Good morning. One hour from now on ABC: Michael Cohen talks to George Stephanopoulos ahead of his three-year prison sentence. A source tells me Trump's lawyer came into the taping "determined to respond to the president’s tweets" from yesterday.

• "He was remorseful and spoke about the president with candor," the source told me. "This is a Michael Cohen you have not seen before."

Steven Ferdman/Getty

Scoop: Oath cuts in Q1 2019

Verizon chief Hans Vestberg has set in motion a plan to start cutting jobs at his Oath media business in the first quarter of next year, two sources with knowledge of the company's plans tell me.

• Team leaders across the Oath properties, which include AOL, Yahoo and Huffington Post, have been asked to submit the names of employees who will be offered buyouts, the sources said.

• The exact target number of cuts is unknown, but some teams have been asked to cut their staffs by as much as 25%, the sources said.

• Verizon spokespeople did not return requests for comment regarding the staff cuts.

The impending cuts follow Vestberg's decision to write down the value of AOL and Yahoo by $4.5 billion, cutting their value in half and conceding defeat in the digital media space.

• In addition, Verizon recently slashed more than 10,000 positions at its core company as part of an effort to cut $10 billion in costs.

The Big Picture: The digital media business is contracting as a result of Facebook and Google's stranglehold on digital advertising. The cuts could mark the beginning of the end for the Oath brands.

Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Ev Williams eyes an acquisition

Twitter co-founder Ev Williams says he is looking to bolster Medium, his publishing website, with an increased investment in original editorial content, Bloomberg's Emily Chang et al report.

• “We are going to significantly increase our investment in original editorial in the next year," Williams said in a statement.

• Williams expressed interest in buying New York Magazine ... with Pam Wasserstein, the CEO of New York Media, though the talks "were preliminary and unlikely to progress."

• "Medium has also been building up an in-house editorial team that commissions long-form, narrative-driven stories and essays from professional journalists."

The Big Picture: Silicon Valley is taking over the print-cum-digital news industry, from Jeff Bezos' purchase of The Washington Post to Laurene Powell Jobs' acquisition of The Atlantic and Marc Benioff's takeover of Time Magazine.

Bloomberg

Zuck cuts 'Watch' funding

"Six months after Facebook launched a slate of original news shows from outlets like CNN, ABC News and BuzzFeed, the company has told news executives it is likely to reduce its funding for individual shows, as it refines its programming strategy for the effort," the Information's Jessica Toonkel et al report:

• "Facebook’s overall spending on news content for its Watch service — $90 million, according to people familiar with the news effort — is expected to remain the same, but spread across a broader array of programs."

• "It is possible that Facebook will shift money to fund news programs overseas, following the expansion internationally of the Watch service in recent months."

The Big Picture: "The change has unnerved some media executives who were hopeful that the news programs, part of Facebook’s Watch service, represented Facebook’s greater willingness to pay for premium content."

Meanwhile ... Facebook wants to turn Watch into a premium cable provider, per Recode's Peter Kafka ... It also reports that more than 400 million users now spend at least one minute on the service.

👍 Rally the Market: It's a privilege to be in your inbox. If you're into it, spread the wealth: Sign friends and colleagues up for Byers Market here.

Stephanie Keith/Getty

Tim Cook expands Apple

Apple has announced plans to add 20,000 employees over the next five years in Austin, Texas, and other cities across the country.

• Apple is spending $1 billion on a new 133-acre campus in Austin that will employ 5,000 new employees, with the capacity to grow to 15,000. The move is expected to make Apple the largest private employer in the city.

• Apple will also add 1,000 jobs apiece at new sites in Seattle, San Diego and Culver City while also adding jobs in New York, Pittsburgh and Boulder. (See Apple's 2022 map.)

The Big Picture, via The Information's Aaron Tilley: "The announcement is clearly meant to highlight Apple as an important U.S. employer as President Trump criticizes the company for building its devices in China."

• Oh/and: Unlike Amazon, Apple pursued its expansion quietly. ... Bloomberg's Shira Ovide says the company "deserves praise for how it handled itself — albeit with some caveats."

Bonus: Big in L.A.: Apple's Culver City expansion is "a sign of its growing entertainment ambitions," per LAT's Wendy Lee.

Market Links

• Susan Wojcicki tries to put out a fire at YouTube (NYT)

• Jon Steinberg's Cheddar gets new life on DirecTV (AT&T)

• Fred Ryan remains committed to Jamal Khashoggi (Politico)

• Chris Hayes shares his unending work schedule (NYT)

• Sean Parker settles his California coast violations (LAT)

Talk of Tinseltown

"For the first time in history, the number of streaming shows has surpassed the number of basic cable and broadcast shows. ... The total number of shows across all of TV was up again as well, to 495."

Wendy Redfern/Getty

CBS's $9.5 million settlement

CBS quietly paid $9.5 million to actress Eliza Dushku to settle her sexual harassment claims against "Bull" co-star Michael Weatherly, NYT's Rachel Abrams and John Koblin report:

• "In front of the cast and crew, Mr. Weatherly remarked on her appearance, and made a rape joke and a comment about a threesome."

• "Shortly after Ms. Dushku confronted the star about his behavior, she was written off the show. She believed her time on 'Bull' came to a sudden end as a result of retaliation."

• "Details of Ms. Dushku’s experiences ... emerged during the course of an investigation [into] accusations of sexual misconduct ... against Leslie Moonves ... [and] cultural issues at all levels of CBS.”

The Big Picture: "The lawyers said the network’s handling of Ms. Dushku’s complaints was ... emblematic of larger problems at CBS. When faced with instances of wrongdoing, the company had a tendency to protect itself, at the expense of victims."

What's Next: Jerry Seinfeld talks to my colleague Willie Geist about Kevin Hart's decision to step down as Oscars host .... "When you look at that situation, who got screwed in that deal?" he asks. "I think Kevin is going to be fine. But finding another Kevin Hart -- that's not so easy."

• Byers Market parlor game: What happens first: President Trump finds a Chief of Staff or the Academy finds an Oscars host?

See you Monday.