Nielsen has struck a new multiyear deal with the WNBA alongside the NBA to measure its television viewership across traditional TV and streaming, a source confirmed to Axios.

Why it matters: It's the largest commercial measurement deal that Nielsen has ever struck with a women's sports league.

• ⛳ Nielsen has an existing deal with the LPGA, but the WNBA agreement marks a significant milestone in the advancement of women's sports rights.

Zoom in: The deal represents the first time that Nielsen has agreed to measure the WNBA's ratings officially as a client alongside the NBA, the source confirmed.

• 📊 The agreement, which was struck last quarter, ensures the WNBA will get official access to Nielsen ratings as part of a paid partnership, instead of relying on data from the NBA or data that media partners may or may not release.
• 📊 The direct data represents significant progress in the WNBA's media rights journey. The WNBA last year struck a landmark 11-year media rights deal with Disney, Amazon Prime and NBC that values its live rights at $200 million per year, about quadruple its previous deal.

The big picture: The shift to streaming during the pandemic pushed TV companies to experiment with new measurement alternatives, such as VideoAmp and iSpot.tv.

• While programmers have been public about their efforts to experiment with new vendors, leagues have continued to rely heavily on Nielsen. They tend not to distribute ratings publicly from smaller alternatives.
• Case in point: During Paramount's multimonth contract blackout with Nielsen, the network never distributed ratings publicly from other vendors for its NFL games.

By the numbers: Nielsen's deals with leagues are expensive but tend not to be as high as deals with major TV networks, costing upward of tens of millions instead of hundreds of millions.

• Nielsen currently has direct data deals with the NBA, WNBA, NFL, MLS, NHL, PGA, LGPA, NCAA, MLB, UFC, WWE and Premiere League, a source said.
• While most leagues allow their distribution partners to publicize ratings, the big leagues prefer to pay to ink direct deals with Nielsen to get their hands on crucial ratings data themselves.

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After a brief and informal search process, the Washington Post has decided not to replace its departed communications chief Kathy Baird, a source told Axios.

• In the two months since her departure, there haven't been any formal discussions internally about her backfill, a different source said.

Why it matters: Under the Post's new management team, which has been in place for over a year, the company has pushed to overhaul its communications strategy by focusing more on organic media coverage around its talent and products instead of mostly public relations.

• While the outlet's two remaining communications officials still do proactive story pitching in addition to communications strategy work, the idea is to shift its communications strategy to focus more on highlighting new talent, product and partnership deals that underscore the Post's transformation.

Zoom out: That shift has left the paper with fewer resources to handle critical stories as it manages massive changes, including layoffs and buyouts.

• Today, for example, the Post announced a voluntary separation program to news employees with 10 or more years' service, as well as to all members of the outlet's video department, copy desk and sports desk, according to an internal memo obtained by Axios.

Zoom out: The Post is currently exploring a number of deals that it believes could be the types of events to draw more organic coverage.

• The paper has roles for a corporate development lead and a partnerships strategy and operations lead listed on its open jobs website. Those positions are meant to help with the "integration of acquired assets" and to assist with the "post-transaction integration of acquired companies or other content partners, including creators," respectively.

The big picture: The lack of a comms lead under CEO Will Lewis serves as a stark departure from the outlet's previous management, in which a C-suite official managing communications and events reported directly to the CEO.

• In January, the Post teased some of these changes, announcing it would be laying off some of its public relations staffers as part of a broader set of cuts and a restructuring of the division.
• The restructuring, announced by then-communications chief Baird, was meant to reposition the division to minimize the Post's public relations efforts in favor of letting its newsroom talent and creators earn coverage for themselves. Baird left the Post in March.

Huge Memorial Day weekend box office openings from "Lilo & Stitch" and "Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning" helped set a new domestic record for the four-day holiday weekend of $326.7 million, according to Comscore.

• Disney's live-action remake of "Lilo & Stitch" crushed expectations, bringing in a whopping $183 million in its four-day domestic debut and giving it the top-performing Memorial Day opening domestically of all time.
• Paramount's "Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning" saw $77 million in gross domestic sales over the weekend, marking the best "Mission: Impossible" box office debut in the franchise's history.

Why it matters: The positive momentum is expected to boost the summer box office and give theaters much-needed relief following several years of setbacks.

• "Every other studio and every other movie on the horizon over the next few weeks are going to ride a wave and benefit from the performance of the past couple of months," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.

Reality check: The box office started out sleepy this year, but momentum this spring has quickly helped the movie industry topple 2024's slow first half.

• This year's April box office was 100% versus last April, per Dergarabedian, thanks to positive performances from films like "A Minecraft Movie" and "Sinners." Those successes have helped offset some of the declines from this March compared to March the year prior.
• Today, the domestic box office is up 23% from this time last year.

The bottom line: "We're going to have one hell of a summer, and if Memorial Day weekend is any indication, we're certainly looking at a $4 billion plus summer at potentially $4.2 billion plus and that's great news after a summer of 2024 that failed to reach that milestone," Dergarabedian said.

Executives at major media outlets are reportedly instructing their newsrooms to temper their coverage of President Trump and his administration amid growing fears of political retribution.

Why it matters: President Trump may not have the political power to pass laws that hurt the press, but his threats of regulatory scrutiny and private lawsuits have proven just as damaging in silencing his critics.

The abrupt resignations of CBS News chief Wendy McMahon and longtime "60 Minutes" executive producer Bill Owens underscore how fraught the relationship has become between CBS' news division and corporate parent Paramount, which is fighting for regulatory approval of a critical merger with Skydance Media while considering settling a $20 billion lawsuit with President Trump.

PBS member WNET cut 90 seconds from a documentary last month, in which the film's subject, author and cartoonist Art Spiegelman criticized Trump, per The Atlantic.

