Campbell Brown, the veteran TV anchor who led Meta's foray into news, is leaving the company, according to an internal note obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: Her departure marks the end of an era for Meta, and the tech sector writ large, as it looks to mostly back away from elevating news content and instead focus on entertainment and viral trends.

Details: In a note to staff, Brown said she will be stepping down from her current role leading media partnerships for Meta later this fall.

• She plans to share more details in the coming weeks about her next role, but she'll "remain affiliated with Meta in a new consultant capacity."

Under Brown's leadership, Facebook made a massive push into news, committing hundreds of millions of dollars to publishing partners on its platform.

Yes, but: Amid regulatory pressure, Meta started cutting funding for U.S. news publishers last year. It said last month that it would deprecate the Facebook News Tab in Europe.

The big picture: Brown served as the face of Meta's complicated, and at times contentious, relationship with the news industry.

• Internally, she served as an advocate for the news community, even when the company began to shift its priorities away from news.
• Externally, she and the company were often blamed for the company's constant product pivots, which made it hard for news publishers to manage their resources.

What to watch: Brown's legacy will live on at Meta in two key areas.

1. Curation: Brown and Anne Kornblut, Meta's vice president of global product content operations, built a curation team, originally for news content, that today powers the company's recommendations strategy.
2. Fact-checking: Like the curation team, Meta's fact-checking program works to help train Meta's AI.

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Traffic referrals from Meta's Facebook and X to the top global news sites have collapsed over the past year, according to data from Similarweb.

Why it matters: Website business models that depended on clicks from social media are now broken.

The big picture: While the news industry has known this day would come, many are still unprepared.

• A slower ad market and less reliable traffic contributed to a record number of media job cuts this year.
• Efforts to reach voters with trusted information are becoming more difficult as tech platforms lean into viral trends instead of quality news.

Yes, but: Disruption is often a catalyst for change.

• The over-reliance on social media traffic kept news publishers from focusing on building stronger consumer products of their own.
• Publishers are better prepared now to defend their intellectual property in the AI era having learned from their mistakes of being too heavily reliant on third parties for survival.

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Dozens of newspaper, digital and magazine news executives descended on Capitol Hill last week to lobby members of Congress on copyright protections for their work in the era of artificial intelligence.

Why it matters: Newspaper leaders can be hesitant to lobby directly, given that many of their outlets give political endorsements.

• But the threat of AI, combined with competition concerns around Big Tech, is pushing executives to band together and speak out.

Details: The Hill blitz was organized by the News/Media Alliance (NMA), one of the largest news publishing associations in the world, representing over 2,000 publishers.

• Executives from an array of outlets, ranging from state papers like the Idaho Press to large digital companies like Vox Media, held over 80 meetings with lawmakers across 25 states to discuss copyright protections for their work in the AI era, among other issues.
• The fly-in "allowed us to meet directly with legislators to discuss various topics such as AI and its impact on journalism and the public's access to factual information," said Chris Argentieri, president and chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Times.

In her first interview since becoming president and CEO of the NMA in June, Danielle Coffey laid out a road map for how the group is planning to focus its advocacy efforts around AI.

• There are four issues the alliance will focus on, she said: IP protection, disclosures and transparency in training AI models, liability, and accountability and competition.
• Those goals are detailed in a list of AI principles that the organization published earlier this year. The main position the group takes is that any unlicensed use of content created by its members and journalists by generative AI companies is intellectual property infringement.

What's next: Coffey sees NMA's push to address AI concerns as an extension of her work in competition, and so both issues will continue to rank high on the group's priority list.

• "I think AI is an exacerbation of a previous problem," Coffey said. "It's very clear that there is a marketplace imbalance and there will be no business model for quality content if we don't start changing some of these laws."

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Freelance journalist Josh Kruger, 39, was fatally shot in his home in Philadelphia on Monday morning, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

The big picture: Kruger reported on topics including local politics, the LGBTQ community and people living in poverty, Axios' Jacob Knutson writes.

• On his personal website, Kruger said his experience living with HIV and his past struggles with homelessness and addiction helped inform his coverage of those topics.

Details: There are currently no indications that Kruger's reporting was a factor in the attack.

• 🔎 The Committee to Protect Journalists on Monday called on police to investigate whether there was any such connection.

The big picture: Kruger's death is the latest in a string of attacks on journalists and newsrooms at the local level.

• Last year, an investigative reporter at the Las Vegas Review-Journal was stabbed to death. A local elected official was charged with his murder.
• In August, a police department in Marion, Kansas, raided a local paper and the home of its owners, prompting an outcry from press freedom groups. On Monday, the mayor of Marion suspended the police chief who led the raid.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is launching its first major ad campaign in decades, its publisher and CEO Lisa Hughes told Axios, with the news organization planning to spend seven figures over three years.

Why it matters: Already, the effort is being embraced by the wider Philadelphia community, which has seen its hometown paper go through decades of triumph and turmoil.

• All five major Philadelphia sports teams, for example, have agreed to let their logos be used as part of the sweeping campaign, Hughes said.

Details: The multiyear campaign, which launched yesterday, will blanket the city across dozens of billboards, transit platforms, bus shelters and more.

• The campaign is designed to embrace Philly humor, with a tagline that tells viewers to "Unsubscribe" from sayings like "Weird accent" and "No one likes us" and to "Subscribe" to sayings like "What accent?" and "We don't care."

The big picture: The Inquirer's transition into the digital era was for years mired by complicated ownership changes and economic challenges.

• Between 2006 and 2014, the paper changed hands five times and had been through two bankruptcy auctions.

By the numbers: Digital subscriptions for the Inquirer are expected to come in at around 90,000 at the end of the year, per Hughes. It has 65,000 print subscribers.

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Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour is hitting North American theaters on Dec. 1, joining Taylor Swift in the transition from the stage to the screen. Axios' Nathan Bomey reports.

Why it matters: Theaters, desperate for revenue as the actors strike continues, see classics and live event showings as a way to sell seats.

• AMC Entertainment, which is distributing Beyoncé's new concert film, "Renaissance: A Film," saw record-breaking pre-sales for its exhibition of Swift's upcoming concert film on The Eras Tour.

By the numbers: Fathom Events, a joint venture between the three largest domestic movie theater chains that specializes in live event cinema, says 2023 has already been a boon to its business.

• The firm so far has made $25 million in revenue off of 27 classic movie title event showings, compared to $17 million across 37 titles in 2022.
• Niche classics such as "Coraline," "Howl's Moving Castle" and "Princess Mononoke 25th Anniversary" are outperforming their exhibitions last year by millions.

What to watch: Music events continue to be popular across genres. This year, Fathom will show six music-based events, ranging from KPOP to faith rock.

The Charlotte Hornets on Monday said that Feastables, the snack company created by popular YouTube star MrBeast, will be its official jersey patch partner.

Why it matters: It's one of the first influencer-led brands to strike a significant commercial deal with a major sports team.

• The partnership is especially notable, given that MrBeast, whose formal name is Jimmy Donaldson, is a North Carolina native.

What to watch: Feastables is using the deal announcement to introduce an updated brand design.

• 🍫 The company, which is known primarily for selling chocolate MrBeast Bars, was launched in 2022 via a partnership between MrBeast and the venture arm of Night Media, a talent management company.
• "We're stepping a little bit outside the box," said Reed Duchscher, founder and CEO of Night Media, referring to the campaign. Until now, Feastables has predominantly been marketed on YouTube and on social media.

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