Two of the New York Times' unions have sent cease-and-desist letters to management over its new policies that will see the Times monitoring its workers' return to office via badge swipes, sources told Axios.

Why it matters: Despite reaching a historic contract agreement with the union that represents most of its editorial workers in May, the company's management continues to face a slew of contentious labor issues.

Details: The Times said it would require workers to return to the office three days per week until Sept. 2, 2024, at which time the company has the right to increase the in-office requirement to four days per week. A spokesperson said it has no plans to do that.

• As part of an announcement about the policies last week, the Times said newsroom leaders may periodically observe badge swipe data to review attendance trends and it "may flag individuals with particularly low attendance," per Semafor's Max Tani.

The New York Times Guild, which represents the majority of the Times' newsroom workers, and the Times Tech Guild, which includes more than 600 Times tech workers, both sent cease-and-desist letters to management last week, following the badge swipe announcement, union representatives confirmed to Axios.

• The New York Times Guild agues the move violates its new contract with management, which doesn't mention badge swipes being used to surveil office attendance.
• The Times Tech Guild argues the move violates their status quo, or the terms and conditions set at the time that were union ratified in 2022. The status quo remains until the Tech Guild negotiates a contract with management. (A Times' spokesperson noted that the company's return-to-office policies were introduced before the Tech Guild was recognized.)

A spokesperson for the Times said, "We believe that allowing people the flexibility to work together in the office at times and remotely at other times benefits everyone by ensuring that we maintain the strong, collaborative environment that has come to define our culture and drive our success."

Between the lines: In addition to the cease-and-desist letters, the return-to-office policies have also become the subject of a National Labor Relations Board complaint that was initially filed on behalf of both unions last year.

• The New York Times Guild dropped its complaint after reaching its contract in May, but the complaint on behalf of the Tech Guild still stands.

The NLRB notified Times' management Monday that it has until Sept. 13 to decide whether it wishes to accept informal settlement terms related to the complaint.

• If the Times doesn't agree to the settlement, which is often the case during such disputes, the NLRB would then proceed with a legal process related to investigating the charge, which includes a hearing before an administrative law judge

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The investment firm led by former CNN chief Jeff Zucker is in talks to back newsletter startup Front Office Sports, sources tell me and Axios' Dan Primack. Discussions are ongoing and may not result in a deal.

Why it matters: It's the latest newsletter upstart being eyed by Zucker, who manages a $1 billion investment fund called RedBird IMI.

• Zucker reportedly has discussed investments in Graydon Carter's subscription newsletter company, Air Mail, in addition to Puck and Punchbowl News.

Catch up quick: Front Office Sports CEO Adam White launched the newsletter startup while in college in 2014. Most of its products, which focus on the business of sports, are free.

• FOS in 2021 began selling paid subscription products, mostly insights and data for sports business professionals, and says it has more than 40 employees.
• To date, the company has raised $5 million from Crain Communications, at around a $25 million valuation.

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Yahoo is on a buying spree to bolster its core products, most of which have miraculously survived nearly three decades of internet tumult.

Why it matters: Yahoo was all but left dead by Verizon when it was sold to Apollo Global Management in 2021.

• Under its new owners, the company — founded in January 1994 — is getting a rare chance to reinvent itself.

Driving the news: The tech giant said today it had acquired StrictlyVC for its news site TechCrunch, marking Yahoo's fourth acquisition in the past year.

• It acquired social investing platform CommonStock last week in an effort to make Yahoo Finance a premiere destination for retail investors.
• In April, it purchased Wagr to bring gaming opportunities to Yahoo Sports.
• Last year, it bought The Factual to add news credibility ratings to its vast pool of syndicated news content.

Between the lines: Driving Yahoo's transformation is CEO Jim Lanzone, the former CBS Interactive executive and Tinder CEO, with the backing of Yahoo's new owners.

• "Job No. 1 is making every one of these products and brands super strong on their own, within the categories in which they operate," he told Axios.

What to watch: Over time, Lanzone said, the company will start to invest in additional categories that it's not currently in or not deeply invested in.

• The TechCrunch deal, for example, shows the firm's commitment to building its tech coverage. Yahoo also owns Autoblog, a car news and reviews site. Yahoo Entertainment is also a growing focus area.

By the numbers: Axios reported last year that the company generates roughly $8 billion in revenues with a significant profit margin.

