Mediagazer: Sources: UK's Telegraph Media Group plans to cut about 50 jobs in its commercial department as it continues its shift to a subscription-first revenue strategy (Nic Fildes/Financial Times)

1:20 PM ET, April 29, 2019

Top News:

Spotify reports Q1 revenue of €1.5B, up 33% YoY, reduces net loss to €142M, says it has 217M MAUs, up 26% YoY, with 100M premium subscribers, up 32% YoY — Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) today reported financial results for the first fiscal quarter of 2019 ending March 31, 2019.

Discussion: Variety, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Business Insider, VentureBeat, Engadget, @pkafka, @richbtig and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Spotify confirms it paid €50M to acquire the podcasting studio Parcast in addition to the €308M spent on Anchor and Gimlet in 2019 — Spotify has confirmed that it paid €50 million ($56 million) to acquire Parcast, the story-based podcasting studio it snapped up last month.

Discussion: MediaPost

Nic Fildes / Financial Times:

Sources: UK's Telegraph Media Group plans to cut about 50 jobs in its commercial department as it continues its shift to a subscription-first revenue strategy — Telegraph Media Group has launched its latest round of restructuring as it presses ahead with its shift to a premium subscription-based model.

Discussion: @orskov and @jayrosen_nyu

Ginny Marvin / Search Engine Land:

Microsoft rebrands Bing Ads as Microsoft Advertising, says it will introduce more advertising products with built-in AI over the next year — The new name reflects a broader focus on ad inventory, data and targeting capabilities. — First there was Microsoft adCenter. Then there was Bing Ads.

Discussion: Bing Ads, @carnage4life and The Drum, more at Techmeme »

Bloomberg:

Sources: Walmart plans to create at least 6 original Vudu shows over the next year, which will make money by advertising products, testing “shoppable content” — - Decade-old streaming service plans to tout new ad technology — Walmart Inc. already sells more TVs than anyone.

Discussion: @lucas_shaw, MacRumors, Forbes and The Verge, Thanks:@lucas_shaw

Christopher Cadelago / Politico:

The unusual relationship between the US President and NY Times photographer Doug Mills, whom Trump has called “my genius photographer” — Earlier in his administration, as Donald Trump launched attack after attack on the mainstream media, a series of newspaper photographs caught his attention, in a good way.

Discussion: @anitakumar01

@nytopinion:

NYT apologizes, says it published the antisemitic cartoon because of a faulty process when an editor working without adequate oversight decided to include it — We apologize for the anti-Semitic cartoon we published. Here's our statement. pic.twitter.com/nifZahutpO

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, Newser, VICE News, Eamonn Fitzgerald, @yashar, @ajcglobal, @dschwammenthal, @jgreenblattadl, @gipperschutzpah, @intelcrab, @ltcpeterlerner, @danielbshapiro, @aahronheim, Herman Cain and Breitbart

Seth J. Frantzman / Jerusalem Post:
NYT says it published a cartoon with antisemitic tropes in its international print edition on Thursday due to “an error of judgment”

Discussion: New York Times, @nytopinion, CNN, Mediaite, The Wrap, Poynter, @vp, Contemptor, @marcorubio, @brianstelter, @urbanachievr, @sfrantzman, @davidhoffmanil, @sfrantzman, @noahpollak, @avitalleibovich, @cvaldary, @brianstelter and @ag_conservative

Jessica Davies / Digiday:

El Pais-owner Prisa Media made a tool that uses machine learning to identify articles that evoke positive feelings, in a bid to sell brand-safe ads at a premium — Monetizing hard news has always been a thorn in the side of general-news publishers. For some advertisers …

Bloomberg:

With PR workers now outnumbering journalists six to one, journalists are bombarded by PR pitches looking to control corporate narratives — - For every reporter there are six PR workers, Census reports — Number of PR specialists to keep rising, Labor Department says

Discussion: @erinahennessy and @elisabethmahy

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:

The success of Avengers: Endgame could be the start of a split wherein popcorn movies are seen in theaters and more serious ones are watched at home — LOS ANGELES — Audiences have splintered into a million personalized subsets. Streaming services are sprouting like mushrooms.

Discussion: Variety and /Film

Eric Berger / Columbia Journalism Review:

As more newspapers close their own printing plants and outsource to a central location, legacy printing-press installers reflect on a declining profession — When Joel Birket was a child, his family moved to new cities for a year at a time so his father, William, could install printing presses …

Discussion: @raju

Zack Stanton / Politico:

Interview with Kate Ward, Bustle Digital Group's departing EIC, on growing a large media organization while keeping aspects of startup culture and more — Kate Ward, editor-in-chief of Bustle Digital Group, on what is worth keeping — and getting rid of — as a company grows.