Stagwell, a publicly-traded ad holding group, will host a new "NewsFronts" event this fall that will highlight advertising opportunities around news content for skeptical marketers on Madison Avenue, chairman and CEO Mark Penn told Axios.

Why it matters: Amid growing polarization, news companies have struggled to convince advertisers that their content is brand safe. That, in conjunction with economic uncertainty, has executives panicking about the year ahead.

Zoom in: The new event, slated for Oct. 16 in New York City, is meant to serve as a complement to the advertising industry's newfronts and upfronts media presentations that occur each spring.

• Upfronts and newfronts broadly tend to focus most on new prime-time shows and live sports events, not news.
• Stagwell is hoping to secure advertising commitments from brands and ad agencies around news content for the year ahead, the same way bigger publishers look to secure budgets during the upfronts and newfronts.

What to expect: The new event will feature presentations, programming and panel discussions from news outlets that are part of Stagwell's "Future of News" initiative.

• The participating publishers are Ad Fontes Media, Associated Press, Axel Springer, Axios, Business Insider, CNN, Gannett, The Guardian US, The Independent, News Corp, Newsweek, The New York Times, Ozone, POLITICO, Press Gazette, The Trade Desk, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Reuters, The Rebooting and 1440.

The bottom line: "The idea that brands should avoid news is outdated and wrong," Penn said. "Our research shows that advertising in quality news outlets is not only safe — it drives strong brand performance."

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The number of people in the U.S. whose work as digital creators amount to full-time jobs leaped from 200,000 in 2020 to 1.5 million in 2024, according to a new report.

Why it matters: Creators are now the largest and fastest-growing segment of the 28.4 million internet-dependent jobs in the U.S., Axios' Kerry Flynn and I write.

By the numbers: The study, which is published every four years by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and written in conjunction with Harvard Business School professor emeritus John Deighton, found that creator jobs have grown 7.5x since 2020.

• Creator media revenue is growing at five times the rate of the traditional media sector, the researchers found.

The big picture: The digital economy has expanded from technical jobs like coding to creative jobs like content creation and service jobs like food delivery — both of which make up the bulk of new internet jobs.

• Creators building businesses through content and community make up 30% of new digital economy jobs generated since 2020.
• Individuals on service platforms like Uber, DoorDash and Airbnb account for 8% of those jobs, according to the report.

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Spotify's investments in ad tech and new user products will drive meaningful growth this year, despite broader economic volatility, CEO Daniel Ek told Axios in an interview Tuesday.

Why it matters: Analysts believe firms like Spotify and Netflix are better positioned to weather any major economic downturn because they are more reliant on subscriptions than on advertising.

Yes, but: Ek still sees advertising as an important long-term growth engine, which is why the company's investments in new automated ad technology are critical.

• "The reality is, if you look back, we have been investing quite a lot in our ad stack because the world has moved on from the traditional ad stack to much more of a programmatic ad stack, and we were behind on that," Ek said. "We are closing the gap."
• Last month, Spotify announced a new programmatic ad product, called the Spotify Ad Exchange. It also debuted new ad solutions that allow marketers to create scripts and voiceovers for audio ads using generative AI.

State of play: Overall, investors are much more bullish on Spotify than other consumer tech companies, but they're still easily spooked by weak forecasts.

• Spotify shares were about 3.5% lower today, despite reporting strong first-quarter user and revenue growth.
• The company projected weaker-than-expected growth for the second quarter, due to economic uncertainty.

Zoom out: Broadly speaking, Spotify's business is much healthier today than it's ever been.

• Spotify posted its first full-year of profit ever in February and last quarter's earnings results suggest it will continue on that path.
• The company's operating income finished at a record high of €509 million — a 12.1% margin. Its gross margin finished at a Q1 high of 31.6%.

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The Corporation for Public Broadcasting on Monday sued President Trump and several administration officials for attempting to fire three members of CPB's board.

Why it matters: The lawsuit adds to rising tensions between CPB and Republicans, who are seeking to cut funding for America's two biggest public broadcasters, PBS and NPR.

• CPB allocates around $535 million in federal funding annually to NPR and PBS.

Zoom in: The lawsuit asks a judge to issue a temporary restraining order that would prohibit administration officials from taking any action to remove CPB board members from their positions, citing its lack of executive authority to do so.

• "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is not a government entity, and its board members are not government officers," CPB said in statement.
• "Because C.P.B. is not a federal agency subject to the president's authority, but rather a private corporation, we have filed a lawsuit to block these firings."

Between the lines: CPB was created through a bipartisan act of Congress in 1967. Its board members are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

• Members of CPB's current board were nominated by President Biden.

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News that Attorney General Pam Bondi is resuming the practice of attempting to seize reporters' phone records in order to smoke out leakers is the latest and most significant effort by the Trump administration to target the press as part of its early agenda, Axios' Christine Wang and I write.

Zoom in: In Trump's first 100 days ...

