Signet Jewelers, owner of Kay, Zales, and Jared, is looking to drop out of malls: it's going to close between 165 - 170 stores this year and is aiming to open 90 - 115 stores elsewhere. Signet is the largest specialty retail jeweler in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.
Breaking it down: This adds to retailers' continued exodus from malls as they eye locations with better traffic to boost sales.
Another move to boost business: Signet is outsourcing its credit portfolio, which allows customers to make purchases, for a few reasons: "eliminating material credit risk...enhancing net sales...minimizing any disruption to business," according to the earnings conference call. Last year in-house credit sales dropped by 12.6%.
U.K. officials said Manchester police will no longer share intelligence regarding the investigation into the city's terrorist attack with the U.S. following their outrage over repeated leaks to the media, reports BBC. Their latest fury comes after the NY Times released photos of debris of the blast that left 22 dead, and the name of the bomber, Salman Abedi, was leaked to the media just hours after the attack.
Yesterday, U.K. Home Secretary Amber Rudd slammed the leaks as "irritating" and said that "I have been very clear with our friends that that should not happen again." The U.K.Police Chiefs Council also released a statement, noting that when their trust is breached, "it undermines these relationships, and undermines our investigations."
British Prime Minister Theresa May said Thursday that she plans to confront President Trump at a NATO meeting in Brussels today that shared intelligence "must remain secure."
Three of Montana's biggest local newspapers — the Missoulian, the Billings Gazette and Helena Independent Record — have all rescinded their endorsements of Greg Gianforte, the state's GOP candidate running for Congress, after he allegedly bodyslammed a reporter Wednesday, the night before Montana's special election. Gianforte was charged with misdemeanor assault later that night, and is due to appear in court next month.
Cord-cutters are ditching their cable packages at the fastest rate ever, opting instead for cheaper, bundled digital TV options, according to the latest Magid Broadcast Study.
Data: Magid Proprietary Insights, April 2017; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios
Facebook has signed deals with Vox Media, BuzzFeed, ATTN, Group Nine Media, and others to make shows for its video service, per Reuters. Facebook will not own the videos, which will range from 5-30 minutes, although it will own longer, scripted shows, for which it will pay up to $250,000. It will give show creators 55% of ad revenue.
Why it matters: Facebook is trying to gobble up more ad dollars by pushing out original content. Note: Facebook has been late to the content game. Platform competitors like Twitter, YouTube, and Snap have all been aggressively rolling out exclusive content deals with TV networks and investors have been waiting to hear from Facebook since they announced in February they would be producing and licensing original content.
Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said he is "fully aware" artificial intelligence will impact jobs, walking back his statement at an Axios event in March that AI won't supplant human jobs for 50-100 more years, which was contrary to most predictions.
Mnuchin then: "[I]t's not even on our radar screen...50-100 more years" away. "I'm not worried at all" about robots displacing humans in the near future.
Mnuchin now: "When I made the comment on artificial intelligence — and there's different views on artificial intelligence — I was referring to kind of like R2D2 in Star Wars. Robotics are here. Self-driving cars are something that are gonna be here soon. I am fully aware of and agree that technology is changing and our workers do need to be prepared."
U.K. Home Secretary Amber Rudd called leaks to the U.S. press about the investigation into Monday's terrorist attack in Manchester "irritating," and warned that it "should never happen again," reports CNN. Many of the details that were disclosed following the initial reports of the blast, which left 22 dead and many more injured, were traced back to U.S. law enforcement sources.
"The British police have been very clear that they want to control the flow of information in order to protect operational integrity, the element of surprise," said Rudd on BBC Radio's "Today" program Wednesday. "So it is irritating if it gets released from other sources and I have been very clear with our friends that that should not happen again."
The UK Police Chiefs Council also released a statement reading in part:
"We greatly value the important relationships we have with our... partners around the world.... When that trust is breached it undermines these relationships, and undermines our investigations."
Bob Woodward told Axios' Mike Allen that the press is covering Trump with a certain smugness, but it's not the media's job to make his presidency an editorial. "You have to have a presumption of good will," said Woodward.
"I think there's so many people treating the Trump presidency as if it's a try-out, as if it's provisional… odds are, he's probably going to be president for a full term, four years, maybe even more… there's hyperventilation, too many people writing things. When's the impeachment coming, how long's he gonna last, will he make it through the summer, and so forth…
"I worry, I worry for the business, for the perception of the business, not just Trump supporters, they see that smugness… I think you can ride both horses, intensive inquiry, investigation, not letting up… at the same time, realize that it's not our job to do an editorial on this."
