Sinclair, one of the nation's largest local broadcast groups, is launching a subscription-focused, national news brand on Substack called The National Press, executives told Axios.

Why it matters: It's a huge bet for the family-controlled local news giant as it looks to build trust and loyalty among users beyond the TV screen.

• While most local news consumers don't engage with the Sinclair brand directly, they may be aware of broader accusations of conservative political bias against the company.

How it works: The National Press will use reporting from Sinclair's roughly 1,200 journalists across 60 local newsrooms to create content.

• The new venture will launch with both free and paid tiers on Substack, and it will distribute video and audio programming on YouTube and other social media platforms.
• Paid users get access to ad-free and extended versions of shows, as well as subscriber-only content and interactive features.

State of play: Sinclair is partnering with New Media, a startup from veterans of The Free Press, to build out the new offering.

• New Media helps legacy newsrooms build subscription businesses and digital programming, leveraging traditional journalists and digital creators.

Follow the money: New Media will be paid a monthly production fee by Sinclair and also get a cut of The National Press' revenue, New Media founder Alex Chitty told Axios. The revenue share, he said, gives New Media a financial stake in The National Press' success.

• "We only succeed if the partner succeeds," he said in a joint interview with Sinclair president and CEO Chris Ripley.
• Ripley said revenue growth will be Sinclair's top indicator of success, followed by subscriber growth. He declined to disclose subscriber targets.

Between the lines: New Media is bringing some notable names to the project, including Vice Media co-founder Shane Smith, who serves as an investor in New Media and a partner in The National Press venture.

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Paramount Skydance closed its deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery today, ending a dramatic, yearlong process that rattled Hollywood, Wall Street and Washington.

Why it matters: The deal creates one of the largest entertainment behemoths in the world and makes David Ellison — a lesser-known figure outside of Hollywood — one of the most powerful people in culture and business.

• Ellison will chair Skydance's board while remaining CEO of the company.
• The board will include the members of Paramount's board, plus three new members: Skydance co-CEO Ynon Kreiz, Laurene Powell Jobs, founder and president of Emerson Collective, and former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.

The big picture: The transaction forced the entertainment industry and regulators around the world to confront how much consolidation is necessary for traditional media companies to compete with Big Tech.

• The combination of Paramount's and WBD's assets on the back end won't all be felt by consumers, but product changes are coming.
• The combined company, for example, plans to merge HBO Max and Paramount + into one giant unified streamer.

Reality check: Merger fights don't typically enter the zeitgeist for everyday Americans, but this one played into a broader societal debate around the concentration of power among the elite and the independence of federal regulators.

• Ellison's father, Oracle co-founder and Trump ally Larry Ellison, agreed to backstop billions of dollars of equity financing to seal the deal.
• Federal regulators cleared billions of dollars in equity investments from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to support the deal.

Between the lines: The political tension surrounding the deal was on full display when a dozen Democratic state attorneys general sued to block the transaction as it approached the finish line this summer.

• After a settlement was announced clearing the deal, at least one participating state attorney general admitted that they wanted the agreement to force a divestiture of CBS and CNN.

What to watch: Ellison and Kreiz pledged not to interfere with CNN in a town hall today. Ellison also vocalized his support for CNN chair Mark Thompson, who will continue to lead the network.

The Paramount/WBD deal, which is one of the most highly levered transactions in American history, will test the market's appetite for megamergers financed by huge amounts of debt amid rising interest rates.

• To get the transaction over the finish line, Paramount raised $52 billion in new debt, per Bloomberg. Some of that debt is very expensive, carrying a yield of nearly 9%.
• In addition to the debt it raised, Skydance will carry WBD's existing liabilities, totaling $87.5 billion in debt, according to Fitch Ratings.

The bottom line: Ellison has proven himself to be one of the most savvy dealmakers in American history. His next test is whether he can build a sustainable business from a mountain of debt.

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Fox News turns 30 tomorrow with a distinction few legacy TV networks can claim: Its ratings lead over rivals has never been wider.

Why it matters: Fox News president and executive editor Jay Wallace, who has been with the network alongside CEO Suzanne Scott since launch, attributes the brand's durability to consistency in ownership and strategy.

• "We've had a pretty consistent model for 30 years," Wallace says. He credited the Murdochs' stewardship for allowing the network to be creative in developing new products and pursuing challenging stories.

By the numbers: Fox News' ratings lead over its cable news rivals hit its widest point ever last year, according to Nielsen data, and the network appears poised to maintain that historically wide margin this year, depending on the midterms.

• Last year, the network averaged 1.69 million total-day viewers, compared with 551,000 for MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, and 432,000 for CNN.
• In primetime, that margin was even wider. Fox News averaged 2.65 million daily primetime viewers, compared with 915,000 for MS NOW and 573,000 for CNN.
• Through Sept. 29, Fox is outpacing CNN and MS NOW combined this year in both total day viewership and primetime.

