Roughly 17 million people watched the first night of the Republican National Convention on television during the primary speech hours between 10 p.m.-11 p.m. EST Monday night, according to Nielsen ratings.
Why it matters: That's down more than 26% from the number of TV viewers for the first night of the 2016 RNC. It's also 13% lower than the number of TV viewers who watched the first night of the Democratic National Convention last week.
There's a hot new executive position at big companies: chief medical officer.
Why it matters: The coronavirus exposed a slew of vulnerabilities within our society, and one of them was the inability of large corporations to protect workers. Now, many firms are putting physicians in their C-suites to address some of those problems.
As the pandemic has persisted, Silicon Valley tech giants have extended their telework timelines — and some have even said that employees can stay home forever. But now those same firms are simultaneously betting on the future of the office.
Why it matters: Remote work has been successful at many firms, but the vast majority still have strong office cultures. The pandemic won't drastically alter that.
Chinese financial tech giant Ant Group today filed for what could become the largest initial public offering of all time, with plans to list in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Axios Re:Cap digs into why this deal is as much about geopolitics as it is about stocks, and why New York got left behind.
The coronavirus pandemic has emphasized the need for connecting underserved communities to the digital world, Thomas Parrish, the acting chief information officer of North Carolina's Information Technology Department, said on Tuesday at an Axios virtual event on the Future of Employability.
Why it matters: Countries around the world have been investing in connectivity, Parrish said, and the U.S. is now starting to realize that broadening internet access is "now something we can no longer afford to miss."
American Airlines said it will lay off 19,000 employees in October when the protections on those jobs as a condition for federal aid expire, CNBC reports.
Why it matters: The cuts come amid mass layoffs industrywide for air travel, which has seen demand plummet amid the coronavirus pandemic. Airlines that received help from the government are barred from laying people off until Sept. 30.
TV viewership for the Democratic National Convention was down about 17% on average this year across all four nights compared to 2016.
Why it matters: The drop is likely attributable, at least in part, to the virtual nature of the convention and the plethora of streaming and digital viewing options that exist today.
Ant Financial on Monday filed for an initial public offering in Hong Kong and Shanghai, after years of speculation and anticipation.
Why it matters: This could be the largest IPO of all time, topping the $29 billion raised last year by Saudi Aramco. It's also a passive aggressive escalation of China-U.S. tensions, with Ant snubbing New York.
Sales of PCs, webcams and other tech products that help people work, learn and play at home are up, while products designed for the highly mobile are losing ground.
The big picture: The pandemic has shifted where Americans spend their time — and, consequently, where they are spending their tech dollars.
Facebook is expediting the launch of its Facebook News tab in countries beyond the U.S., the company will announce Tuesday. Sources tell Axios that Facebook is working out deals to pay publishers in several countries to include their content in the News tab, just as the firm does in the U.S.
Yes, but: One notable absence from the list of countries is Australia. A source confirms that the company likely won't be launching Facebook News there for the foreseeable future, because of a battle Facebook is fighting with Australian regulators who intend to require the platform to pay news companies on the regulators' terms.
The National Association for Business Economics sees a grim future for the U.S. and global growth over the next two years, with more than 60% predicting U.S. GDP will remain below its 2019 level until at least 2022.
Why it matters: Initially expected to be a short-term economic stall, consensus is growing among economists that the slowdown triggered by the pandemic is becoming a protracted weight on the economy that will reduce growth and employment for years.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average announced a major shakeup on Monday after the market closed — it booted Pfizer, Raytheon Technologies and ExxonMobil, the oldest member of the index, having joined in 1928.
What happened: Salesforce, Amgen and Honeywell will replace those companies to "help diversify the index ... and adding new types of businesses that better reflect the American economy," S&P Dow Jones Indices said in a note announcing the changes.
Uber, in a fierce fight in California to continue treating drivers as independent contractors, on Tuesday will release a Benenson Strategy Group poll finding support for a new benefits approach outlined in a New York Times op-ed by CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
What it says: "Drivers and Voters overwhelmingly support Uber’s new Independent Contractor (IC) plan ... that allows Drivers to continue to work as Independent Contractors, maintaining the flexibility and freedom of working independently, but gives them access to benefits that today are only available to employees under existing labor laws."
"Hoax," the book about Fox News out today by CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter, has gotten so much online and TV buzz that the publisher is rushing to print 100,000 more hardcovers, for a total of 150,000.
The state of play: The book from One Signal/Atria, part of Simon & Schuster, has occupied the #1 slot on Amazon the past three days.
MSNBC and CNN cut away from live coverage of the Republican National Convention several times on Monday night in order to fact-check claims made by speakers. Fox News also cut away from several speeches, but didn't fact-check claims as aggressively.
Why it matters: There's been an ongoing debate amongst media insiders — and an advocacy campaign from progressive groups — about whether news networks should feel compelled to cut away from the RNC.
College media outlets are calling out their universities for failing to address the potentially-devastating communal spread of COVID-19 in their college towns.
Why it matters: With local newspapers in decline, campus papers have increasingly become the default for how students and community members get their news.
A federal judge temporarily ruled late Monday that while Apple doesn't have to reinstate Epic Games' Fortnite app, it cannot cut off the company's Apple developer account or restrict the use of its Unreal gaming engine by third-party developers as it had threatened to do on Aug. 28.
Why it matters: Epic Games picked a fight earlier this month with Apple over some of its strict App Store rules. The dispute has drawn other app makers critical of the iPhone maker's stronghold on how iOS apps are distributed and taxed by Apple just as the company faces increased antitrust scrutiny.
