Meta is set to remove political ads from its Ad Library for the first time since it launched the feature in 2018.

Why it matters: The ads represent the first digital election ads ever archived online in a comprehensive way.

• For researchers, journalists and political operatives, they also serve as an archive of the messaging and targeting strategies used by both parties in the first major race after President Trump was first elected.

⌛️ State of play: Meta, then Facebook, introduced its Ad Library on May 24, 2018. At the time, it said archived ads and advertisers would only be stored in the library for seven years.

• A spokesperson confirmed that ads will begin to disappear this Saturday.
• The Ad Library serves as a public archive for all ads and advertisers around social issues, elections or politics. It shows detailed information about how the ads were purchased, who they target and how long they ran.

🔍 Flashback: Facebook launched the library after Congress threatened to pass an "Honest Ads" law in 2017 requiring such transparency efforts.

• The law, championed by the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) with Democratic Sens. Mark Warner (Va.) and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), came close but never actually passed.
• But it pushed companies like Meta, Google, Snap and others to create their own online ad archives.

Reality check: The archive helped Facebook deflect criticism of its lack of transparency around its political ads after the tech giant disclosed that Russians surreptitiously bought ads on its platform during the 2016 election.

• Because the vast majority of ads on Facebook and other Meta platforms are bought in an automated fashion, the archive serves as a way for the public to be able to scrutinize candidates' tactics, not Meta's technology.

Zoom out: The impact of the Ad Library has been significant in helping Americans better understand election tactics that campaigns typically don't want voters or the media to see.

• For example, Kamala Harris' campaign ran pro-Israel ads targeted to voters in Pennsylvania on Facebook, while simultaneously running ads about the devastation in Gaza targeted to voters in Michigan.

What to watch: To date, there have not been any new laws written to force tech platforms to disclose which political ads run on their platforms, despite an increasing amount of political advertising moving from local broadcast — where public disclosures are required by law — to digital channels.

• Congress has in the past few years introduced measures that aim to regulate AI-generated content in political ads, but no bill with such requirements has been passed into law.

The abrupt resignation of CBS News and Stations president and CEO Wendy McMahon on Monday underscores how tense the relationship has become between CBS' news division and its corporate parent.

Why it matters: McMahon's resignation comes as CBS' parent company Paramount considers settling a $20 billion lawsuit by President Trump over a segment on "60 Minutes."

• While government oversight isn't supposed to impact private lawsuits, settling Trump's complaint is widely seen as Paramount executives' only path toward ensuring regulatory approval for its $8 billion+ merger with Skydance Media.

💰 The settlement could fall between $30 million to $50 million, CNN's Jake Tapper reported.

Zoom out: McMahon's resignation comes as network executives wrestle with how to preserve their editorial integrity.

• McMahon repeatedly defended coverage of the Trump administration on "60 Minutes" amid executive pressure to temper its reports, per CNN.
• Last month, CBS News' "60 Minutes" longtime executive producer Bill Owens stepped down, citing concerns about journalistic independence.

🏔️ Between the lines: McMahon's tenure had been marked by broader controversies around the company's coverage that ultimately led Paramount executives to push her out, the New York Times reported.

• Last year, Paramount Global chair Shari Redstone publicly condemned the handling of an interview about the Israel-Palestine conflict by CBS News' leadership.

What's next: No new executives are directly replacing McMahon, according to a memo sent to staff from Paramount co-CEO George Cheeks.

• In addition to her role leading CBS News, McMahon also oversaw CBS Media Ventures, the network's syndication unit.

A new media company called At the Moment Media (ATM) is launching today to give executives across the media, entertainment, advertising, publishing and technology industries the ability to pay for cutting-edge video coverage of their executives, products, events and major moments.

Why it matters: The firm is specifically built as a complement to traditional journalism, not a competitor, said ATM founder and CEO Robert Wheeler, a veteran media marketer and communications executive.

🎥 How it works: ATM will produce videos of executives and industry influencers telling their stories in multiple video formats for a fee.

• The videos, which are polished and professionally produced, are meant to help clients better communicate their key messages to the marketplace, Wheeler said.

Between the lines: ATM's model allows partners to buy individual video packages or more expansive packages that are yearlong strategic partnerships.

