Earlier this month, Lagardère reported that 2024 HBG sales were up 7% over 2023—the biggest jump posted by any of the groups in Lagardère’s publishing business, which posted €2.87 billion in revenue last year (or just over $3 billion at the current exchange rate). - Publishers Weekly
On February 10 museum leadership informed her that the Trump administration had labeled the exhibition as a “DEI program and event” and withdrawn funding for the show earmarked by the Biden administration. - Hyperallergic
Many organizations are taking advantage of exceptions in British wage laws for student internships as part of a curriculum, and the practice blocks crucial career experience for those who can’t afford to work for free, say advocates. (On the other hand, cash-strapped arts organizations can’t afford to pay interns.) - The Guardian
To the extent that Trump’s cultural designs offer a coherent vision, it shares his larger ambition to restore the country to a “golden age” (and a gilded one). In usurping control of Washington’s premier cultural institution, he appears set on rebuilding Camelot in his own image. - The Atlantic (MSN)
Faced with a concerted backlash from some of the country’s most famous celebrities, officials are looking for ways to offer them extra protections. One could be to allow creative industries to opt in to the new system, while offering AI companies the use of mass media such as journalism for free unless those companies opted out. - The Guardian
Partners who are at first judged to be powerful or strong become controlling or overbearing after a breakup. People who are nice become pushovers. Successful people become workaholics. - BBC
Under the Law and Justice Party, officials fired many museum directors, replacing them with conservatives whose exhibitions promoted traditional social and artistic values. The current ruling coalition is working on reversing the politicization, and the director of Warsaw’s Museum of Modern Art says she’s aiming straight for the center. - The New York Times
Mind you, we didn’t say newspapers. “Two upmarket London news start-ups are finding a growing (albeit small so far) market for paid online news about the UK capital. Meanwhile a third, more ambitious, title – London Daily Digital – has launched with 18 staff based on Fleet Street.” - Press Gazette (UK)
“Television Workshop, one of the country’s most successful acting programmes, can be found in a small, unassuming room down a street of former industrial buildings in Nottingham. … Auditions are rigorous and places are allocated based purely on talent.” And the school is now facing a financial crisis. - The Guardian
“On Feb. 25, 1925, Art Gillham, a musician known as 'the Whispering Pianist' for his gentle croon, entered Columbia Phonograph Company’s studio to test out a newly installed electrical system. Its totem was positioned in front of him, level with his mouth: a microphone.” - The New York Times
“In Toronto, they tend to go unnoticed, but talk to audiences in Glace Bay, Rimouski, Regina or Kitimat and, from their perspectives, Ballet Jörgen is effectively Canada’s national dance troupe. (Without it), audiences in smaller centres and remote communities would never have the chance to see fully realized, professional productions.” - Toronto Star
Aaron De Groft was axed by the museum’s board after the major Basquiat show he championed was found to be full of forgeries. The museum sued De Groft for malfeasance; he countersued for wrongful dismissal and defamation. De Groft died last month, and the parties have now ended their litigation. - Orlando Sentinel
Lisa Jeanine Findley pled guilty to mail fraud, in exchange for having an identity theft charge dropped, for a scam which cooked up a fake debt supposedly incurred by Lisa Marie Presley and attempted to foreclose on and seize Graceland to satisfy that debt. - NBC News
Pappano, 65, is a rarity in classical music: a maestro who never went to a music school. Born in England to Italian immigrant parents, then transplanted to Connecticut at 13, he learned through experience (and came away with an accent that remains charmingly jumbled to this day). - The New York Times
