Paris Hilton's media company 11:11 has ballooned amid one of the toughest climates for the media industry in the last decade.

Why it matters: Hilton's fanbase is massive, global and family-friendly.

• "We have figured out an incredible way to integrate brands into culture and pop culture, and that's taken hold," said president and co-founder Bruce Gersh.

By the numbers: The bootstrapped firm, launched in 2021, expects to earn around $50 million in revenue this year with more than a 50% profit margin, executives told Axios.

• The company's ultimate goal is to develop franchises that it can monetize through a flywheel across media, commerce and brand partnerships.
• "Paris is our Mickey Mouse, and we're hopefully the next Disney," Gersh noted.

Driving the news: On Tuesday, 11:11 announced a joint venture with direct marketing giant Guthy-Renker called 11:11 Beauty to house beauty and wellness products inspired by Hilton, who will be the creative director.

State of play: 11:11 Beauty is one of several joint ventures and partnership deals the company has launched as it ventures into different business lines.

• In May, it formed a joint venture to create a digital series catered to kids and families called Paris & Pups, with original music by Hilton.

Between the lines: For years, Hilton has quietly built a fan engagement strategy that's heavily dependent not just on traditional media, but also newer platforms, like podcasts and the metaverse.

• Those media projects have created a massive fanbase for 11:11 to upsell Hilton's "Sliving" lifestyle — her catchphrase that combines "slaying" and "killing it" to mean "living your best life — to dozens of brand partners and licensing partners.
• For example, 11:11 leveraged its "Cooking With Paris" show on Netflix to launch a cookware line at Walmart in 2023 that is projected to grow to $100 million in sales by 2025.

The bottom line: "Everything we do at 11:11, from our TV projects to our impact programs to every new product launch, is designed with the 'Sliving' mindset," Hilton said.

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Apple has started selling its own advertising inventory for Apple News, two sources familiar with the effort told Axios.

• It's pitching new ad units that it hopes will maximize revenue for itself and its publishing partners.

Why it matters: The shift toward direct sales represents a significant milestone in Apple's advertising ambitions.

• Apple has been selling its own ad inventory in search and within its App Store for a while.
• Until now, it's relied on third-party vendors to sell Apple News ads, limiting revenue potential.

Zoom in: Beginning next year, Apple will sell premium sponsorships of editorially curated content for relevant events, such as the Met Gala, the U.S. Open, and more.

• It's also pitching banner placements and video ads across 17 different formats, including carousel ads that feature different products.
• Advertisers will also be able to sponsor specific feeds within Apple News, should they wish to contextually align with certain topics.

How it works: Publishers will get a 70% cut of the ad revenue sold by Apple within their articles.

• They will get a percentage of the ad revenue sold by Apple within the Apple News feed, dependent on engagement with their content.
• Apple News publishers will continue to receive 100% of the revenue from the advertising that they sell against their content in the app.

Between the lines: The ads that Apple's team doesn't sell will be left for third-party vendors to sell on its behalf.

• Apple named ad tech giant Taboola as a resale vendor for Apple News and Apple Stocks earlier this year.
• It previously worked with NBCUniversal as an ad sales partner, but that relationship will be ending at the end of the year, a person familiar with Apple's plans said.
• A source said Apple is eyeing whether to bring on other resellers.

The big picture: Apple has invested more in growing its ad business as hardware sales have slowed.

• Advertising is expected to reach roughly $10 billion this year, according to third-party estimates from GroupM and eMarketer.

What to watch: Apple News is one of the most popular news apps in North America, the U.K. and Australia, but publishers have mostly viewed the free version as a marketing tool, not a major ad revenue driver.

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Progressive media outlets are trying to curry favor with President-elect Trump, ruffling the feathers of their audiences.

Why it matters: Resistance media benefitted enormously from outrage engagement during Trump's first term, but the dynamics are different now.

• Frustrated by the mainstream media's coverage of President Biden's age and its false sense of optimism behind Vice President Harris' campaign, viewers are more skeptical today of the media's resistance posturing.

Driving the news: "Morning Joe" co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski reestablished diplomatic relations with their Florida neighbor after years of taunting him, per Axios' Mike Allen.

• The hour-plus meeting at Mar-a-Lago, revealed on yesterday's MSNBC show, was "cordial," according to Trump, who spoke about it on Fox News.
• After revealing the meeting, the hosts were attacked online for "normalizing" the former president.

Zoom out: MSNBC isn't the only outlet trying to repair relations with Trump amid broader mainstream media trust issues coming out of the election.

• Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong told Fox News Thursday he's making changes to ensure "the views of all" in his paper.
• The Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos congratulated Trump on his win, shortly after his paper reportedly lost 250,000 subscriptions due to his decision to yank the paper's endorsement of Harris.
• Social media influencers are leaning into the MAGA madness in an effort to curry favor with brands, per The Cut.

