1 big thing: 💰New money, old problem

2. Digital media survival guide

Exclusive: Kara Swisher steps away from hosting Code Conference

3. Exclusive: Kara's last Code

4. Exclusive: NYT plans advertising expansion into non-news products

5. 🏀 Overtime raises $100 million


6. Discipline comes for streaming

Illustration of the HBO Max and Discovery+ logos merged with a play icon in the middle.

Today's Media Trends newsletter is 1,540 words, a 6-minute read. Tell your friends to follow along by signing up here.

🚨 Situational awareness: ESPN has pulled out of Big Ten media rights negotiations, "ending one of the longest sports media relationships in the business," Sports Business Journal's John Ourand reports.

National

Two interconnected white triangles on a red square, both pointing forward.

deepBlue

Get breaking news and analysis about the media industry

Axios Media Trends

1 big thing: Biggest midterm ever

2. CNN eyes multiple anchors for 9pm

3. Cable's new crisis

4. Spotify resilient as tech sector crumbles

Photo illustration of Spotify CEO Daniel Ek

5. 🍪 Post-cookie chaos

6. ⚖️ Books on the bench

Illustration of books like dominoes being hit by a gavel. 

Today's Media Trends newsletter is 1,425 words, a 5.5-minute read. Tell your friends to follow along by signing up here.

Situational awareness: Sheryl Sandberg officially stepped down as Meta COO yesterday, days after the company posted its first ever quarterly revenue decline since going public in 2012. 

Sandberg's last day as an employee is Sept. 30, though she will continue to serve as a member of the board.

1 big thing: Money makin' money

2. Scoop: Industry Dive to sell for up to $525 million

3. Bloomberg CEO plots global expansion

Photo illustration of Scott Havens with abstract shapes and location icons.

4. Charter raises $3 million

5. 😬 Netflix jitters

6. 😴 Subscription sleepers

Today's Media Trends is 1,424 words, a 5-minute read. Tell your friends to follow along by signing up here.

📣 Axios Communicators, written by Eleanor Hawkins, is launching this week. Sign up. 

🐦 Situational awareness: A hearing today at the Delaware Court of Chancery will determine whether the trial between Twitter and Elon Musk will happen in September, per Twitter's request. Musk is seeking a delay. 

1 big thing: Newsweek lawsuit drama

Illustration of a paper airplane made of folded Newsweek magazine pages

2. Bracing for impact

3. New era for social media

Illustration of a telescope with a Facebook default profile picture in place of a lens

4. Scoop: Chartbeat sold

An illustration of mouse click icons as tombstones.

5. NFL's streaming ambitions

6. 1 fun thing: New streaming milestone

Today's Media Trends newsletter is 1,436 words, a 5.5-minute read. Tell your friends to follow along by signing up here.

1 big thing: Oracle auditing TikTok algorithms

Illustration of the eyes emoji with the Tik Tok logo as the pupils.

2. Scoop: Condé Nast on pace to top 2021 revenues

Illustration of Condé Nast magazines with Ben Franklin on the cover

3. 📺 The TV bundle is back

4. Exclusive: Morning Brew's creator program

Photo illustration of, from left, Sigin Ojulu, Emma Chieppor, Jack Appleby and Katie Gatti in a coffee mug.

5. Activist investors target media

Illustration of a repeating megaphone pattern.

6. Nexstar buys 75% of The CW

R-rated genre struggling at the box office

7. 1 fun thing: Risky films blush at box office

Today's Media Trends newsletter is 1,529 words, a 6-minute read. Tell your friends to follow along by signing up here.

🚨 Situational awareness: Amazon has inked a three-year deal to have Nielsen measure Amazon Prime Video's NFL Thursday Night Football telecasts.

Digital World Acquisition Group (DWAC), the blank check company that plans to merge with the parent company of former president Donald Trump's social media app Truth Social and take it public, has requested an extension from the SEC to file its second-quarter earnings results. 

Why it matters: The success of Truth Social and its parent Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) rides on the financial health of its parent company and its SPAC. 

Details: In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Tuesday, DWAC said it was unable to file its second-quarter earnings report "because additional time is needed to prepare the financial statements."

DWAC noted it would file its earnings report within the five-day grace period allotted by the SEC. 

Asked in the filing whether the company anticipates "any significant change in results of operations from the corresponding period for the last fiscal year will be reflected by the earnings statements" that would be included in the report, DWAC checked a box that read "Yes."

The company said it lost roughly $4.7 million last quarter and around $6.5 million total for the first half of the year, but that those figures are still being reviewed by its accounting firm and could be subject to change with the official earnings report. 

The big picture: DWAC has been riddled with issues for months. 

