a $1 billion IPO. Axios had previously reported on the company's confidential filing, but the new paperwork is public.
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Peter Kafka / Recode:
Sony Music owns 5.7% of Spotify's shares, which is more than other music labels and potentially worth $1.1B based on a $20B valuation — Now it has to figure out how to divide that money with Beyonce and its other artists. — Spotify's coming IPO is validation for CEO Daniel Ek, who has built a giant music streaming business.
Discussion:
Recode and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
Janko Rottgers / Variety:
Spotify says operating loss was $461.2M in 2017, up from $425M in 2016; average user streams 25 hours of audio a month, playlists generate 31% of all listening — Spotify officially filed for a public offering with the Security and Exchanges Commission Wednesday.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Recode, Fast Company, AdExchanger, The New York Observer and Fortune, more at Techmeme »
Akhil Arora / NDTV Gadgets 360:
Amazon Music launches in India as a free service for Prime members, available on Android, iOS, and the web — Amazon Music has been given a full-scale launch in India, the subscription-based music streaming service that's part of Amazon Prime membership. You can now access it via music.amazon.in …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, MediaNama, Firstpost, Ubergizmo, Music Business Worldwide, MediaNama, RAIN News, Android Central and The Next Web, more at Techmeme »
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Taylor Lorenz / The Daily Beast:
The Oshry sisters, a family of Instagram stars, concealed the fact that their mother is Pamela Geller, an alt-right troll who was banned from entering the UK — Claudia, Jackie, Olivia, and Margo Oshry are a group of sisters in New York living the millennial dream, running viral Instagram accounts …
Discussion:
@jackdwagner, @taylorlorenz, @theperezhilton, @ariellec, @swin24, @mattzeitlin and @oneunderscore__
Jon Lafayette / Multichannel News:
NBCUniversal to decrease ads by 10% in original primetime programming on all of its television networks and reduce the number of commercials per break by 20% — New pods will feature just two commercials — NBCUniversal said it plans to decrease advertising time by 10% in original primetime programming …
Discussion:
Variety, Adweek, FierceCable and @markdavis
Jeremy Barr / Hollywood Reporter:
Fox News host Sean Hannity joined colleague Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night in retracting story alleging CNN had scripted a high school student's question — The about-face from the Fox News hosts comes after a high school student's father admitted to inadvertently deleting words in an email to a CNN producer.
Discussion:
@dangillmor, The Daily Caller and Washington Post
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Chris Ariens / TVNewser:
After devoting two nights of coverage to claim CNN scripted a question, Tucker Carlson told viewers there's no evidence “right now” the network did so
After devoting two nights of coverage to claim CNN scripted a question, Tucker Carlson told viewers there's no evidence “right now” the network did so
Discussion:
@carlsonsports and @moneyries
Associated Press:
Father of Florida shooting survivor admits altering an email from CNN that was sent to other news outlets amid controversy but says it wasn't on purpose
Father of Florida shooting survivor admits altering an email from CNN that was sent to other news outlets amid controversy but says it wasn't on purpose
Discussion:
Washington Post, Mediaite, ABC News, The Wrap, @joeconchatv, @joshgreenman, @jameshasson20, @gregmitch, @parkermolloy, @morningmoneyben, @mattlaslo, @kfile, TV Tattle, @farhip, Gizmodo, @daviduberti, @mccanner and @kfile
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter begins rolling out its Bookmarks feature, which lets users privately save tweets and has been in testing since October 2017, to all mobile users — Twitter today is publicly launching its “Bookmarks” feature, which has been in testing since late last year, following the company's HackWeek project dubbed #SaveForLater.
Discussion:
Adweek and Fast Company, more at Techmeme »
Paris Martineau / The Outline:
After removing some conspiracy and pro-gun videos and channels, YouTube says it will reinstate videos, which may have been removed in error by moderators — Looks like that whole “content moderation” thing wasn't a joke after all. — The Future — Looks like that whole “content moderation” thing wasn't a joke after all.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Splinter, Motherboard, Polygon, The Verge, Engadget, The Hill, The Next Web, The Verge, The Gateway Pundit, Gizmodo and The Hill, more at Techmeme »
Associated Press:
Two officials close to Slovak PM Robert Fico, who were named in slain journalist Jan Kuciak's last story, have resigned until investigation into murder is over — BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — An investigative journalist shot dead in Slovakia last week was working on a story about the activities …
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Kristen Hare / Poynter:
How a chat between two reporters who covered Pulse and Sutherland Springs mass shootings led to creation of a Facebook group for journalists covering trauma — The Orlando Sentinel reporter reached out to the San Antonio Express-News reporter on the night of Nov. 15, 2017.
Discussion:
@underoak, @kristenhare, @luluramadan, @luluramadan and @kristenhare
Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / WWD:
Vogue and Vice put on hold their collaboration, Project Vs, due to launch today; source says sexual harassment allegations at Vice caused loss of sponsorships — The project was put on hold after multiple sponsors got cold feet, according to sources. — Vice chief executive officer Shane Smith …
Discussion:
Digiday, Ad Age, The Business Journals and Daily Front Row
Mathew Ingram / Columbia Journalism Review:
Profile of The Disconnect, an online magazine featuring essays, fiction, and poetry that only reveals its content to readers when they disconnect from the web — At first glance, it seems like the ultimate paradox: A magazine that exists only on the internet, filled with content …
Washington Post:
Analysis of posts on anonymous forums shows how extremists tried to undermine news reports and push conspiracy theories to broader media after Parkland shooting — Forty-seven minutes after news broke of a high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., the posters on the anonymous chat board 8chan …