The Trump administration is ramping up its attacks on the press as it struggles to control its messaging about the war in Iran.

The big picture: History suggests that when press freedoms are targeted during times of war, they're rarely reinstated.

Catch up quick: Over the past few weeks, the administration has threatened news outlets with regulatory retaliation and blocked access over their coverage of the war with Iran.

• 📺 FCC chair Brendan Carr on Saturday threatened to revoke broadcast licenses if war coverage did not "operate in the public interest."
• 🇺🇸 The Pentagon in recent days has started to tighten its grip over the independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes after asserting that the paper was too focused on "woke distractions," according to NPR.
• 📷 A reporter from The Atlantic last week said they, along with other print photographers, were denied access to a Pentagon press briefing last Thursday.
• 🔨 Hegseth later that week reprimanded reporters during a briefing on Friday for their coverage. He called out CNN specifically for a story that alleged the Trump administration underestimated Iran's willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz.

Zoom out: Temporary measures introduced to crack down on the media during the outset of military conflicts tend to become permanent, even after the conflict has subsided.

• Al Jazeera remains banned in Israel, following a measure passed in 2024 during the Gaza war that allows the government to take action against any foreign media network that it can prove poses a national security risk. Today, Israel is considered one of the top jailers of journalists globally.
• Western news outlets remain largely absent from Russia following the passage of the Kremlin's 2022 Ukraine wartime law that imposes up to 15 years in prison for critical coverage.

The bottom line: Once considered a bastion for press freedoms, the U.S. track record for treatment of the fourth estate is now considered "problematic," according to Reporters Without Borders.

Go deeper

Smaller web publishers, with 1,000–10,000 daily page views, are experiencing the most precipitous traffic declines in the AI era, according to new Chartbeat data provided exclusively to Axios.

Why it matters: The data suggests larger publishers with better brand recognition and stronger direct-to-consumer products are more insulated from declines in traditional search traffic.

📊 Zoom in: Over the past two years, referral traffic from traditional search engines has declined by 60% for small publishers, compared with 47% for medium-sized publishers and 22% for large publishers, per Chartbeat.

• Medium-sized publishers are outlets with 10,000–100,000 daily page views, on average. Large publishers are those with more than 100,000 daily page views on average.

🤖 Reality check: Traffic from AI-driven search experiences and chatbots isn't close to offsetting declines from traditional search, per Chartbeat.

• Page views from Google Search and Google Discover — the two biggest referrers of traditional search traffic globally — fell 34% and 15%, respectively, from December 2024 to December 2025.
• While page views from ChatGPT referrals have increased by more than 200% during that period, chatbots still account for less than 1% of all publisher page view referrals.

What to watch: As AI chatbots continue to grow in search traffic, news and media publishers will need to find ways to offer value to readers outside of breaking stories and incremental updates.

• The Chartbeat data finds that news and media websites receive the highest overall number of page views from AI platforms, but the lowest engagement per individual article, suggesting readers rely on those sites to offer fact-checks or context within chatbots, but not deeper analysis.

Share this chart

British philanthropist and investor Lynn Forester de Rothschild has sold her family's entire 26.9% stake in The Economist to Canadian billionaire Stephen Smith and his family holding company, Axios has confirmed.

• They've been shopping the publication for at least five months.

Why it matters: It marks the biggest ownership shake-up for the 183-year-old publication in a decade.

• Pearson, a British education publisher, sold the majority of its 50% stake in the publication in 2015 to Exor, the holding group of the wealthy Italian Agnelli family, for £469 million, or $531 million.
• The Economist reacquired the rest of Pearson's shares for £182 million, or $206 million. Today, Exor holds a roughly 43.4% stake in the company. Other shareholders, including The Economist Group itself, own 29.9%.

💰 Zoom in: As part of the deal, Forester de Rothschild and her family will give up their 20% ownership of voting shares, which is the cap for any single owner in the business.

• While financial terms weren't disclosed, Axios previously reported that the sellers were hoping the family's full stake would be valued at up to £400 million, or $537 million.
• Smith made his fortune co-founding mortgage lender First National Financial in 1988 and has since invested in other mortgage lending businesses.

🇬🇧 The big picture: The sale is the latest in a string of recent deal activity for U.K.-based publications.

• Axel Springer, the German parent to Politico and Business Insider, announced a £575 million cash deal to acquire The Telegraph earlier this month.
• British hedge fund manager Paul Marshall acquired The Spectator in 2024 for £100 million.

Go deeper

Dow Jones expects to earn $1 billion in annual profit within five years, News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson and Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour told Axios in separate interviews.