• For a premium fee, clients can reserve category-exclusive deals with ATM for up to one year.

The big picture: The advertising and media industries aren't new to this sort of pay-to-play media venture.

• Beet.TV, a video platform that serves a similar audience, has been producing videos for companies and executives since 2006.

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Broadway shows are getting newfound attention from TV networks and streamers looking to tap into the theater industry's post-pandemic boom.

🎟️ Why it matters: "The previous thinking was, if you stream things, no one will come to the theater," said Alex Levy, a four-time Tony-winning producer.

• "Broadway is now starting to realize that streaming shows actually builds interest in the live experience — it doesn't detract from it."

📺 Driving the news: CNN will air a live telecast of George Clooney's "Good Night, and Good Luck" next month and mark a historic Broadway first of a live play being televised, the company said last week.

• "Live TV. No net. Buckle up everyone," Clooney said in a statement.

The big picture: Streamers and TV networks have aired Broadway shows to tap into their cultural relevance and reach new audiences.

• Disney will release a recorded version of "Frozen" from its West End run on Disney+ on June 20. Back in 2020, Disney brought "Hamilton" to Disney+.
• PBS is now airing its eighth annual "Broadway's Best" lineup for the PBS series, "Great Performances," including "Next to Normal, "Yellow Face," "Girl from the North Country" and "Kiss Me, Kate."
• Max began streaming a filmed version of "Waitress: The Musical," starring Sara Bareilles, earlier this year. Max also offers "Alex Edelman: Just for Us," a recording from the 2023 Broadway run, after it aired on HBO.
• NBC has hosted its own live productions of musicals, including "Hairspray" in 2016, "Jesus Christ Superstar" in 2018 and "Annie" in 2021.
• Fox aired its own live version of "Rent" in 2019.

Between the lines: Streamers and live productions are converging as content owners see value in expanding reach from stages to screens and vice versa.

• Netflix released a stage adaptation of "Stranger Things." Written as a prequel to its hit series, "Stranger Things: The First Shadow" debuted on the West End in 2023 and came to Broadway this year.
• Disney has long brought its movies to stages. "Aladdin" celebrated its 4,000th performance on Broadway last weekend. "Hercules" starts on the West End next month. "Beauty and the Beast" begins a North American tour this summer.
• Warner Bros. produced a musical version of "Beetlejuice."
• NBCUniversal's "Wicked" adaptation renewed interest in the stage productions, securing the highest-grossing week in Broadway history last December at $5 million.

Yes, but: Adaptations may not always be big financial wins on their own, but for streamers with big pockets, like Netflix, they can boost broader marketing or talent promotion efforts.

• Netflix's "Stranger Things" Broadway adaptation grossed about $880,000 in the week ending May 11. It's unclear how much Netflix is spending to run the show, but for major productions like "Wicked," fixed costs typically run anywhere from $650,000 to $800,000 weekly.

💸 By the numbers: Broadway recently returned to its pre-pandemic heights.

• The current theater season has already grossed $1.801 billion, surpassing the $1.793 billion brought in by this point in the record-setting 2018–19 season, according to data from The Broadway League.
• But profitability remains a concern as production costs rise.

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The Athletic has posted a profit for the past three quarters, proving its parent, the New York Times, is good for its word when it comes to Wall Street projections.

Why it matters: The sports media startup was losing millions when the Times acquired it in 2022. Times executives assured investors that the site would eventually be accretive to its revenue growth rate after three years.

Reality check: If The Athletic didn't become reliably profitable within the time frame the Times projected, it would've made it harder for the Gray Lady to convince investors of its strategy for future acquisitions.

Zoom in: A big part of The Athletic's path to profitability has been integrating it further into the New York Times subscription bundle and growing its paid advertising.

• The New York Times no longer breaks out how many subscribers The Athletic has individually, but it does disclose subscriber numbers for its newsletters.
• The Athletic — which just debuted its 10th newsletter, hockey-focused Red Light — will surpass 6 million total newsletter subscribers this week, a spokesperson said.

🤝 Zoom out: The Athletic has started to explore bigger advertising partnerships. Deals with BetMGM, eBay and StubHub have helped it explore sports lifestyle topics such as betting, collectibles and ticketing, respectively.

