Good morning. Programming alert: I'll be interviewing Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman at this year's SXSW Festival about their Quibi venture, mobile storytelling and the future of media.

• Don't sleep on your Lambert's reservation.

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Reed Hastings hikes Netflix

Reed Hastings has raised Netflix prices by 13% to 18%, the biggest price hike since the company launched 12 years ago. The move, meant to help offset the company's massive debt, has reignited a longstanding debate over how much Netflix can charge before it starts to lose subscribers.

• Whatever the limit, Netflix hasn't hit it yet. As Amazon's former strategy chief Matthew Ball notes, "Netflix puts out so much volume a multi-user family has simply absorbed the bill."

The real challenge to Netflix's dominance will come when Disney, AT&T and Comcast begin to pull their content from Netflix and make it exclusive to their own streaming services, which will launch in late 2019 and 2020.

• That means Netflix is playing against the clock. If it can build a broad portfolio of strong, original content before Disney, AT&T and Comcast enter the market, it could become too big to fail. If not, it could fail quite quickly.

• That gives Hastings & Co. about a year to build the portfolio and make the case to subscribers that Netflix is worth $13-a-month without the content that its competitors take back.

That, and ... Bloomberg's Shira Ovide points out that Netflix's simple technology may give it an edge over its competitors:

• "Netflix is so simple people can buy it without thinking. There is basically one version of Netflix. There are no options for live television, with or without commercials, or add-ons for people who love old Hollywood movies."

For now, CNBC says "investors are cheering Netflix's decision."

Fun fact, via CNBC's Shawn Carter: If you'd invested $1,000 in Netflix when it launched in 2007, you'd have $90,000 now.

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Evan Spiegel loses money man

Snap Chief Financial Officer Tim Stone will leave his post next month after eight months on the job, the latest in a string of executive departures that raise questions about the future of Evan Spiegel's company.

• Snap VP of investor relations Kristin Southey also quietly departed in late November after four months on the job, Cheddar's Alex Heath reports.

• The Scorecard, via Heath: "Since going public in March 2017, Snap has lost its Chief Strategy Officer, VP of Product, SVP of Engineering, two Chief Financial Officers, General Counsel, three VPs of Hardware, Chief Security Officer, VP of Content, VP of Sales, VP of Marketing, VP of Communications, and HR chief."

The Big Picture: Snap is in trouble. It's losing executives at a record clip, often within months of their hiring, and it's still suffering from its infamous app redesign failure. Oh/and: It's under federal investigation related to a class action shareholder lawsuit.

• Snap shares fell more than 7% in after-hours trading. ...

• ... and are down more than 76% since the IPO.

Spiegel's memo to staff:

• "Tim’s transition is not related to any disagreement with us on any matter relating to our accounting, strategy, management, operations, policies, regulatory matters, or practices (financial or otherwise)."

How that's playing: "Odd..." "Material negative."

Woof.

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Big in the Bay: The Golden State Warriors set an NBA record by scoring 51 points in the first quarter of their rout of the Denver Nuggets. Here's a three-minute video of every single bucket.

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Maria Bartiromo goes Trump

Maria Bartiromo's transformation from "generational icon for financial television" to "Trump apologist" is the subject of William D. Cohan's latest piece for Institutional Investor:

• "The Brooklyn-born-and-raised Bartiromo, who once dominated the lane reporting on the vicissitudes of the stock market, has been busy lately transforming herself into a Trump acolyte."

• "'What happened to Maria?' is a question that is increasingly being asked, sotto voce, in New York media and financial circles. ... Occasionally, that amazement over her transformation bursts into the open."

• Fox Business "seems particularly sensitive to the suggestion that Bartiromo has become a Trump apologist."

• "Others say Bartiromo is simply a Zelig who has morphed expertly into her new surroundings at Fox, where being able to get Trump on camera is both expected and a rite of passage."

What's Next: Open question. Cohan reports that Bartiromo, who has been at Fox since 2014, "is coming to the end of a six-year contract that has paid her $6 million per year."

• "Whether Bartiromo’s asymptotic movement toward Trump has done anything for her professionally — other than to raise questions about her objectivity — remains to be seen."

Bloomberg/Getty

Roku's Alex Jones moment

Roku's decision to give conspiracy theorist Alex Jones his own channel on Roku resulted in a fierce (and familiar) backlash yesterday that caused Founder/CEO Anthony Wood to reverse course almost immediately.

• On Tuesday morning, Roku said that, "to our knowledge," Jones' Infowars had not violated their policies.

• By Tuesday evening, Roku said it "determined that the channel should be removed" after hearing from "concerned parties" — including lawyers for the families of Sandy Hook victims, who have been harassed by Infowars fans who believe Jones' false claim that the shooting was a hoax.

The Big Picture: Tech companies are still struggling to balance consistent policies on speech against public pressure over divisive content. Whether Roku made the right or wrong decision, it's never a good look to be making decisions ad-hoc amid public pressure.

That, and ... How did Roku not see this coming? Apple, YouTube, Facebook and nearly every other social media platform removed Jones' content last year because it violated their standards against hate speech.

Market Links

• Robert Dickey pursues a Gizmodo acquisition (WSJ)

• Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger will appear at SXSW (THR)

• Gabriel Weinberg strikes a deal with Apple (Verge)

• Lachlan Murdoch hires a sports ad sales chief (Variety)

• Jay Sures nabs Darnell Strom from CAA (Deadline)

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

Adam Moss leaves New York

Talk of Manhattan: "Adam Moss, whose visual savvy and ear for the zeitgeist made him one of the leading magazine editors of his generation, said on Tuesday that he would step down from New York magazine," NYT's Michael Grynbaum reports:

The Big Picture: "The departure of Mr. Moss, the longest-serving editor in chief in the title’s half-century history, is another signal moment for an industry that has been transformed by the digital revolution."

• "Moss is less of a household name than gregarious counterparts like Graydon Carter, formerly of Vanity Fair, and Anna Wintour of Vogue. But his editorial ethos ... permanently reshaped several of the country’s most prominent publications."

• Moss money quote: "I’m older than the staff. I’m older than the readers. I just want to do something new."

What's Next: "The chief executive of New York Media, Pamela Wasserstein, is expected to announce a successor in the coming days."

Future Casting: From the latest issue of Moss's New York, here are "8 predictions for what the world will look like in 20 years," including an Internet Cold War, total computerization and the end of the nation state. On that happy note ...

See you tomorrow.