• That top line number is expected to fluctuate this year in response to efforts Yahoo has made to sunset less profitable products, like its Yahoo for Business advertising unit, a source told Axios.
• But even as the company chases higher margins, it's worth noting that many of Yahoo's existing entities — including ones long neglected by the internet elite — are still very profitable.

👀 AOL, for example — which was merged with Yahoo under its previous owners — still drives hundreds of millions of dollars of free cash flow, a source told Axios.

The bottom line: Apollo's investment in Yahoo has given the pioneering but long-overshadowed firm a new chance to shine.

What's next: Yahoo is looking to get competitive again in the search space, 23 years after originally striking a deal to outsource its main search engine to Google.

The Daily Wire, a conservative media and entertainment company, will debut its first full-length docuseries Sept. 8 on X, three months after the controversial posting of its documentary "What is a Woman?" to the platform.

Why it matters: The Daily Wire's high-profile dispute with X, then called Twitter, over content moderation issues in June briefly called into question whether Musk would be able to continue to attract conservative media partners.

Details: The new true-crime docuseries, called "Convicting a Murderer," is narrated by the Daily Wire's popular podcaster and video personality Candace Owens.

• The first episode of the 10-part series will premiere on X on Sept. 8 at 9pm ET and will be free to watch for all users, a spokesperson told Axios.
• The second episode will be available for free on DailyWire+, the Daily Wire's subscription video platform. All other episodes (3–10) will only be available behind a paywall to DailyWire+ subscribers.

The Daily Wire plans to spend six figures on X to promote the debut video, which will have a live event page dedicated to it on X.

• With the live event page, the Daily Wire will be able to select a certain number of handles whose tweets about the video will be featured.
• The X premiere is being treated like a major tune-in event for the series.
• For 10 hours beginning at 4pm ET on Sept. 8, an ad will appear in the feeds of all U.S. X users, inviting them to visit the dedicated event page and set a reminder for the event premiere at 9pm ET.

Between the lines: The Daily Wire is putting more of its content on X amid frustrations with YouTube over content moderation.

The big picture: The docuseries premiere represents new efforts by X to work with media partners to stream long-form video.

• In June, Apple TV+ put the entire first episode of its science-fiction drama Silo on Twitter for free.

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TV network bosses are blasting Nielsen's new effort to incorporate Amazon's proprietary first-party data in its livestreaming measurement.

Why it matters: Nielsen and the third-party Media Ratings Council, which oversees media accreditation for measurement firms like Nielsen, have long been relied on as unbiased third-party counters of TV viewership.

• TV networks have criticized Nielsen for years as being antiquated, but not biased. The new move challenges their trust at a time when Nielsen faces record levels of competition from new measurement upstarts.

What they're saying: "Nielsen is about to sacrifice its most valuable attribute — impartiality — to benefit one client, one program and one content supplier," wrote Michael Mulvihill, president of insights and analytics at Fox Corp., on X Monday.

• "Reckless, wrongheaded and a slap in the face to the largest Nielsen clients and NFL partners," he added.

Between the lines: A trade group representing TV networks criticized MRC's move to quickly audit the new system, per AdAge.

• The MRC said it wanted to complete the audit before Nielsen rolled out the new system in September and that it began eyeing Nielsen's Amazon ratings earlier this year following a discrepancy between Amazon's numbers and Nielsen's. (See chart above.)
• MRC and Nielsen did not provide comment.

Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed last week that they plan to launch a livestream channel for CNN on its streaming platform Max that will include 24 hours of live content.

Why it matters: WBD executives were quick to kill CNN+, the subscription streaming service CNN's previous leadership had launched last year.

• Now they're racing to build a new CNN streaming strategy that suits their own objectives.

Details: The CNN Max channel will launch in beta on Sept. 27.

• It will feature some of the network's most popular live shows, including "The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer" and "Anderson Cooper 360," as well as live programming created exclusively for the service.

Be smart: The service is different from CNN+ in that it leans much more heavily into live news rather than personality programming, making it cheaper to produce.

What to watch: Sources told Axios that the live feed will include the same ads sold on linear TV to start. Eventually, it plans to integrate advanced advertising features that would allow the network to place targeted digital ads on the service.

• CNN executives are also considering putting a blank slate over the feed during the ad breaks, a tactic used by other networks, like CNBC, which offers CNBC Pro subscribers access to its live feed digitally.

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Disclosure: Sara is a paid contributor for CNN.