Digital media companies considering going public are watching BuzzFeed's expected stock market debut next week to see how investors will respond.

• Sources tell Axios that much of investors' appetites in the sector will be contingent on how BuzzFeed trades in its first few months.
• One source notes that institutional investors have became slightly more cautious of digital media investments following the Ozy Media fraud allegations scandal.

State of play: Shareholders of 890 Fifth Avenue Partners, the blank check company BuzzFeed is merging with to go public, will vote on Thursday to approve the SPAC merger.

• If all goes according to plan, both the SPAC merger and BuzzFeed's $300 million acquisition of Complex Networks would both close by the end of the day Friday, per a source familiar with the process. The company would begin trading on Monday.

Driving the news: BDG Media, formerly Bustle, is still aiming to go public via a SPAC next year, two sources familiar with the matter tell Axios. The company is in talks with SPAC sponsors, but is hoping to have something wrapped up by the second or third quarter of 2022.

• Vox Media is still considering a SPAC IPO, according to two sources familiar with its plans, but the company is exploring a range of options that may not lead to a public market play.
• Group Nine Media announced last year that it had formed its own SPAC that it can be used as a vehicle to take another company public with it. It has until January 2023 to identify a company that it would take public with it.

What to watch: In preparing for a SPAC, BuzzFeed put forward aggressive revenue and growth predictions, including hitting over $1 billion in revenue by 2024.

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Vox Media has inked a deal with WNYC, a member station of NPR, to distribute its flagship podcast "Today, Explained" to public radio stations across the country beginning next year.

• It's also poached Noel King, co-host of NPR's flagship show "Morning Edition," as editorial director and co-host of "Today Explained" with the podcast's current host Sean Rameswaram.

Why it matters: The partnership marks the first time Vox Media's content will regularly appear on the radio. Vox says the two companies will identify additional shows in its podcast portfolio to distribute via radio in the future.

Details: In her new role, King will help develop special series for the show and will do her own original reporting.

• She and Rameswaram, who also serves as Vox Audio creative director, will share hosting duties while they both simultaneously pursue other long-term projects, including efforts to expand the show's presence to new platforms.

Two conservative news networks — Newsmax and One America News Network— have come out in support of President Biden's progressive Federal Communications Commission (FCC) nominee Gigi Sohn, despite a broad conservative consensus against her.

• The Wall Street Journal's editorial board alleged earlier this month that Sohn "favors deploying the agency’s regulatory power to shackle broadband providers and silence conservative voices."

Why it matters: If Sohn is confirmed, her appointment would give Democrats the majority they need to rewrite regulations for the communications sector, Axios' Margaret Harding McGill and I write.

Between the lines: Sohn was on the same side as both Newsmax and OAN in opposing the 2018 Sinclair-Tribune deal. Smaller conservative networks have more to gain from Sohn's record favoring independent programmers.

• Sohn will face the Senate Commerce Committee for her confirmation hearing Wednesday.

The broadcast industry said Monday via a statement from its trade group that while it doesn't oppose Sohn's nomination, it has serious concerns about her involvement with now defunct streaming service Locast.

• Fox did not respond to a request for comment about Sohn's nomination, but presumably the network is aligned with its broader cohort of broadcasters on the issue.
• Sinclair is trying to play both sides, which is notable given how outspoken Sohn was about the company's behavior during its failed merger with Tribune in 2018.

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Every member of the Wirecutter Union will be eligible to receive overtime pay from union organizers for the hours they missed working overtime during the union's Black Friday holiday strike, thanks to an outpouring of donations to support the union's walkout.

State of play: The Wirecutter union held a five-day walkout over the holiday weekend in protest of The New York Times' management's negotiations with its union.

• The product reviews site, which was acquired by The New York Times in 2016, typically sees a boost in traffic over Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Details: As of Tuesday morning, the union had raised nearly $43,000 from a GoFundMe page over the span of a week, far surpassing its $25,000 target. That money came from over 900 unique donors.

• The union will "be able to provide funds to everyone who wants them due to the generosity of our supporters who donated so much more than our goal," said Sarah Kobos, a senior photo editor at Wirecutter and vice-chair of the union. "Any excess we have after that, we will be donating to other strike funds."

The big picture: The union is asking The Times for a $300,000 pay increase across the salaries of its 65-person department. "The fact that The Times is sitting on $1 billion (of cash) — it's a small ask," Kobos said.

• Asked whether the boycott had impacted traffic to the Wirecutter, or subscription referrals, Kobos said she couldn't share metrics, but "I can only assume that it did affect things."
• The Wirecutter added 10,000 net subscriptions in its first month behind a paywall, The Times said in early November.

What's next: The union's next bargaining date with management is set for December 6th.

Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey is exiting the company he helped build at a time when its future has never been so uncertain.

Behind the scenes, tension has been brewing between Dorsey and stakeholders who argued he was a part-time CEO.

• Twitter employees tell Axios they felt like Dorsey was never fully committed to the job.
• Activist investor Elliott Management in early 2020 pressured Dorsey to resign as CEO, reportedly over Dorsey's attention to other projects, like Square.
• In a statement Monday, Elliott endorsed the company's new CEO, longtime chief technology officer Parag Agrawal, and Salesforce chief Bret Taylor as the company's new board chairman.

The big picture: CEO Jack Dorsey's departure from Twitter shows that, in Silicon Valley today, social media is becoming a field to flee, per Axios' Scott Rosenberg.

⚡ Breaking: Twitter said Tuesday it's updating its privacy policy to forbid the sharing of “media of private individuals without the permission of the person(s) depicted.”

NBC News next Monday will debut a new show for its NBC News Now streaming service called, “NOW Tonight with Joshua Johnson,” starring the former MSNBC anchor who will now work for the streaming service full-time.

Why it matters: It’s the seventh recurring program NBC News has launched for its streaming service in the past year. NBC News executives argue their progress gives them a leg up in the streaming wars.

• “Another network out there wants to launch a hypothetical news streaming network, and they're trying to figure it out while we're already up and on the air and have incredible programs,” said Janelle Rodriguez, SVP of Editorial for NBC News and executive-in-charge of NBC News NOW, presumably referring to CNN.

Details: The hourlong show will air each weekday at 8 p.m. on NBC News Now, NBC's 24/7 streaming platform dedicated solely to news.

• "It's a little bit of everything," said Johnson in an interview. "It's not all politics. There's much more to life than politics."

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Box-office sales over Thanksgiving show moviegoing is slowly returning, but not enough to restore the industry to pre-pandemic levels anytime soon — if ever.

The big picture: Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian expects this year's domestic box office total to be about $4 billion, down nearly $7 billion from 2019.

• Theater stocks sank Friday on fears that another COVID wave could pummel moviegoing and studio production.

Ticket sales for the five-day Thanksgiving holiday were down around 46% from 2019, Comscore estimates.

• Disney's "Encanto" was the clear holiday weekend winner, bringing in $40 million over the five-day weekend, followed by MGM's "House of Gucci," which brought in $21 million.
• "Encanto" and other children's movies, including "Clifford the Big Red Dog," are benefiting from kids' new vaccine eligibility.

What to watch: Sony's "Spider-Man: No Way Home," which debuts in theaters exclusively on Dec. 17, "could be the first $100 million opener of pandemic era in North America," Dergarabedian said.