The SPAC is under investigation by the SEC for possibly negotiating their deal prior to DWAC going public, which is illegal if true.

An investor sued the SPAC's CEO last year claiming fraud. 

There's been confusion regarding whether or not certain members of the board are still on the board.  

Last week DWAC asked shareholders to approve an extension of its merger agreement by a year.

What to watch: The FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago earlier this month has boosted downloads to Truth Social, per data from Apptopia. 

SPAC looking to take Trump's media firm public delays earnings report

The success of Truth Social and its parent Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) rides on the financial health of its parent company and its SPAC.

Donald Trump stands in front of a black background.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held at the Hilton Anatole on August 06, 2022 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Truth Social

Digital World Acquisition Group (DWAC), the blank check company that plans to merge with the parent company of former president Donald Trump&#x27;s social media app Truth Social and take it public, has <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="requested an extension" data-vars-click-url="https://app.quotemedia.com/data/downloadFiling?webmasterId=90423&amp;ref=116892828&amp;type=PDF&amp;symbol=DWAC&amp;companyName=Digital+World+Acquisition+Corp.&amp;formType=NT+10-Q&amp;formDescription=Notification+of+inability+to+timely+file+Form+10-Q+or+10-QSB&amp;dateFiled=2022-08-16&amp;CK=1849635" data-vars-content-id="22611978-5414-440d-af2a-52cba3945a3c" data-vars-headline="SPAC looking to take Trump&#x27;s media firm public delays earnings report" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://app.quotemedia.com/data/downloadFiling?webmasterId=90423&amp;ref=116892828&amp;type=PDF&amp;symbol=DWAC&amp;companyName=Digital+World+Acquisition+Corp.&amp;formType=NT+10-Q&amp;formDescription=Notification+of+inability+to+timely+file+Form+10-Q+or+10-QSB&amp;dateFiled=2022-08-16&amp;CK=1849635" target="_blank">requested an extension</a> from the SEC to file its second-quarter earnings results. Why it matters: The success of Truth Social and its parent Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) rides on the financial health of its parent company and its SPAC.

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Technology

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Meta on Tuesday said it would no longer permit any edits to political, social or electoral ads that have been previously approved to run within the week leading up to the U.S. midterms.

Why it matters: It's part of a greater set of precautions the company is taking to limit misinformation spreading around the election, especially as it pertains to voting integrity.

Ads that present new claims in the final days of an election may be difficult to contest or fact-check in time.

Details: Like last cycle, Meta will restrict all new ads from running within the week running up to election day.

Ads that were previously approved and already running will be allowed to continue running during that time, but any edits related to creative, placement, targeting and optimization won’t be permitted. 

The restriction period will lift the day after the election. At this time, Meta's president, global affairs Nick Clegg told Axios that the company has no plans to extend that deadline, but will consider additional safeguards and restrictions if necessary. 

In conjunction with its 2020 policies, Meta will continue to reject ads encouraging people not to vote or calling into question the legitimacy of the upcoming election.

Between the lines: The tech giant also said it will take further precautions to prevent misinformation pertaining to voting, in light of false narratives that continue to be spread — mostly by conservative lawmakers — about election fraud.

Content with misinformation or misleading claims about dates, locations, times, and methods of voting; who can vote, whether a vote will be counted, qualifications for voting, will be removed. 

Calls for violence related to voting, voter registration, or the administration or outcome of an election are also not permitted. 

Be smart: Historically, Clegg said, the company scaled back its election defenses for midterms following presidential elections. But "the more we looked at it," he said, "the more we felt that the arrangements that we had in place in 2020," were necessary for this year's midterms.

The big picture: Meta has pushed to ensure regulators and the public that it takes voter interference seriously, ever since Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 election were uncovered.

Clegg said the company has spent around $5 billion globally on safety and security across its entire platform in the past year. 

Broadly speaking, Meta's election integrity efforts mimic much of its strategy from the 2020 election. The company will continue to invest in security operations to fight interference campaigns and will work with independent fact-checkers to provide accurate information about the election to users. 

The company will continue to show users reminders directing them to information on how and when to register to vote. The company will also take some steps to improve those efforts by elevating comments on posts from local election officials. 

It will invest an additional $5 million in fact-checking and media literacy initiatives ahead of the midterms, including efforts to combat Spanish-language misinformation.

During the midterms, Meta will show election-related in-Feed notifications in a second language other than English.

What to watch: In response to user feedback about the 2020 election, Meta said it will be careful not to overuse some of the labels it uses to fact-check content that its fact-checking partners finds is misleading or wrong.

Bottom line: "I can't pretend that our crystal ball is any clearer than anybody else's given how unpredictable politics is, but I do like to think that what we're outlining here shows a pretty high and heightened state of vigilance compared to the midterms four years ago," Clegg said. 

