Monday, June 1, 2026
In today’s digest, traffic changes for the World Cup, subway musicians above ground, and the latest in the new media landscape. 📱
But first: Happy New York Tech Week! This week, New York will play host to 1,600+ (!) events celebrating the tech ecosystem across the city.
Tech:NYC President and CEO Julie Samuels joined Bloomberg TV this morning to talk all things New York and tech. More here.
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New York’s phone-free schools initiative is getting high marks from the people who spend all day there: teachers and administrators. A statewide survey of nearly 600 educators found that about 80% reported positive results after the first full year of the state’s smartphone restrictions in schools. 📵 (BK Reader)
Educators said students were more engaged in class, collaborated more with classmates, and focused better on assignments, while 75% reported that their ability to teach effectively improved.
80% of respondents said student social connections improved, and 60% reported a decline in bullying and cyberbullying incidents.
As Tech:NYC’s Julie Samuels said last year: “We want people to have a healthy relationship with technology, but for all of the reasons the governor just put out, they shouldn’t be in school while kids are in class. They shouldn’t be in school when kids should be talking to teachers and to their classmates.”
NYC unveiled a transportation plan that will temporarily transform parts of Manhattan into giant soccer-fan shuttle corridors, including shutting down stretches of 42nd Street on match days to move fans to and from games at MetLife Stadium. ⚽ (ABC 7 New York)
The city says the goal is to keep hundreds of thousands of visitors moving while avoiding gridlock across the rest of Manhattan.
Fans will also have new options beyond trains and buses, including a planned $49 Uber-operated shuttle connecting Manhattan to MetLife Stadium.
While the World Cup will be gone by next summer, New York’s soccer ambitions are getting a permanent address: Construction crews are racing ahead on NYCFC’s $780 million Etihad Park in Willets Point, which will become the city’s first soccer-specific stadium when it opens in 2027. 🏟️ (Crain’s New York Business)
The 25,000-seat venue will also be Major League Soccer’s first fully electric stadium and is expected to become a centerpiece of the broader Willets Point redevelopment.
Beyond soccer, the project is helping transform a former industrial site into a neighborhood that will eventually include affordable housing, a school, retail space, and public open space.
In other reading:
Mamdani repeals bedtime for New York City students during Knicks playoffs (ABC New York)
Tech ads on the New York subway are up 50% this year (Semafor)
The MTA is bringing free outdoor concerts above ground (Time Out New York)
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New York Is Rewriting the New Media Playbook
If you want a glimpse of where media is headed, look no further than NYC. 🗽
Every day, newsletters, podcasts, video, creators, and AI-powered workflows are reshaping how stories are produced, distributed, and consumed.
Shameless plug: Check out Edelman and Tech:NYC’s Media & Comms Happy Hour during New York Tech Week this Thursday, June 4, where Tech:NYC President and CEO Julie Samuels will moderate a panel featuring reporters from Fortune, Semafor, LinkedIn News, NBC News, Wall Street Journal, and Deep View to discuss how newsletters, video, AI, and new audience habits are reshaping the media landscape.
With that as our backdrop, here’s what new in new media:
The newsletter boom is creating new media brands (you don’t say!):
Journalists and creators are increasingly building direct relationships with audiences through newsletter platforms like Beehiiv and Substack, creating a more personal and community-driven approach to media.
Beehiiv says publishers sent 28 billion emails last year (up from 15.6 billion in 2024) and reached more than 255 million unique readers.
The shift reflects a broader trend across media toward owning audience relationships rather than relying exclusively on social platforms for distribution.
Video is becoming the front door to the news:
Video-first media has had a growing influence and YouTube has become the primary channel for podcast distribution in the United States. Plus, YouTube shorts average 200 billion daily views. 📺
There’s also been a rise in personality-led media brands and creators who are building loyal audiences through video, podcasts, and social platforms.
AI is helping newsroom infrastructure: OpenAI recently launched the OpenAI Academy for News Organizations, a new learning hub built with the American Journalism Project and The Lenfest Institute to help journalists, editors, and publishers use AI in their work. 🤖
The goal is to help journalists spend less time on routine tasks and more time on high-impact reporting.
🗽 New York remains the center of gravity: The panel itself is a reminder of New York's unique position at the intersection of technology, media, finance, advertising, and communications.
Few cities can convene leaders from national news organizations, tech companies, startups, and communications firms in the same room to discuss the future of storytelling.
As AI accelerates the pace of innovation, the people telling, distributing, and monetizing stories increasingly call New York home.
Why it matters: The biggest media companies and the newest startups are converging around the same question: How do you earn attention in an increasingly crowded information ecosystem?
The answer appears to involve a mix of trusted reporting, direct audience relationships, video-first formats, and AI-powered workflows. 🎤
Be part of the convo: Register for Edelman and Tech:NYC’s Media & Comms Happy Hour on June 4 here.
In other reading:
Anthropic files for its IPO (Axios)
AI is changing how consultants get paid (Wall Street Journal)
What interviewing for culture fit actually reveals about job candidates (Bloomberg)
Anthropic, an AI company and developer of the Claude AI assistant (and Tech:NYC member!) raised $65 billion in Series H funding led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia Capital, valuing the company at $965 billion post-money.
