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Dylan Byers & Julia Alexander
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Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (Wednesday is an Inner Circle exclusive)
Ace media reporter Dylan Byers brings readers into the C-suite as he chronicles the biggest stories in the industry: the future of cable news in the streaming era, the transformation of legacy publishers, the tech giants remaking the market, and all the egos involved. Also featuring a weekly dispatch from Puck’s crack streaming/media analyst, Julia Alexander.
THE LATEST ARTICLES
We’ll Do It Live!
As recent moves by Hearst, The Atlantic, and others show, more and more publishers are triaging declining distribution by selling access, not just information. So who wants to go on a cruise with Nick Thompson?
Dylan Byers
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July 20, 2026
Democrats Listen to Podcasts, Too
A political media symposium with Puck’s own Peter Hamby, on the rise of the left’s new creator class, the business of hating on the Democratic establishment, and the dystopian reality of paid influencers shilling for candidates.
The Ballad of Bill Owens
While the upcoming season of ‘60 Minutes’ will surely attract outsize attention and scrutiny as yet another measure of Bari Weiss’s competency, the real showstopper may be the coming memoir by the show’s former executive producer.
Dylan Byers
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July 13, 2026
Let CNN & CBS News Eat Their Cake
As the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger has played out alongside the Bari-fication of CBS News, there was a sense among some in the media class that regulators might make hay of the deal’s proposed combination of two of the nation’s most storied brands. Any such notion turned out to be seriously misguided.
Seen & Being Seen in Sun Valley
Amidst the quaking aspens and the idling Gulfstreams, the media world once again gathered in Sun Valley to launch deals, close deals, and merely check in with their fellow media titans over a brisk hike. And this year it was more apparent than ever that the tech titans rule the world—and beyond.
Dylan Byers
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July 6, 2026
One Flew Over the Comcast Nest
Versant (a Comcast spinoff) and Sky (a future orphan) both just announced bold acquisitions that may offer a strategic blueprint for how to survive outside the mothership—and amid an ever-consolidating mediaverse.
Between 30 Rock and a Hard Place
The Comcast–NBCUniversal breakup is raising a familiar, possibly existential question about the historic yet vulnerable NBC News: Who really wants to own a linear news operation in an era of declining profits, increasing political risks, and a wide web of new competitors?
Dylan Byers
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June 29, 2026
Comcast Away
Brian Roberts’s plan to spin off NBCUniversal opens up an array of tantalizing strategic possibilities for a number of competitive suitors—from Netflix to Amazon and beyond. And while the theme park business is solid, who can really make the most of the linear assets that Roberts is casting off?
Ben on a Wire
The Daily Wire is pitching investors on the dream of a conservative media empire in growth mode—but the company’s declining revenue, disappearing audience, and executive turmoil tell a very different story. Is anyone buying Ben Shapiro’s narrative that the Wire is 18 months from a $2 billion I.P.O.?
Dylan Byers
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June 22, 2026
MacCallum of Duty
Amid all the Sturm und Drang at CNN as it shifts under the purview of the Ellisons, everyone inside the WarnerMount mothership seems to agree on one thing: Alex MacCallum, the C.O.O. of CNN, may be the one person with a vision for how to drag the global news network into the future.