What to watch: The biggest winner of Trump's second election is Fox News.

• Despite a historic defamation lawsuit and the ousting of its top anchor last year, Fox has continued to grow its cable news dominance in 2024.
• In selecting two Fox News personalities for Cabinet positions, Trump has signaled that he will continue to rely on Fox News as his cable mouthpiece.

Meta is creating a new product unit to develop AI tools for the 200 million businesses that use its apps, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Meta is an advertising company. To fuel ad growth, it needs to invest in the businesses that use its platform to interact with customers.

The big picture: Most of Meta's business-facing AI innovations have so far centered around ad creation and optimization. The new product group will build tools that create deeper customer relationships beyond advertising.

Zoom in: The new business AI product group will be led by Clara Shih, most recently the CEO of Salesforce AI, Axios has learned.

• Shih will be responsible for developing and monetizing tools within Meta's AI portfolio that are catered specifically to businesses.
• An example of that type of product is Meta's new business AI chatbot, which allows businesses to set up their own AI chatbots to talk to their customers and facilitate transactions in WhatsApp and Messenger.

Reality check: This type of thinking isn't new to Meta, but it's been super-charged by Meta's AI ambitions.

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Trump has selected Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as chair of the bipartisan regulatory body.

• Carr is a veteran telecom lawyer who was nominated to serve as an FCC commissioner by Trump in 2017 and then again by Biden in 2023.

Zoom out: Skeptics are looking at Carr's vocal criticisms of "censorship" and a chapter he authored for Project 2025 about reining in Big Tech and holding media accountable as a grim foreshadowing of an ultra-conservative FCC that will dismantle media rights.

• But the FCC doesn't have jurisdiction over the internet, and it can't overturn laws like Section 230.
• Carr's focus has always been on deregulating legacy industries, like local broadcast and broadband so they can compete with Big Tech.

Reality check: Expect Carr to take a more conservative approach to enforcing existing FCC rules in a way that aligns with the Trump agenda.

• Consolidation: Under Carr, the FCC is expected to allow more consolidation of local TV stations and broadband providers.
• Public interest regulations: Carr has vowed to enforce the "public interest obligation" of broadcast media. He's condemned the FCC's prioritization of diversity, equity and inclusion.
• Net neutrality: Carr has been a fierce advocate for rolling back net neutrality regulations.
• Subsides for Musk: He has advocated for steering more federal subsidies to Elon Musk's Starlink as part of his efforts to expand broadband access.

Go deeper: More on Carr from Axios' Avery Lotz

Netflix's technical stumbles during Friday's Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight have cast a pall over its upcoming NFL Christmas Day games.

Why it matters: Live programming and sports are crucial to the company's new ad-revenue strategy.

Zoom in: There were more than 500,000 reports on Downdetector of people experiencing issues viewing the boxing match.

• Netflix CTO Elizabeth Stone reportedly told employees the "unprecedented scale" of viewership created "many technical challenges … but [we] still consider this event a huge success."

By the numbers: At its peak, the fight drew 65 million concurrent global viewers, Netflix says.

• Caveat: The company's tracking methodology isn't comparable to most other U.S.-only industry metrics and the figure hasn't been verified by a third party.
• For context, the NFL's three Christmas Day games last year averaged over 28 million viewers.

The big picture: The NFL in May awarded Netflix the streamer's first-ever deal to air games starting this year.

• Netflix is reportedly paying about $75 million each for the two Christmas matchups, and has already sold all of its of ad inventory.

The intrigue: Investors largely shrugged off the problems and pushed Netflix stock to a new record high Monday.

• Perhaps they were reacting to news that Beyoncé will perform during the Ravens-Texans halftime game.

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The Justice Department plans to ask a judge overseeing Google's antitrust trial to force the tech giant to sell its Chrome search browser after a judge ruled against Google in August in a landmark antitrust case around its search dominance, Bloomberg reports.

Why it matters: Chrome is by far the most-used web browser across all devices in the U.S.

• Selling the search engine would have major implications not just for Google's massive ad businesses, but its AI search business as well.

The big picture: The business community was hopeful that a new Trump administration would be friendlier on antitrust, Axios Dan Primack notes.

• While the case was filed during the first Trump administration and litigated during the Biden administration, it will likely extend into the next Trump presidency.

What's next: Google said it plans to appeal the judge's ruling.

Conservatives have a significant advantage among news influencers — a major part of the trickle-down information ecosystem, according to new data from Pew Research Center.

• 📱Influencers on most of the biggest platforms are more likely to lean right than left.
• Male influencers also outnumber women on those platforms, by almost a 2-1 margin.
• The exception is TikTok, which has a smaller gender gap and a slight leftward lean.

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