Mediagazer: False sexual assault allegation against Pete Buttigieg on Medium renews questions around exploitation of platforms that let users publish without verification (David Uberti/VICE News)

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

The Guardian posts £800K profit for FY 2018-2019, its first since 1998, with 655K monthly supporters and £223M in revenue, of which 55% comes from digital — Record online traffic and financial contributions from readers play key part in putting GNM on sustainable path

Ezra Klein / Vox:

Recode officially joins Vox, which purchased it in 2015, with Samantha Oltman, formerly of BuzzFeed News, as editor in chief — A letter from the editors-at-large. — Over the past year, the two of us switched coasts. Kara took up part-time residence in Washington, DC. Ezra moved to Oakland, California.

Discussion: Nieman Lab, Vox, @michellemanafy, @media_evan, @clockwerks, @ow, @voxmediainc and @katienotopoulos

Sara Jerde / Adweek:

Medium has hired four editors in chief to launch new publications focused on power, black women, personal development, and business — The site hired 4 new editors in chief to lead those new verticals — Medium is expanding the scope of its editorial efforts with the hiring of four …

Discussion: Talking Biz News and @willoremus

Kelsey Sutton / Adweek:

Vice to consolidate its 12+ digital brands under Vice.com with some, like Broadly, folded into the site and others, like Motherboard, with dedicated verticals — It's also rolling out its own audience measurement and new blacklist policy — As part of a larger redesign and streamlining …

Discussion: Variety, @megancarpentier, @kelseymsutton, @readdanwrite, @kelseymsutton, @derektmead and @djrbtr

Peter High / Forbes:

Interview with Washington Post's CIO and CPO, Shailesh Prakash, on expanding its Arc publishing tool by selling it as a service, aiming for $100M in revenue — Shailesh Prakash was not sold on joining a media company. He had been at a number of tech-centric companies from Sun Microsystems to Netscape to Microsoft.

Discussion: Washington Post, MediaPost and Strange Attractor

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Indian media group Times Internet reports 450M+ monthly users across its ~36 news, video, and music properties, says its biggest challenge is increasing revenue — Media group now claims 450M users across services including news, video and music — The aggressive push by Silicon Valley companies …

Discussion: Times Internet and exchange4media, more at Techmeme »

Joseph Bernstein / BuzzFeed News:

Source: Sophie Schmidt, Eric Schmidt's daughter, plans a nonprofit site about tech effects on the non-Western world and has hired media strategist Amy O'Leary — Sophie Schmidt, a tech industry veteran and the daughter of Eric Schmidt, the former Google and Alphabet executive chair …

Discussion: CNET, @bernstein and Search Engine Land

Sahil Patel / Digiday:

Sources: Quibi execs are seeking upfront ad commitments, prioritizing larger deals, and are planning a $5 ad-supported subscription and an $8 ad-free tier — Jeffrey Katzenberg's Quibi is spending big bucks on original content as the company hopes to build the next big thing in mobile streaming video.

Discussion: Business Insider, @reckless, Adweek and TechCrunch

Natalie Jarvey / Hollywood Reporter:

Hulu says it has 26.8M paying subscribers in the US, up from 23M at the end of 2018, not including the 1.3M users signed up through promotions like free trials — Of those members, 1.3 million people are signed up for Hulu through promotions like free trials.

Discussion: Deadline, MediaPost, TechCrunch, Variety, CNBC, Observer, Forbes, Reuters, Engadget, @xpangler, @natjarv, Exstreamist and Broadcasting & Cable, more at Techmeme »

David Uberti / VICE News:

False sexual assault allegation against Pete Buttigieg on Medium renews questions around exploitation of platforms that let users publish without verification — The publishing platform Medium has tried to position itself as a destination for high-quality writing, selling memberships and hiring journalists.

Tony Wan / EdSurge:

McGraw-Hill Education and Cengage plan to merge, creating a textbook publisher with an estimated value of $5B, second biggest in US behind Pearson at $8.5B — Cengage and McGraw-Hill Education plan to join forces in an all-stock merger. The news, first reported by The Wall Street Journal …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, @ericstoller and Cincinnati Business Journal

Max Willens / Digiday:

Slate's 30 podcasts had 180M listens in 2018, a 78% increase YoY; Slate's president says audio could represent “nearly half” of the company's revenue in 2019 — Last year, Slate bet big on audio as a way to drive advertising and membership revenue.