Garner Health, an NYC-based digital health platform that helps patients find health care providers using data and financial incentives, raised $100 million in Series E funding. Index Ventures led the round and was joined by Kleiner Perkins, Redpoint, Thrive, Sequoia, Founders Fund, and Kaiser Permanente Ventures.
H1, an NYC-based AI platform that helps life sciences and pharmaceutical companies identify health care professionals for clinical research and medical outreach, raised $40 million in funding. CVS Health Ventures led the round.
Mecka AI, an NYC-based company that trains physical AI with human data sourced from body sensors, raised $60 million across two previously unannounced fundraises: a $25 million Series A round closed in November and $35 million in a follow-on investment. Framework Ventures led the rounds and was joined by Menlo Ventures, SV Angel, and Kindred Ventures.
MokN, an NYC-based cybersecurity company, raised $15 million in Series A funding. GV led the round and was joined by Datadog and others.
Triomics, an NYC-based AI company designed to automate oncology workflows for cancer centers, raised $22 million in Series B funding. Battery Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investors.
Featured New York Tech Week events:
⭐ June 1-7: New York Tech Week, featuring 1,600+ tech events throughout the city. Get Tech:NYC’s curated Guide to NY Tech Week here in grid view (or list view here).
⭐June 3: An Insider Look at Empire AI, a peek behind the $500 million consortium of leading universities building world-class supercomputing for the public interest. Register here
⭐ June 3: Axios AI+ NY Summit, a half-day event convening top leaders across tech, finance, media, health care, and beyond to explore what’s next for artificial intelligence in conversations live from the Big Apple. Register here.
⭐ June 4: Tech:NYC’s Decoded Futures Build Day, bringing together nonprofit leaders and technologists to explore practical ways to use AI to build organizational capacity and scale impact. Register here.
⭐ June 4: Edelman & Tech:NYC Media & Comms Happy Hour, rooftop cocktails and a panel on how new media is reshaping the tech landscape. Register here.
⭐ June 4: The Future of Tech & Talent in NYC: A New Hub for Startups with IBM, exploring how NYC is attracting tech, talent, and growing the startup ecosystem. Register here.
⭐ June 4: Economic Justice + Startups: A Conversation with Deputy Mayor Julie Su + Impact-Driven Demos, a discussion between the Deputy Mayor and startup founders working to solve hard problems for everyday New Yorkers in small business, housing, healthcare, childcare, workforce development, government services, and more. Register here.
Other great events:
June 2: AI on Main Street: How Chinatown's Small Businesses Are Using AI, where you can hear from the owners of Welcome to Chinatown about what they’ve been doing, talk with the technologists who worked with them, and grab some food and drinks. Register here.
June 3: Founders & Investors Happy Hour, a curated evening at Haven HQ for early stage founders and active investors. Register here.
June 3: Grind & Grow: A Cacao Ceremony for Founders & Investors, an intimate cacao ceremony for Seed to Series B founders and Partner-level VCs. Register here.
June 3: Anthropic Founder Salon: Inside the AI-Native Era, an exclusive, curated gathering brings together founders and leaders from across the AI ecosystem for a conversation on how advancements in model capabilities are rapidly reshaping the startup ecosystem. Register here.
June 4: KPMG Founder Sessions, where experts will share practical insights and strategies on setting up the financial infrastructure necessary to accelerate your company’s growth trajectory. Register here.
June 4: Founder Run Club, a conversation-pace run along the Hudson with a group of founders. Register here.
June 4: Pancakes* with PENSA, a breakfast and networking gathering of hardware startup leaders. Register here.
June 4: NYTW Conversations: Crafting Community, a focused, intimate conversation with Jaclyn Johnson, Founder of Create & Cultivate about what it takes to build a community that lasts. Register here with promo code TECHNYC for a discounted pass.
June 9: Mission-Ready Identity: The New Standard of Defense in the AI Era, an executive summit from CLEAR bringing together security, fraud, operations, and business leaders from across industries to reframe identity from a static “system of record” to mission-ready infrastructure. Register here.
June 11: Runway AI Festival, an interdisciplinary celebration of creatives experimenting at the forefront of art and technology, this year featuring a fireside chat with acclaimed director Ron Howard. Register here with promo code TECHNYC for a discounted pass.
June 9-10: DeveloperWeek New York, bringing together thousands of software engineers, architects, dev team leads, and product builders, for an event that spans every major area of software development: from AI and cloud to frameworks, DevOps, APIs, and emerging tech. Register here for a discounted pass for Digest readers.
June 16: Business Incubator Association of New York State’s 2026 Annual Conference, featuring high-impact panels with communities building across New York. Register here with promo code TECHNYC for a discounted pass.
June 18: [untitled] Series // Craft and Code, a fireside with a few engineers who care about design talking honestly about craft, taste, and how they actually work. Register here.
June 25: Pitching Yourself in the Moments That Matter, an interactive workshop where you can learn how to introduce yourself in a way that is clear, natural, and designed to start real conversations. Register here.
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