BDG Media, the parent company to fashion and lifestyle publications such as Bustle, Nylon and Scary Mommy, expects to be profitable this year and earn up to $130 million in revenue, its CEO and founder Bryan Goldberg tells Axios.
Last year it earned around $110 million in revenue, he said.
Why it matters: A few years ago, Goldberg was focused on scaling his portfolio to take the company public or sell it. Now, he's leaning into BDG's niche brands to grow memberships around social influencers.
President Trump on Tuesday criticized Time magazine's cover photo of him.
The big picture: Trump's brokering of the Gaza peace deal has generated bipartisan praise with Time's November 10 issue calling Trump's role in the deal "his triumph."
ChatGPT will allow a wider range of content — eventually including "erotica" — now that OpenAI has completed work to enable the chatbot to better handle mental health issues, CEO Sam Altman said Tuesday.
Why it matters: The move could boost OpenAI as it seeks to sign up consumers for paid subscriptions, but it's also likely to increase pressure on lawmakers to enact meaningful regulations.
Companies are slowing down the rate at which they share threat intelligence with the federal government after a lapse in key liability protections.
Why it matters: Companies aren't doing this by choice. Since decade-old protections expired two weeks ago, business leaders have been involving their legal teams more in discussions about sharing threat intelligence, slowing down the process, industry sources tell Axios.
The Department of Homeland Security is laying off about 176 employees amid the Trump administration's latest push to reduce the size of the federal government during the ongoing shutdown.
Why it matters: Many, if not all, of these layoffs appear to be in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — which has already lost one-third of its workforce from voluntary buyouts and early retirements.
Buying a car is the second-biggest purchase most Americans will ever make — and it can be one of the most complicated. Between choices in models, financing and paperwork, the process can be overwhelming.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is circulating a draft bill that would ban AI companions for minors, according to a document obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: Hawley is turning up the heat on AI chatbot companions after a hearing featuring parents of children who harmed themselves after talking to AI chatbots and as similar bills across the country gain momentum.
Glue, an aspiring Slack killer co-founded last year by White House AI czar David Sacks, has raised $20 million in Series A funding.
What they're saying: CEO Evan Owen explains that Glue has refocused around MCP (model context protocol), after learning that it was an "uphill battle" to get all of a company's internal information synced.
Walmart is teaming up with OpenAI to turn shopping into a conversation — letting customers plan meals, restock essentials and check out directly through ChatGPT.
Why it matters: The world's largest retailer's new OpenAI partnership signals the arrival of "agentic commerce" — where AI doesn't just answer questions but anticipates what shoppers need next.
Dreamforce, the massive tech conference hosted by Salesforce, returns to San Francisco this week.
Why it matters: The annual gathering, which starts today and runs until Thursday, packs the Moscone Center with tech insiders, AI researchers, entrepreneurs and celebrity guests.
A new report from JPMorgan Chase warns that AI will shake up global alliances, stoke fresh populism and change the rules of war in the century ahead.
Why it matters: The report, first seen by Axios, says the U.S. is dominating the worldwide AI race. Efforts to maintain that dominance are ushering in new, uncomfortable norms.
The Trump administration's rollback of a policy that prohibited immigration enforcement in hospitals is sparking fear and confusion in exam rooms and emergency departments amid a surge in ICE arrests.
Why it matters: Health care workers say stepped-up enforcement is interfering with care in some instances, and lawyers say it has created enough privacy concerns that some are erasing whiteboards on patient floors and concealing medical records.
Visa is prepping for AI holiday shoppers with a new "Trusted Agent Protocol" that helps retailers distinguish legitimate AI shopping agents from malicious bots, the payments giant exclusively told Axios.
Why it matters: AI-fueled shopping is rising fast and Visa's move could lay the groundwork for "agentic commerce" — when your digital assistant can safely browse, compare and buy on your behalf.
New articles generated by AI briefly outnumbered those written by humans online, but the two are now roughly equal, per a new report from SEO firm Graphite.
Why it matters: Researchers have long feared that if AI-made content online overwhelms human-created material, large language models could choke on their own exhaust and collapse.