• The White House banned the AP from covering its events and is embroiled in a lawsuit over the matter.
• The State Department ordered the cancellation of federal news subscriptions.
• The Defense Department replaced the press offices of several mainstream organizations with mostly conservative outlets.
• The Trump administration reportedly drafted a memo to Congress outlining its plans to cut federal funding for public broadcasters.
• The Federal Communications Commission is also investigating them over whether their member stations violated FCC rules around airing commercial ads.
• FCC Chair Brendan Carr has launched investigations into Comcast/NBCU, Paramount/CBS and Disney/ABC.
• The administration has also tried to gut the government-funded U.S. Agency for Global Media and its outlets.
• It has ordered the firing of three board directors from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Yes, but: Efforts to defund or restrict news entities by the Trump administration have faced challenges in court.

• Earlier this month, a federal judge sided with the Associated Press in its lawsuit against the White House, declaring that under the First Amendment the government can't bar journalists from certain government events because of their viewpoints.
• Last week, a federal judge ruled that Voice of America workers who were placed on leave or fired should return to work. The judge added that the Trump administration must restore funding to the VOA and other U.S. government-funded news outlets.

The big picture: Amid all of these efforts, the Trump administration still engages with and cites outlets it has targeted.

• Despite a historic $20 billion lawsuit against CBS, the president has cited the outlet's polling when favorable.
• Trump sat down for an interview with ABC on the first 100 days of his second term.
• The now infamous photograph of Trump defiantly raising his fist after an assassination attempt, taken by AP photographer Evan Vucci, is on display in the White House.

IAC on Tuesday nominated Tor Braham, a former tech banker, to its board, following pressure from activist investor Arkhouse.

Why it matters: It's part of a broader set of changes the internet holding group is making after the spinout of Angi, its home services platform.

• Earlier this year, IAC said its longtime CEO Joey Levin would step down to become executive chair of Angi as it became its own independently traded company.
• IAC's chair, Barry Diller, stepped into more of a day-to-day leadership role at the company.

Zoom out: The Angi spinoff put a spotlight on how much IAC's business has become reliant on Dotdash Meredith, the publishing giant that includes brands such as People, Southern Living and Better Homes & Gardens.

• Arkhouse, which said Tuesday it has become a significant shareholder of IAC, is pushing to reconcile the gap between IAC's market value and the actual value of its assets.
• In a statement, Arkhouse said it believes IAC's assets could "be worth upwards of $72 a share," which is significantly higher than the $35 per share IAC currently trades at.

By the numbers: IAC owns 100% of Dotdash Meredith and Care.com, It has a 22% stake in MGM Resorts and a 32% stake in car rental company Turo.

• Dotdash Meredith made up 53% of IAC's overall revenue in the fourth quarter of last year, when IAC still owned Angi.
• If Angi was removed from IAC's balance sheet calculus in that quarter, Dotdash Meredith would have represented 72% of its revenue, per company figures.

The big picture: Angi, which was spun out officially on April 1, was the third major spinout from IAC in the past five years, after Match Group in 2020 and Vimeo in 2021.

What to watch: In addition to the new board member, IAC said it will implement a new director resignation policy "for nominees who receive less than a majority of votes cast in uncontested director elections."

• That change could make it easier for future changes to be made to IAC's board.

This year's White House Correspondents' Dinner weekend was jam-packed with a slew of new parties and events that rivaled the typical star-studded affairs presented by established media organizations.

Why it matters: It used to be that only high-brow journalists and media executives from traditional TV networks, newspapers and magazines could access the glitz and glam surrounding D.C.'s annual "nerd prom."

• Now, almost anyone can participate.

My thought bubble: It's a refreshing pivot and one that ensures the WHCD tradition of weekend celebrations can survive because it's adapting.

• The diversity of voices, including more startups and conservative media, feels like a more accurate reflection of today's media landscape.

Zoom in: Although the dinner itself is still mostly accessible to outlets that can afford expensive tables, many of the biggest events this year were hosted by new media companies.

• Status, Semafor and Axios all hosted well-attended gatherings Thursday evening.
• Internet entrepreneurs Adam Faze and Jess Hoy hosted "The New Correspondents Reception and Dinner" for influencers Friday.
• The Daily Mail co-hosted a high-end gathering the same evening at the British Embassy.
• The Contrarian, a new Substack publication from D.C. veterans Norm Eisen and Jen Rubin, hosted a cocktail event Saturday.
• Substack hosted "The New Media Party" for journalists and creators who weren't invited to the official dinner event Saturday night.

The intrigue: Although White House officials made a point of not engaging in the traditional activities of the weekend, many were spotted at new events that catered specifically to Pro-Trump media and MAGA figures.

• Right-wing social influencer Jack Posobiec, The National Pulse's Raheem Kassam and Steve Bannon co-hosted a party at Butterworth's, a MAGA hotspot, on Capitol Hill Saturday night, rivaling ritzy affairs hosted by Time at the Swiss Ambassador's residence and NBCU/Telemundo at the French Ambassador's residence.
• Trump administration officials and powerful conservatives were spotted at an event introducing a new MAGA moguls club, called the Executive Branch, that took place at The Occidental restaurant, near the White House.