Yes, but: Fox's dominance among total viewers doesn't extend to the key 25- to 54-year-old advertising demographic by the same margin.

• In 2025, Fox averaged 180,000 viewers in the demo across total day and 278,000 in primetime, according to Nielsen. Both comfortably led CNN and MS NOW, but Fox has posted substantially larger demo advantages in previous years.

The big picture: Key to the network's business durability has been leaning into products and talent that resonate with the lifestyle and values of its core audience.

• That strategy has allowed the network's brand to outlast major stars, even when they exit.
• Wallace dismissed the idea that Fox News is preoccupied with competing against its former stars, like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, arguing that an increasingly fragmented media market gives both the network and independent personalities room to find their own audiences.

Zoom out: Fox News' close, but at times turbulent, relationship with President Trump has afforded the network significant access, while also drawing scrutiny from media critics and, at times, from Trump himself.

• Wallace pointed to anchor Martha MacCallum's recent interview with Michigan Senate contender Abdul El-Sayed as an example of Fox News' programming strategy transcending what its core audience wants to hear.
• "Someone didn't necessarily like that," he says, presumably referencing harsh criticism after the interview from Trump, "but that's what we do."

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President Trump ragged on several mainstream news outlets, including the Washington Post, New York Times and MS NOW, at a dinner he hosted last week for News Corp. executives, including Rupert Murdoch, a source familiar with the event told Axios.

• Zoom in: The dinner was attended by several Trump confidants, including former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who Fox announced yesterday is joining Fox News Media as a contributor starting Nov. 1.

Why it matters: The meal, which the source described as cordial, comes amid a prolonged legal battle between the president and the Wall Street Journal, which is also controlled by the Murdochs.

State of play: During the dinner in the White House residence, Trump asked about the Journal's business and was told digital and print subscriptions were up, the source said.

• He at one point remarked that other national outlets, such as the Washington Post, the New York Times and MS NOW, aren't as important as before and that their quality had "come down," according to the source.

The big picture: The dinner, which Breaker noted was meant to "reset the relationship" between the two parties, is notable because of how many people were involved. But dinners between Trump and Murdoch happen pretty frequently "simply to touch base," a separate source said.

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A slew of new products announced around Advertising Week show how quickly the ad economy is shifting from selling attention to monetizing what consumers want next.

Why it matters: Budgets are rapidly moving to new platforms, putting pressure on traditional publishers.

• Internet companies with strong signals of consumer intent, such as AI search interfaces, chatbots and commerce platforms, are taking a much higher share of ad revenue.

State of play: Several Big Tech firms unveiled new advertising products this week that use AI to close the gap between discovering something and buying it.

• TikTok launched agentic leads, an AI tool designed to identify, qualify and convert what TikTok explicitly calls "high-intent" prospects.
• OpenAI announced a new visual ad format for ChatGPT that will initially appear alongside image generation.
• Amazon is leaning further into its AI-powered advertising through its ads agent and a new full-funnel campaign product.

The big picture: Digital advertising's advantage has long been knowing who consumers are and commanding their attention.

• But now, chatbots give marketers a direct window into a user's real-time needs, which means efficiency often matters more than engagement.

Between the lines: For brands with loyal users, there's opportunity in this shift. First-party data is becoming more valuable because companies can pair it with real-time context.

The bottom line: Attention tells an advertiser where a consumer is. Intent tells them where they're going.

Go deeper with Media Trends Executive.

• 📈 I'll be presenting exclusive insights at Advertising Week New York tomorrow at 9:30am. Register.

The Television Academy and Amazon Prime Video announced today a historic six-year deal for exclusive global rights to the Emmy Awards.

Why it matters: The deal expands the Emmys' distribution globally and gives the show a steady home for the first time in decades.

• For the past 31 years, the Emmys have been broadcast through a "Wheel Deal" arrangement that gave ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox rotating annual distribution rights.

Zoom in: The new arrangement, which begins in 2027, will be available for free to viewers worldwide on Amazon Prime Video.

• It will see Prime Video creating "new experiences and entry points for fans to discover, engage with and celebrate what they love about TV," the Television Academy and Prime Video said in a joint statement.

By the numbers: The Emmys have lost roughly half its audience since the 2010s, when live award show audiences peaked.

• While it has the smallest audience among the major award shows, its viewership decline hasn't been as precipitous as that of the Oscars and the Grammys.

The big picture: More awards shows are moving to streaming as viewership wanes on traditional television.

• The Oscars will move to YouTube beginning in 2029, after airing on ABC for more than 50 years.
• The Screen Actors Guild Awards moved from TNT to Netflix under a multiyear deal announced in 2023, with the ceremony beginning to stream live on Netflix in 2024.
• The Academy of Country Music Awards left CBS for Amazon Prime Video in 2022.

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