Meta updates political ads policy ahead of midterms

The tech giant also said it will take further precautions to prevent misinformation pertaining to voting.

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Meta (company)

Meta on Tuesday said it would no longer permit any edits to political, social or electoral ads that have been previously approved to run within the week leading up to the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="U.S. midterms" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/midterms-elections-2022-issues-americans-care" data-vars-content-id="34583a43-90c9-417c-a7e6-12823720f2e0" data-vars-headline="Meta updates political ads policy ahead of midterms" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/midterms-elections-2022-issues-americans-care" target="_self">U.S. midterms</a>.Why it matters: It&#x27;s part of a greater set of precautions the company is taking to limit misinformation spreading around the election, especially as it pertains to voting integrity.

Morning Brew, the business media company that caters to millennials, has launched a creator program that allows independent personalities to work for the company full time while maintaining separate and distinct products and brands. 

Why it matters: The program will help Morning Brew expand into niche areas, like personal finance, entrepreneurship and productivity, said Austin Rief, CEO of Morning Brew. It will also help the company continue to expand into business verticals outside of newsletters. 

"We believe our audience cares about a lot of these niche topics, and we think the best way to cover those topics is to have a variety of different people, different points of view, who speak differently, all in the same ethos of Morning Brew, but maybe in their own tone and their own style," said Rief.

Details: The company currently works with seven creators, all of which are on Morning Brew's payroll full time. 

Rief declined to provide details about how the creators are compensated differently from full-time reporters, but he alluded to the fact that they each have unique deals. "We want to understand how we can ensure that creators are incentivized to stay for a long period of time," Rief said. 

How it works: Some creators, including Katie Gatti — a 26-year-old podcaster and personal finance writer — have brought their existing brands to Morning Brew to grow them with the support of Morning Brew's infrastructure. 

Others, like Sigin Ojulu, are launching personal brands on Morning Brew's social channels. 

Gatti said her newsletter, Money with Katie, has grown from fewer than 10,000  free subscribers to over 100,000 since joining Morning Brew in January. Her social following, she said, is four times larger. Her podcast hit 1 million downloads for 2022 earlier this month. 

"It really comes down to Morning Brew's distribution," Gatti said. "If they have 4.5 million subscribers already, that's a lot of eyeballs that I can now get in front of that maybe I wouldn't have been able to get in front of before."

Between the lines: For creators like Gatti, the partnership provides support to be able to launch into new verticals that require cash investments upfront, like merchandise and events. 

Gatti, as well as Emma Chieppor, the 25-year-old founder of Excel Dictionary, a franchise that focuses on optimizing workplace skills, have both launched merchandise lines with Morning Brew. 

Gatti sells a line of Rich Girl clothing and accessories, a nod to her finance and savings brand, while Chieppor sells Microsoft Excel spreadsheet guides.

The big picture: Traditional news companies are struggling to strike the right balance between elevating their own brands and the brands of their journalists. 

That tension has given rise to several news startups that are designed to give journalists more flexibility as creators, such as Puck, Semafor and more recently, The Information.

What to watch: Morning Brew is on pace to bring in over $70 million in revenue this year, up from $46 million in 2021, per AdWeek. 

The company now has over 300 employees, up from around 60 when it was acquired by Insider in 2020. 

It currently has around 4.5 million subscribers across 11 free newsletters. In May, Axios reported that the company now has over 1 million email sign-ups across its five business verticals. 

Exclusive: Morning Brew building creator program

Independent personalities can work for the company full time while maintaining separate and distinct brands.

Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photos: Sigin Ojulu, Emma Chieppor, Jack Appleby and Katie Gatti.

News media

Media

Morning Brew, the business media company that caters to millennials, has launched a creator program that allows independent personalities to work for the company full time while maintaining separate and distinct products and brands. Why it matters: The program will help Morning Brew expand into niche areas, like personal finance, entrepreneurship and productivity, said Austin Rief, CEO of Morning Brew. It will also help the company continue to expand into business verticals outside of newsletters.

Condé Nast is expecting this year to exceed the nearly $2 billion in total revenue it saw in 2021 thanks to continued growth in its advertising business, a source familiar with the figures told Axios. 

Why it matters: Most digital publishers are forecasting advertising growth slowdowns in response to macroeconomic factors impacting the economy, like inflation and supply chain issues.  

For firms like Condé Nast that attract luxury advertisers or local broadcasters that attract political ads, the slump hasn't been as bad. 

But for publishers that cater to categories impacted by supply chain issues, like auto and consumer package goods, the headwinds have been material. 

