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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
Dylan Byers
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July 18, 2025
Colbert in the Bardo & Substack’s Next Chapter
News and notes on the latest media industry talking points: The timing, optics, and insider drama following CBS’s abrupt decision to cancel ‘The Late Show’ as the Paramount deal approaches the finish line; and what to make of Substack’s $1.1 billion valuation in a round led by The Chernin Group.
Dylan Byers
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July 16, 2025
There’s Something About Bari
Times defector Bari Weiss has become everybody’s favorite center-right public intellectual: principled, pro-Israel, not about to get pushed around by the progressive mob, and a damn good hang. So when she sat down with David Ellison (and lawyers) at Sun Valley last week, it set off the usual rumors that her Free Press might be Skydance’s next acquisition. But is it sound business or just savvy virtue signaling in a Trump 2.0 world?
Dylan Byers
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July 11, 2025
Apple Is Offering $150 Million to Stream F1
With ESPN unwilling to match Tim Cook and Eddy Cue’s offer, the U.S. rights to Formula One are almost certainly headed to Apple’s streamer, trading cable TV’s reach for Big Tech revenue. Here’s hoping Cupertino will be a better, more creative, partner to F1 than it was to MLS.
Dylan Byers
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July 9, 2025
All Ellison’s Men
With its capitulation to Trump complete, Paramount’s merger with Skydance can finally proceed, leaving CBS News unmoored, if a little relieved, and questioning if its new owners secretly sweetened the settlement deal. Naturally, there are already rumblings about what David Ellison wants and expects from his news division.
Dylan Byers
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June 27, 2025
The CNN Bull Case & GunnarCo Questions
A special inaugural summer mailbag, featuring your most pressing questions about the future of cable news, TNT, Mark Thompson, Erin Burnett, and Anderson Cooper. Plus the non-return of Jeff Zucker and a Versant pronunciation guide.
Dylan Byers
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June 25, 2025
I Now Pronounce You Donald & Larry
While the media world’s eyes are trained on the CBS–Trump settlement negotiations, and its impact on the Ellison family’s tortured acquisition of Paramount, Larry himself has his eyes on a bigger prize at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: TikTok and Stargate.
Dylan Byers
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June 20, 2025
Substacks to Grind
Editorial salaries have been on a grim, steady slide since Graydon Carter gave up the reins—and the generous coffers—at Vanity Fair. But this week, news of The Atlantic’s hiring spree and the elusive promise of Substack riches has reporters following the money.
Dylan Byers
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June 18, 2025
Don’t Substack In Anger
Leaked details about Substack’s new fundraise conjure deeper questions about the tech platform cum writing tool. For starters, is it a media company or a tech play?
Dylan Byers
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June 13, 2025
The Low Post
What’s changed at The Washington Post amid this endless and ostensible period of transformation and renewal? Almost nothing, which is either part of a master plan to turn the Post into the Amazon Marketplace of news, or just more inertia and mismanagement at America’s allegedly third-most-important newspaper.
Dylan Byers
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June 11, 2025
CNN Prepares for the Afterlife
With the industry in inexorable decline, ratings at a nadir, and younger audiences turning to YouTube and TikTok, Gunnar Wiedenfels will inevitably look at CNN and decide he can maintain relatively similar profits at a mere fraction of the cost. This is the beginning of the end.