• Those types of opportunities are expected to be a big part of The Athletic's commercial expansion, executives previously told Axios.
• The Athletic has expanded in audio. This week, it said "The Tennis Podcast" was joining The Athletic Podcast Network. And last month, it signed an ad sales deal with Swedish podcast company Acast for audio ads, podcast sponsorships, podcast video and branded content.

What to watch: While The Athletic has mostly focused on text and audio to date, the company has invested more in video. That could drive more commercial opportunities.

• At a NewFronts presentation earlier this month, The Athletic announced "No Free Lunch," a digital series hosted by former NFL player Ndamukong Suh.
• The Athletic is partnering with the NBA and WNBA to provide highlights embedded in its articles and its app.
• Last year, Fubo was named The Athletic's official live TV streaming partner through a multiyear agreement that includes content and product integrations and co-marketing.

Streaming services are shifting to promoting the quality of their programming instead of the sheer quantity of it, Axios' Kerry Flynn and I write in our latest Axios Media Trends Executive Briefing.

Why it matters: The industry is under pressure to control costs and show that fewer, high-impact titles can deliver a better return on investment.

🔄 Driving the news: Warner Bros. Discovery's rebrand of Max back to HBO Max was the clearest sign of this trend.

• "No consumer today is saying they want more content, but most consumers are saying they want better content," JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games for Warner Bros. Discovery, said last week at the industry's "upfront" presentations.

The other side: Netflix's pitch to potential customers has always relied heavily on the breadth of its offerings, and that isn't changing.

• 2025 is expected to be a big year with "Squid Game," "Wednesday" and "Stranger Things" returning, said Amy Reinhard, Netflix's president of advertising.

To go deeper, subscribe to Axios Media Trends Executive.

Threats from the Biden administration to news reporters successfully worked to prevent earlier coverage of his decline, according to the new book, "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson.

Why it matters: The book goes into great detail about ways the White House bullied reporters out of covering the former president's cognitive decline, even going so far as to threaten reporters and publicly label them as peddlers of fake news.

The big picture: The book, which debuts today, hits shelves just days after former President Biden disclosed that he had Stage 4 prostate cancer.

• The announcement was quickly met with sympathy late Sunday. But by yesterday morning, questions about the timing of Biden's announcement, coupled with the way his handlers tried to cover up his health issues in the past, fueled speculation about how long he'd known about the cancer, Thompson reported alongside Axios' Marc Caputo and Tal Axelrod.

Zoom in: The book is riddled with examples of ways the Biden administration tried to undermine reporters looking to challenge the White House's messaging around the former president's health.

Example 1: Weeks prior to the Wall Street Journal's story, "Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping," a reporter at another national news outlet had heard reports that Biden was forgetting names and facts and sometimes seemed seriously confused at meetings, the book reports.

• In addition to members of the White House Press Office disputing the reporting, Biden's longtime aide Steve Ricchetti called the reporter. "[H]e told her that everything the others were saying was false, and that he was at the meetings as a deputy chief of staff," the book says.

Example 2: Biden aides pushed to discredit a straightforward story by the New York Times about the former president's health by asking Democratic operatives to publicly amplify social media posts that criticized the editors at the Times, saying that they "cannot help themselves."

• "The goal was to shame journalists and create a disincentive structure for those curious about the president's condition," the book reads.

The bottom line: "Too many reporters took the White House denials at face value," Thompson and Tapper wrote. "Few other outlets outside conservative media followed the story."

The "Sesame Street" crew is coming to Netflix.

• Netflix announced yesterday that it picked up worldwide streaming rights for the iconic children's show.
• The deal starts later this year. It comes after Warner Bros. Discovery ended its streaming partnership with the show late last year.
• New episodes will hit Netflix, PBS and the PBS Kids app on the same day.

🎬 Netflix has been investing in children's content as it looks to replace traditional TV packages for families.

• 🍈 The company holds streaming rights to "Ms. Rachel" and "CoComelon," two of the most popular children's YouTube channels globally.
• 🐷 Later yesterday, Netflix announced an expanded deal with hit U.K. kids' TV sensation "Peppa Pig."
• Kids and family entertainment represents 15% of Netflix's total viewing.

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