Details: For the first half of this year, Condé Nast — which is home to publications like Vanity Fair, Wired, Vogue, Architectural Digest and GQ — saw an 11% growth in advertising, a spokesperson confirmed to Axios. 

That growth was fueled by a +13% growth in digital advertising year over year, as well as print advertising gains. 

A majority of the company's advertising revenue is now digital, thanks to investments in product and technology. 

Last year, the company posted a profit for the first time in years, per the Wall Street Journal. It's unclear if the company will post a profit again this year, as it looks to continue investing in its digital expansion. 

The big picture: Condé Nast is owned by Advance Publications, which is managed by descendents of the Newhouse family. 

Unlike some of its publicly traded publishing rivals, the magazine giant has been able to manage its digital pivot privately.

The company is currently in the process of streamlining its brands globally to reduce costs as it transitions to digital products, but its print products still hold a massive premium in terms of brand equity. 

Vogue's latest cover, featuring Serena Williams and her daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., was the company's second-most trafficked story to Vogue.com ever, following Harry Style's December 2020 cover, a spokesperson said. 

What to watch: As Condé Nast looks to fuel digital subscription growth, it's also begun to experiment with new types of consumer revenue models. 

The company has quietly launched a new membership model for its flagship publication called Vogue Club. 

A membership will cost $25 monthly, or $250 annually, and gives users access to exclusive events, merchandise, social events held by the Vogue team and more. 

Members will also get exclusive early access to Vogue World, a fashion show and street fair event. 

Sources say the company is eyeing similar membership models for other publications, like GQ, in 2023. 

Condé Nast on pace to top 2021 revenues

A majority of the company's advertising revenue is now digital, thanks to investments in product and technology.

Media trends

Condé Nast is expecting this year to exceed the nearly $2 billion in total revenue it saw in 2021 thanks to continued growth in its advertising business, a source familiar with the figures told Axios. Why it matters: Most digital publishers are forecasting <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="advertising growth slowdowns" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/26/ad-market-slowdown-media-tech" data-vars-content-id="5700580a-469a-4c48-8d37-0a8f04672d2c" data-vars-headline="Condé Nast on pace to top 2021 revenues" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2022/07/26/ad-market-slowdown-media-tech" target="_self">advertising growth slowdowns</a> in response to macroeconomic factors impacting the economy, like inflation and supply chain issues.

Note: G rating data not available in 2022; Data: The Numbers; Chart: Axios Visuals

So far in 2022, the percentage of box office revenue that has gone toward R-rated films is the lowest it's been in over 25 years.

Why it matters: R-rated films across genres like drama and romance are increasingly being pushed to at-home streaming, while more family-friendly action and adventure franchises continue to dominate theaters. 

The big picture: "If the greatest chance of box office success is having a PG-13 rating, or not having an R rating, then that's where the industry really had to go if that was the primary goal," said Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

"However, some of the best movies of all time have benefitted from wearing the R rating as a badge of honor and in fact many horror (and action) films benefit from this harder-edged designation, which can often lead to greater success for these films," he said. 

This year's box office, while up significantly from this point last year, is still down more than 30% compared to 2019.

The pandemic forced many indie films, which are more likely to be rated R, out of the theatrical business.

By the numbers: The vast majority of movies that hit theaters over the past two years were PG-13, according to data from The Numbers. 

Every movie that grossed over $100 million in 2021 was rated PG-13. 

So far this year, every movie that has grossed over $100 million has been PG-13 with the exception of two G-rated movies: "Minions: The Rise of Gru" and "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" and one R-rated film, "Nope."

Yes, but: Several notable R-rated $100 million+ domestic performers have historically come out in August, Dergarabedian said.

"I call it the punk rock month for movies," he said, referring to releases like "District 9," "Superbad" and "Inglourious Basterds."

"It seems to be the month where you get the edgier summer fare."

What's next: Sony’s "Bullet Train," which debuted earlier this month with an R rating, has grossed over $50 million domestically.

Idris Elba's survival thriller "Beast" debuts Friday with an R rating.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional quotes from Paul Dergarabedian about the R rating. 

R-rated films are increasingly being pushed to streaming while more family-friendly fare dominates theaters.

Sections

Axios Local

Axios gets you smarter, faster with news & information that matters.

About

Subscribe

Sara Fischer

Stories

SPAC looking to take Trump's media firm public delays earnings report

Meta updates political ads policy ahead of midterms

R-rated genre struggling at the box office

Exclusive: Morning Brew building creator program

Condé Nast on pace to top 2021 revenues

Newsletter editions

Axios Media Trends: TikTok algorithm audit

Axios Media Trends: Kara's last Code

Axios Media Trends: Biggest midterm ever

Axios Media Trends: Newsweek lawsuit drama

Axios Media Trends: 💰 Surprise Money-maker