Your Media Morning: Dreams of The Old Time Warner, Snapchat Files IPO This Week, Publishers Pressuring Platforms, Facebook Pushing into Music

WIRED'S STAFF SENDS OFF EDITOR SCOTT DADICH IN TRUE WIRED STYLE Friday was Scott Dadich's last day as Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine. His exit ends not only his run editing the iconic magazine but also his decade long career at Conde Nast.  WAIT... SAY WHAT NOW? "I couldn't be more excited to launch my new company next week, but I will miss all of my phenomenal WIRED colleagues dearly." SCOTT DADICH'S FAREWELL INSTAGRAM POST TO WIRED'S STAFF SNAP INC THE PARENT COMPANY OF SNAPCHAT EXPECTED TO FILE FOR ITS IPO THIS WEEK That means the company will likely go public sometime in March, after a typical road show schedule that lasts nine weeks. Technically, Snap already did a private filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its IPO late last year, but this will be the first time the public will get a glimpse into its financials and also its core business. FACEBOOK HIRES EXEC TO LEAD NEW MUSIC INDUSTRY EFFORTS Tamara Hrivnak, one of the key music executives at YouTube, just announced she is joining Facebook “to lead global music strategy and business development."  Appropriately, Hrivnak made the announcement in a Facebook post. Neither Hrivnak nor Facebook would comment. But the fact that the social network hired a respected music lawyer with a history of working on licensing deals suggests that it’s interested in licensing music. IN THE SUPER BOWL PREVIEW BATTLE, ESPN MAGAZINE DEFEATS SPORTS ILLUSTRATED The NFL championship game, for the Vince Lombardi trophy, is still six days away but the battle for best Super Bowl Preview magazine has already been fought and won. In a hotly contested battle between two legendary franchises, ESPN magazine soundly trounced Sports Illustrated. SOME CABLE COMPANIES ARE READY TO DROP VIACOM UNLESS THE COMPANY CAN PRODUCE SOME HIT PROGRAMMING The cable companies have been grumbling that while they have long been forced to take Viacom’s big bundle of channels, which includes dogs like MTV Classic, new streamers, such as Sling TV and DirecTV Now, have been given more flexibility about what they include in their tiers. PUBLISHERS FELL IN LOVE WITH SNAPCHAT DISCOVER AND NOW SNAPCHAT DISCOVER IS FALLING IN LOVE WITH TV Snapchat wanted brands with strong voices that could connect with a 14 year old. It was up to Bell, formerly senior VP at News Corp., to convince publishers to see the light. That was the beginning of Discover, a network of media outlets that elevated Snapchat's credibility as a company (from a sexting app to a lifestyle brand) in exchange for a new source of revenue for publishers desperate for eyeballs. SONY TAKES A $962 MILLION WRITE-DOWN THANKS TO ITS MOVIE STUDIO The impairment charge came due to a downward revision of future profit projections "primarily due to a lowering of previous expectations regarding the home entertainment business."Sony Corp. said Monday just after midnight L.A. time that it is taking a non-cash goodwill impairment charge in its film division. PUBLISHERS REMAIN SKEPTICAL ABOUT THEIR ABILITY TO MAKE MONEY FROM CONTENT THEY'RE PUSHING ON PLATFORMS Facebook and Google have stepped up their efforts to make nice with media companies, with new hires, journalism initiatives and expanded ways to monetize content. But publishers remain skeptical, saying they need to see a substantial change in their ability to make money from all the content they’re putting on said platforms. They’re also getting more forceful in talking about the possibility of withdrawing from platforms if things don’t change. APPLE'S TV DREAMS CONTINUE TO COLLAPSE Apple’s latest attempt to revolutionize our TV screens is continuing to lose steam. According to the latest data from eMarketer: Apple TV “is at the bottom of the U.S. connected TV market, behind Google Chromecast and Roku, with its share shrinking.” Ouch. That underwhelming assessment comes over a year after Apple relaunched Apple TV (in October 2015) with great expectations. CONDE NAST'S BUSINESS CHIEF JIM NORTON INSTALLED AS CHAIRMAN OF THE INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING BUREAU Jim Norton, chief business officer and president of revenue at Condé Nast, has been elected chairman of the board of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. He succeeds Lauren Wiener, president of buyer platforms at Tremor Video. Scott Schiller, executive vice president-general manager of digital advertising sales and marketing at NBCUniversal, was elected vice chairman. GOOGLE'S CEO WON'T COMMENT ON YOUTUBE'S DISTRIBUTION DEAL WITH CBS Google CEO Sundar Pichai wouldn’t take the bait when asked if YouTube has indeed secured a distribution deal with CBS.“I can’t comment on any specific discussions. We work very closely with TV networks on their individual shows. It’s a big part of the YouTube experience.” In the meantime, YouTube continues to forge relationships with networks and tie-ins to individual shows like The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.  Of recent note, YouTube and Syfy collaborated on a video campaign focused on driving awareness around the season two premiere of The Magicians. TECH GIANTS APPLE GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK CONDEMN U.S. TRAVEL BAN The world’s largest technology companies condemned Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration after coming under pressure to speak out from employees. Leaders of companies including Apple, Google and Facebook sent emails to their workforces attacking the move to block refugees and entry to the US from seven Muslim-majority countries. NEW YORK TIMES STOCK SLID ON CARLOS SLIM RUMORS Carlos Slim has not be selling stock in the New York Times Co Slim's son-in-law and main spokesman, Arturo Elias Ayub, said on Friday after the newspaper's stock slid on comments made by Slim during a media conference. Elias Ayub told Reuters "it was just a saying" and that Slim was not selling the stock in the paper. NBC NEWS UNDER CHAIRMAN ANDY LACK LOOKS TO TAKE ON A MORE CONSERVATIVE TONE? Media insiders are buzzing that Andy Lack wants NBC to become “the next Fox News” after he poached cable stars Greta Van Susteren and Megyn Kelly from the network. “He believes he’s building MSNBC and NBC into the next Fox. It seems the network wants to take a more conservative tone,” -Good Morning SEND US NEWS TO INCLUDE IN THE NEXT ISSUE: [email protected] SUBSCRIBE HERE» MEDIAMORNING.TODAY

[post_ad]