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| Presented By Meta |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen · Oct 25, 2022 |
| Hello, Tuesday. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,422 words ... 5½ minutes. Edited by Noah Bressner. 🏀 Situational awareness: CBS Sports' Jim Nantz will call his last Final Four in April, after being the voice of March Madness for 32 years. He'll be succeeded by Ian Eagle. - Nantz, 63, will remain the lead voice of the network's NFL coverage, and continue to lead its golf team. Keep reading.
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| 1 big thing: 11th-hour Dem pivots |
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| Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios |
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| 14 days from Election Day, Democrats are frantically moving money and changing messages, as polling shows GOP momentum across the map. - Republicans — bullish about flipping the House and Senate — are making real runs at Democratic strongholds that once seemed out of reach, Axios' Alayna Treene, Josh Kraushaar and Andrew Solender report.
Democrats are recasting their closing message with more emphasis on the economy and health care. - After spending the bulk of the fall attacking Republicans over abortion, Democrats now tout the cost-saving government benefits the White House secured for Americans.
- Republicans are doubling down on crime and inflation. Those topics — top-of-mind for voters this fall — have helped the party make notable inroads in the Wisconsin and Pennsylvania U.S. Senate races + Oregon and New York governor races.
👀 What we're watching: Outside Republican groups have spent or reserved over $7 million against Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of House Democrats' campaign arm. - If Maloney loses, it'd be the first time either party has taken out the other party's House campaign chief since 1980.
- In a seismic shift, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter yesterday moved Maloney's race — against first-term state Assemblyman Mike Lawler, in a redrawn suburban New York City district — to "toss-up."
President Biden leans into new Democratic messaging. (Via Twitter) Republican response. 👀 What we're watching: House Dems are triaging resources to defend candidates in solidly blue territory. The Democrats' House Majority PAC moved funds from an Oregon district Biden carried by nine points to salvage a suburban Portland district Biden won by 13 points. - One national Democratic official told Axios they're "very pessimistic" about the prospects of Oregon Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who ousted moderate Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) in the primary. In 2020, Schrader won re-election by six points.
🐘 GOP also shifting: House Republicans are getting aggressive, while Senate Republicans' approach remains more cautious. - The Senate Republicans' campaign arm wants to begin drawing attention away from states they think they'll easily win — like Ohio and North Carolina — and putting more focus on battlegrounds where Republicans nominated MAGA-oriented candidates, including Arizona and New Hampshire.
"It's an attitude shift" away from the defensive posture and toward a more aggressive, riskier one to maximize chances at expanding the map, NRSC spokesman Chris Hartline told Axios. |
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| 2. American media carnage |
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| Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios |
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| U.S. media companies are headed for a brutal shakeout: - Economic danger signs are forcing networks and publishers to slash costs and prepare for trouble in ways that are reminiscent of the early pandemic days, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer writes.
Why it matters: A day of reckoning is upon us, and only the strong will survive. 🧠 What's happening: Outlets are responding to the new economic reality with layoffs, hiring freezes, and other cost-cutting measures. - New data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas finds that news media layoffs are beginning to tick up again after a relatively stable summer.
Nearly 3,000 media jobs have been cut this year, with more than one-third (1,100) coming from the news media industry. 🔎 Between the lines: Inflation and supply chain issues have slowed the ad market dramatically ahead of what's typically the most lucrative time of the year.  Data: Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Chart: Axios Visuals 🔬 Zoom in: News companies are also seeing a significant traffic slowdown in response to a post-Trump news cycle that's riddled with depressing headlines. - The Washington Post is on track to lose money this year, and has lost digital subscriptions in the Biden era.
- The Atlantic is staring at another year of roughly $10 million in losses.
- Other billionaire-backed publications, including the L.A. Times, are still struggling to find their footing in the digital era.
🥊 Reality check: There remain some points of optimism in the industry. - The New York Times continues to grow its paid subscriber base at a healthy clip.
- News Corp. revenues rose to a record $10.4 billion for the fiscal year ending in June.
