DirecTV coordinated with state attorneys general last week to file separate lawsuits seeking to block the $6B+ Nexstar–Tegna merger ahead of its official closing, sources told Axios.

Why it matters: This could be the new model for antitrust enforcement around big media deals and beyond.

• Absent federal scrutiny, antitrust enforcement is moving to the states. But with limited resources, those states may look for support from outside groups with cash to help push their litigation along.

Zoom in: The states' complaint and DirecTV's were filed the day before the companies announced they closed the deal last Thursday, having received regulatory approval from both the FCC and the Justice Department.

• It's unclear how they were tipped off on the timing.
• The states argue the deal would hurt jobs and would result in one company having too much control over local TV.
• DirecTV says the deal would allow Nexstar to have pricing leverage over pay-TV distributors and those costs would be passed on to consumers.

Between the lines: While Dish parent EchoStar has not filed a complaint of its own, it is looking at all its options, a source told Axios.

• The company has filed a petition with the FCC to deny the merger.

What to watch: A coalition of consumer groups, Newsmax and DirecTV on Monday filed an emergency petition to stop the deal, arguing the FCC's approval of the deal violates a law that caps broadcast ownership.

• The FCC said it waived the rule, but opponents say it needs congressional approval to do so.

It's not just Nexstar and Tegna.

• 📺 Local news: Sinclair, the third-largest local media company in the country, is trying to take over Scripps.
• 🎬 Hollywood: The megamerger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery marks the third time in six years that big movie studios have come together, following the Fox-Disney merger in 2019 and the Skydance-Paramount deal in 2025.
• 🎫 Live events: Live Nation-Ticketmaster appears poised to remain the country's largest ticketing and live-events company after the DOJ settled its antitrust lawsuit with the company for just $280 million earlier this month.
• 🧑‍💻 Big Tech: The government failed to break up Meta last year when it lost its antitrust case against the company. It won its two cases against Google, but a judge ruled against breaking up its search business.

Tech giants that compete with smaller publishers for ad dollars continue to bring in record revenues, thanks to their investments in AI.

• Media publishers made up 27.84% of the top 25 advertising earners in 2016, compared to only 7.3% in 2024, per WPP Media data.

The big picture: Many of the recent media megadeals are drawing concern from policymakers that a handful of massive companies will have outsized power in shaping public opinion and culture.

• A recent Wall Street Journal report suggests the Trump administration's motivation in striking deals and settlements has more to do with serving political allies than it does public service.
• A senior Justice Department official told Axios' Ashley Gold that the administration's antitrust policy is "bring cases, but strike deals whenever possible."

TikTok introduced a slew of new ad products today designed to help advertisers tell sequential stories at culturally relevant moments — something they traditionally relied on TV for.

Why it matters: TikTok's huge reach has made it a must-buy for performance advertisers looking to sell goods or drive tune-in for shows. Now, they want to support higher-impact brand campaigns for a wider range of clients.

🛍️ Zoom out: Historically, TikTok's main advertiser base has been companies across media and entertainment, consumer packaged goods, beauty and luxury, said Khartoon Weiss, vice president and general manager of global business solutions at TikTok.

• Investments in new advertising products have made it possible for the company to attract more business from heavily regulated industries, like pharmaceutical companies.
• "You'll see a lot more of that, especially as we move into World Cup," Weiss said.

📱 Zoom in: The company unveiled a new prime time sequential storytelling ad format on Tuesday that allows brands to deliver up to three ads to the same user within a designated 15-minute window on the For You Feed.

• Advertisers can now buy a logo takeover, which will allow them to co-brand with TikTok on the logo launch page when users open the app.

The big picture: Today's presentation at the IAB's annual NewFronts gathering in New York marked the first time TikTok presented to Madison Avenue ad buyers after striking a deal to divest its U.S. arm to a consortium of majority U.S. owners last year.

• "The great news is we are business as usual," Weiss said. Users and advertisers "won't experience anything different."

Go deeper

Beehiiv, a newsletter platform for independent creators and publishers, has introduced an update that allows users to manage and optimize their accounts from the AI platform of their choice, CEO and co-founder Tyler Denk told Axios.

• He believes the update will help creators offload a lot of tedious tasks, like analyzing email lists and managing marketing outreach.

🦾 Why it matters: Denk said that eventually he expects most creators to access their accounts through AI platforms, not the Beehiiv app. They can be "far more productive" that way, he said.

🤖 Zoom out: The first iteration of the Beehiiv MCP, or model context protocol, is meant to support writers with backend functions, such as subscriber analysis and SEO optimization.

• Eventually, Beehiiv plans to expand the technology to give creators more direct writing support.
• Users can prohibit AI chatbots from using their Beehiiv account data to train their large language models from settings within their profiles.