Why it matters: Amid an otherwise bleak landscape for news, Dow Jones has carved out a niche that's working — serving business professionals.

📈 Zoom in: Executives feel confident that Dow Jones can meet a more ambitious profit milestone in the next five years, in part thanks to the way it's positioning itself in the AI era.

• Thomson believes Dow Jones and News Corp. will thrive because its assets provide invaluable input data for AI firms. "We're one of the few companies with a scope and a scale to be able to be a reliable supplier," he says.

By the numbers: Over the past five years, Dow Jones' digital subscription base has nearly doubled from 3.8 million in 2021 to more than 6 million in 2025.

• Its business intelligence units have seen double-digit revenue growth, with risk and compliance growing since 2018 and energy since 2023.

The big picture: Dow Jones now represents the majority of profits for News Corp., and it's the fastest growing profit segment within News Corp.'s portfolio, per Thomson.

• With Dow Jones propelling its earnings, News Corp. has reported 11 straight quarters of year-over-year profit growth.

What to watch: Thomson reiterated News Corp.'s commitment to owning Dow Jones, emphasizing that besides being a profit driver, it also boosts audiences for its other properties like its digital real estate services sites.

Go deeper

NBC News is teaming up with veteran tech journalist Joanna Stern to bring exclusive reporting and analysis from her new independent venture, New Things, to its TV and digital channels, Stern and NBC News president of editorial Rebecca Blumenstein told Axios in a joint interview Tuesday.

🦾 Why it matters: The partnership will strengthen NBC News' tech coverage, while also serving as a blueprint for further collaborations between the storied network and independent journalists and creators.

Zoom in: As part of the arrangement, Stern will shift from her current role as an NBC News contributor to chief tech analyst and contributing correspondent.

• She will remain an independent contractor, publishing content from New Things separately through the publishing platform Beehiiv, but she'll bring some of her exclusive reporting and analysis from New Things to NBC News.
• Stern will work with NBC News to create new content for the network and will customize her reporting to fit the needs of NBC News' platforms, including its linear and streaming TV shows, its digital channels, and its subscription offering.

Go deeper

Warner Bros. Discovery was the clear winner of the 98th Academy Awards, taking home 11 awards — six for "One Battle After Another," four for "Sinners" and one for "Weapons."

Why it matters: The company is now tied with MGM, Paramount and New Line Cinema for winning the most awards during the event by a single studio.

🎬 The big picture: The Oscar haul solidifies the legacy of WBD CEO David Zaslav as a steward of creative work on top of his dealmaking savvy.

• Zaslav will be well-compensated for his M&A efforts. An SEC filing published Monday revealed he could earn over $800 million in severance and other payments after Paramount Skydance's acquisition closes.

🏆 Zoom out: In sweeping Sunday's contest, WBD proved that traditional studios still hold power over Big Tech giants in Hollywood.

• No other studio came close to matching WBD's momentum Sunday night.
• Netflix brought home seven awards Sunday for "KPop Demon Hunters," "Frankenstein," "All the Empty Rooms" and "The Singers."
• Disney, Apple, Focus Features and Neon each took home one award.

Tom Sietsema, the legendary Washington Post food critic, is launching a newsletter and content business through Beehiiv, he told Axios in an interview.

Why it matters: The platform offers Sietsema the opportunity to lean more heavily into lifestyle coverage with travel tips, recipes and newsmaker interviews, in addition to restaurant reviews.

🍽️ Zoom in: His forthcoming subscription newsletter, Next Course by Tom Sietsema, will debut on Beehiiv this Thursday with a review of the highly anticipated, but controversial new restaurant Noma LA.

• In addition to the newsletter, which will publish around three times per month, Sietsema will offer premium subscribers the chance to meet in person over meals.

📝 Catch up quick: Sietsema is one of the most well-known food critics in the country, having written more than 1,000 restaurant reviews over the course of a quarter century for the Post.

• He won a prestigious James Beard Award in 2016 for his yearlong review of the best food cities in America.

Between the lines: Sietsema is bootstrapping his new venture after taking a buyout from the Washington Post last year.

• While he's launching the newsletter "for fun," he plans to monetize his content with subscriptions and possibly advertising one day.
• "I'm doing this on my own right now, so it's my own little budget," he says.

Zoom out: Sietsema is the latest in a string of journalists and newsrooms to join the Beehiiv platform as it continues to invest in new product and revenue features.

• Caper, a new food publication from Puck, Vanity Fair and Disney veterans, launched on the platform earlier this year.