A newly-formed coalition called Americans for Free Trade — comprised of thousands of businesses, farmers, manufacturers and other stakeholders — has launched a multi-million dollar campaign focused on amplifying the voices of Americans harmed by President Trump's trade war.
The big picture: "Tariffs Hurt the Heartland" will bring together leading trade organizations including the National Retail Federation, the American Petroleum Institute and others in the largest unified effort against tariffs to date. In addition to media buys, grassroots outreach and a “war room” that will fact check and respond to tariff announcements, the campaign will feature a geographically searchable map on its website that pinpoints stories of tariff pain.
The media gossip blog Gawker will relaunch in early 2019 under Bryan Goldberg, founder and CEO of Bustle Digital Group, after it was shut down two years ago, Variety's Todd Spangler reports. It's the latest move in BDG's large-scale acquisition of women- and millennial-focused sites.
Why it matters: Goldberg has his work cut out for him in rebuilding the site as "something new, vibrant, highly relevant, and worth visiting daily." Gawker was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2016 after it lost a lawsuit filed by Hulk Hogan due to its posting of a sex tape featuring the wrestler.
Dan talks about IPOs and new proposals for increasing mom/pop access to startups with Lise Buyer, who helped Google go public. In the "Final Two" Dan dives into the annual Apple event and how the financial crisis set the stage for our current politics.
Reddit — not Facebook or Twitter — is the social media site where the highest portion of users are exposed to news, according to a new study from Pew Research Center. This is up from last year, when Twitter was surveyed as having the highest share of users mining news on its platform.
Adapted from Pew Research Center; Note: Survey conducted July 30–Aug. 12, 2018; Axios Visuals
Why it matters: As Reddit becomes a more popular destination for news, it too will need to focus on the dangers of misinformation on its platform. For example, a recent report suggests that Reddit users flagged Iran's fake news campaign on the platform a year ago, but that executives ignored the warnings.
The dramatic departure of longtime CBS chief Les Moonves Sunday night came amid a flurry of big announcements from the company, including adding more women to its board, a legal settlement with its parent company and a $20 million donation to #MeToo causes pulled directly from Moonves' severance package.
Why it matters: Moonves is one of the most prominent corporate executives to be brought down by the #MeToo movement, and the drama that surrounds his exit will force CBS to fundamentally change as a company, with a ripple effect on the broader industry.
Verizon is betting its future on 5G, and executives tell Axios that includes a more aggressive push to focus its media brand Oath on building over-the-top (OTT) brands with a lot of live streaming content.
Why it matters: Oath chief Tim Armstrong is reportedly on his way out, raising questions about Verizon's media arm and the company's overall media ambitions.
On the morning of the 17th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, before departing for the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., President Trump tweeted topics from last night's edition of Fox Business' "Lou Dobbs Tonight," hitting on topics like the Russia investigation, the Department of Justice, and texts between former FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
Worth noting: Trump commended former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani his now-lawyer on his "GREAT job" in the aftermath of the attacks — and the @realdonaldtrump account did note to "#NeverForget" the attacks, though not in Trump's trademark style.
Small businesses, citing tax reform and regulatory rollbacks, reported the highest level of optimism in the National Federation of Independent Business monthly survey’s 45-year history.
Between the lines: While optimistic, more than half of business owners surveyed said there were few or no qualified workers to hire for open positions, a sign that the tight labor market is an issue that continues to spill onto Main Street.
China will ask the World Trade Organization next week for permission to impose sanctions on the U.S. over its unfair calculation of anti-dumping duties, which was ruled illegal by the WTO in 2016 and 2017, reports Reuters.
The big picture: China brought the trade dispute to the WTO in 2013, claiming that the U.S. inflates duties on Chinese goods that are priced at a lower level than American-made goods. The U.S. lost the dispute and its subsequent appeal, partially fueling President Trump's desire to abandon the WTO.