🍯 The big picture: Denk and his co-founders launched Beehiiv in 2021 to give independent creators more ways to monetize their content beyond subscriptions.

• The company has since grown to roughly 120 employees. Its revenue run rate is around $38 million annually, Denk said.
• The startup, which has raised roughly $50 million to date, is not yet profitable.

Go deeper

News organizations that serve professionals are leaning more heavily into events, data and information services to drive revenue that can be used to bolster their editorial ambitions.

💸 Why it matters: Enterprise businesses offer more reliable recurring revenue than do advertising and often, consumer subscriptions.

• The Economist Group is restructuring its business to bring together its enterprise products under one brand, Leon Saunders Calvert, president and managing director of the new Economist Enterprise unit, told me last week.
• Dow Jones recently said it expects to earn $1 billion in annual profit within five years, thanks in large part to investments in its enterprise offerings.
• The Washington Post launched WP Intelligence, a premium subscription service for business and policy leaders, last year.
• Reuters launched Reuters Professional, a news, analysis and events business aimed at decision-makers in 2020.
• Hearst's B2B business today accounts for 60% of the company's total profit, up from less than 10% 15 years ago.

More on The Economist's moves

The Trump administration is finding creative ways to continue limiting press access after courts strike down their efforts to block journalists from briefings and events.

Driving the news: The Department of Defense announced new media policies yesterday that it says complies with a ruling last week that found the Pentagon's restrictions on journalists were a First Amendment violation.

• 🪖 The Pentagon will shutter an area known as "Correspondents' Corridor" where the press worked. Instead, it will establish a new press workspace "in an annex facility outside the Pentagon," per a memo from Sean Parnell, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs.
• All journalists will also be escorted "by authorized Department personnel" to access the Pentagon.
• 🏛️ The White House has taken a similar path. Last year, it removed wire services from its pool rotation after a judge sided with the Associated Press in its lawsuit over access to Air Force One and Oval Office events.
• While litigation is ongoing, the White House has taken conflicting approaches for AP journalists, granting access for photographers but excluding some reporters.

Zoom out: Press freedom groups denounced the Defense Department's new media rules, with the Pentagon Press Association calling them a "clear violation of the letter and spirit" of the court ruling.

• The Pentagon says it plans to appeal the court's ruling, which came in response to a New York Times lawsuit.

The big picture: The Trump administration so far has a losing record in press-related lawsuits. And more complaints are on the way.

• Just days after a judge ruled the government must bring back more than 1,000 Voice of America journalists who had been terminated, a group of VOA staffers filed a new lawsuit alleging Trump ally Kari Lake turned its broadcasts into pro-Trump propaganda.

Apple ⁠plans ⁠to introduce ads to ⁠its Apple Maps service in North America this summer, expanding its growing ads business further into search, it announced today.

Why it matters: Apple's ad business is no longer just about monetizing the App Store. It's growing a broader media platform across its services business.

The big picture: Apple is investing more in software services, which includes ad revenue, as hardware sales have slowed.

• The company quietly rebranded its ad platform from Apple Search Ads to Apple Ads last year, broadening the name to highlight placements beyond Apple Store search ads.
• The company now sells its own ad inventory for Apple News, pitching new units within the Apple News feed and individual stories, Axios previously reported. It also plans to sell premium sponsorships.
• It works with Taboola as a resale vendor for Apple News and Apple Stocks.

📍How it works: The new maps ad product will enable local businesses to claim their physical locations through a set of business tools, per Reuters.

• A map user's location information and map engagement data will not be associated with a user's Apple account.

Bob Woodward, who turns 83 on Thursday, is finally publishing his own memoir, he told Axios' Mike Allen.

• And with it, comes a fun secret.

Zoom in: It's "time to put some of my best reporting stories and details of my longest reporting relationships on paper," Woodward said.

• "Some of the best sources are deceased, and I can tell those stories now," he added. "Elsa Walsh, my wife, calls them 'the forever sources.' But no longer, because they are gone."

Reality check: This won't be the first time Woodward has revealed his sources after they passed.

• He told Jake Tapper in 1999 that his major source for his 1979 book "The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court" was Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who died in 1985.

The big picture: There are no official rules about whether a journalist can divulge their sources after they die, but there have been some legal precedents set around the issue.

• In 2023, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that a reporter's privilege survives their death and can be claimed by their newspaper.

What's next: Woodward's book "Secrets: A Reporter's Memoir" will be out Sept. 29.

• He has "kept notes, transcripts and files of all his interviews with the most important players in Washington," from the Vietnam and Nixon eras to today, Simon & Schuster says in today's announcement.

Go deeper