🔮 What's next: For media startups, the murky economic outlook has created a rough fundraising atmosphere and has killed incentives to go public. |
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| 3. 🎒 Charted: Historic COVID setbacks |
 Data: The Nation's Report Card. Chart: Axios Visuals Reading scores on "The Nation's Report Card" fell to 1992 levels, and math scores dropped by the most in 53 years of testing by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). - Math scores declined among eighth-graders across racial and ethnic groups — and among lower- and higher-achieving students alike, Axios' Erin Doherty reports.
Share this graphic ... Go deeper: Reading findings ... Math findings. |
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| A message from Meta |
| Future surgeons will get hands-on practice in the metaverse |
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| Surgeons will engage in countless hours of additional low-risk practice in the metaverse. The impact: Patients undergoing complex care will know their doctors are as prepared as possible. The metaverse may be virtual, but the impact will be real. See how Meta is helping build the metaverse. |
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| 4. 📷 1,000 words |
| Photo: Rebecca Blackwell/AP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) greets former Gov. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) before their only debate last night in Fort Pierce, Fla. - DeSantis repeatedly refused to reply to Crist when asked whether he'd run for president in 2024.
Keep reading. |
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| 5. Elon Musk, self-employed diplomat |
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| Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios |
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| Elon Musk is wielding significant geopolitical power with his global internet Starlink satellites, Miriam Kramer and Alison Snyder write for Axios Space. - Why it matters: Private space companies are meeting — and often exceeding — the capabilities of governments, giving not just technological but also geopolitical power to those who operate them.
What's happening: Musk this month suggested on Twitter that the U.S. government should start footing the multimillion-dollar bill for the private Starlink service he initiated in Ukraine after Russia cut off internet service. - He then pulled back and said the company would continue to cover the cost.
- Days before, Musk offered his thoughts on how to de-escalate the conflict in Ukraine and Taiwan, drawing criticism in Washington.
The big picture: Musk's moves show just how much global influence he now wields. - Activating Starlink in Ukraine was "a policy decision that the U.S. government didn't make," Kaitlyn Johnson, a space policy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), tells Axios.
🚀 Between the lines: Years of U.S. policy accelerating and supporting private space companies have led to this moment, where these companies are starting to exceed the government in their capabilities. |
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| 6. 🗳️ Early-voting surge |
| Early-voting signs in Marietta (Cobb County), Ga. Photo: Mike Stewart/AP Early voting is going gangbusters in Georgia and New England, AP reports: - About 838,000 Georgians had cast their ballots through Sunday — most of them in person at advance voting sites, the rest returning mail ballots. That's almost 60% higher than advance voting totals at this point in 2018, the last midterm election.
- More than 10% of Georgia's registered voters have already voted.
That share trails only Massachusetts and Vermont, where 22% and 16% of voters have sent in ballots, according to an AP analysis of data collected by University of Florida professor Michael McDonald. - California and Florida have each accepted more than 1 million mail ballots.
State-by-state data. |
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| 7. Tonight's debate bingo |
 Graphic: Axios Visuals Axios Philadelphia's Mike D'Onofrio has a fun game for tonight's Senate debate between Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) and Mehmet Oz (R), at 8 p.m. ET in Harrisburg. |
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| 8. 🍽️ 1 food thing: Real trouble for fake meat |
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| Illustration: Rae Cook/Axios |
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| Companies that make faux burgers and other meat substitutes are laying off employees and staring down weak sales, Jennifer A. Kingson writes for Axios What's Next. - Why it matters: The biggest fast-food chains and meat producers have raced to cash in on fake meat, sensing consumer appetite for sustainable and animal-friendly alternatives.
But high prices and flattening demand have dogged the industry: - Beyond Meat calls it an "ongoing softness in the plant-based meat category" and announced a 19% workforce reduction this month.
- McDonald's shelved plans to introduce a McPlant burger nationally.
- Brazil's JBS is closing Planterra Foods, its U.S. plant-based meat business, and Canada's Maple Leaf Foods has whittled its plant-based meat division.
- Impossible Foods laid off 6% of employees, though it positions the move as part of a reorganization and says sales are growing.
Keep reading. |
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| A message from Meta |
| Future surgeons will get hands-on practice in the metaverse |
| |
| |
| |
| Surgeons will engage in countless hours of additional low-risk practice in the metaverse. The impact: Patients undergoing complex care will know their doctors are as prepared as possible. The metaverse may be virtual, but the impact will be real. See how Meta is helping build the metaverse. |
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