• WNET vice president of programming Stephen Segaller told the New York Times the station did tell the filmmakers to make the change, saying some of the imagery was a "breach of taste."
• The move came shortly after PBS CEO Paula Kerger and NPR CEO Katherine Maher were called to testify in a congressional hearing to defend their congressional budgets. After the episode aired in April, President Trump signed an executive order on May 1 to cut federal funding for NPR and PBS.

Disney CEO Bob Iger and ABC News president Almin Karamehmedovic reportedly suggested to the hosts of "The View" that they broaden the scope of their coverage to focus less on politics, per The Daily Beast.

• ABC paid $16 million in December to settle a case over comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos.

Between the lines: Regulatory scrutiny mostly applies to broadcast companies that are regulated by the FCC or bigger firms that could be considering mergers that need regulatory approval.

• But smaller outlets owned by individuals with business interests outside of media, like The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, have also moved to temper coverage in the second Trump administration.

Zoom out: For outlets with little to lose from a regulatory perspective, bullying and reduced access also pose a new threat.

• The White House in April said it would remove traditional press pool access for wire services after a court ordered it to lift its restrictions on the Associated Press.
• President Trump has suggested that media outlets be investigated for election fraud for posting unfavorable polls. (Of note: The president has cited polls from outlets that he has lashed out at that reflect favorable ratings.)

The big picture: It's not just media.

• Several major law firms pledged pro bono services to Trump, while others opted to fight back.
• Meta and X paid millions to settle lawsuits over shutting down Trump's accounts after Jan. 6.

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Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday penned joint letters to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem urging them to protect and prioritize the safety of journalists affiliated with U.S. government-funded international broadcasters, according to copies of the letters obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: The Trump administration is currently entangled in several messy legal battles over its efforts to dismantle broadcasters under the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

• 📺 USAGM outlets fighting back include Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
• 🌏 Lawmakers are concerned that journalists affiliated with those outlets facing safety issues in their home countries will languish amid the legal drama.

State of play: "If U.S.-based USAGM affiliated personnel's employment were to be terminated, the basis for their presence in the United States would be jeopardized — in many cases forcing them to return to authoritarian countries where they are at risk of being interrogated, jailed, or persecuted," Shaheen and Van Hollen wrote in their joint letter to Noem.

• They asked that Noem provide a briefing to their staffs on the issue "no later than June 6."

Zoom out: USAGM broadcasters rely on congressionally approved funding to bring non-partisan news coverage to developing and autocratic countries around the world, including countries that face imminent risk of backsliding from democracy.

• Their work is often considered dangerous, especially in places with limited protections for journalists and free speech.
• Around the world, there are at least 11 USAGM-supported employees jailed in places like Vietnam, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Myanmar.

✍️ In their joint letter to Rubio, Shaheen and Van Hollen requested that the secretary raise concerns about their cases and direct relevant regional bureaus to engage on their behalf where appropriate.

• They also asked that he provide a plan to secure these journalists' release following grant terminations for USAGM networks and its entities.

The big picture: For decades, support for government-funded international broadcasters was bipartisan. But in recent years, Republicans in Congress have shown less support for saving those agencies.

• ✂️ The Trump administration ordered the firings of hundreds of workers at USAGM broadcasters earlier this year.

What to watch: While USAGM broadcasters faced early legal wins in their lawsuits against the administration, they have since faced challenges.

• 💼 A federal appellate court said Thursday it wouldn't intervene after an earlier decision temporarily paused a ruling that ordered the administration to reinstate workers.
• 💰 While the government withdrew its termination of a RFE/RL grant, the agency was still forced to lay off most of its staff amid an ongoing funding fight with the administration.

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The Federal Trade Commission is investigating the liberal group Media Matters over claims that it and other media advocacy groups coordinated advertising boycotts of Elon Musk's X, Media Matters president Angelo Carusone confirmed in a statement Thursday.

Why it matters: Musk and conservatives have been targeting advertising groups for months as part of a broader effort to determine whether the ad market at large is biased against them.

• ⚖️ X sued Media Matters for defamation in 2023 for a report it publicly released that showed ads on X running next to pro-Nazi content. X claimed the report contributed to an advertiser exodus.
• Last year, X filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers, a major advertising trade group, and its industry coalition called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media.
• The lawsuit proved effective as WFA discontinued GARM a few months later.

Zoom out: The investigation, first reported by Reuters, signals an escalation of tensions between the advertising community and conservatives.

• Last year, The Daily Wire, a conservative media company, sent letters to major corporations asking them to "reject" GARM, arguing it colluded with agencies, brands and tech platforms "to demonetize conservative media outlets."
• The Daily Wire testified in a hearing about the matter last summer, after conservatives leading the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing about complaints that GARM was colluding with ad-buying giant GroupM to discourage clients from buying ads in the Daily Wire because of its conservative politics.

What to watch: Media Matters countersued X in March. That litigation is ongoing.

RedBird Capital Partners last week agreed to buy British publisher Telegraph Media Group for £500 million from affiliate RedBird IMI.

Why it matters: This caps a two-year saga centered on foreign ownership of domestic media assets and finally provides some certainty for the 170-year-old Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Catch up quick: RedBird IMI was formed by New York-based private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners and led by ex-CNN boss Jeff Zucker, but is majority owned by the UAE government.

• 📰 It bought the Telegraph in 2023, but the deal was soon blocked after political outcry. RedBird IMI retained control but launched a sale process.
• 🔍 A buyer was found for The Spectator but not for the broader group.

The big picture: Last week, U.K. media ownership rules were relaxed to permit foreign state-backed entities to own up to 15% stakes — which will allow RedBird IMI to retain a small position in Telegraph.